USS Merrimack
CSS Virginia
Her building at the Boston Navy Yard was ordered on 6 April 1854, she was launched on 15 June a year later and christened by Miss Mary E. Simmons, commissioned on 20 February 1856 and already decommissioned on16 February 1860 at Norfolk and lying there in ordinary when the Civil war broke out. When the Union forces. Evacuated the Norfolk Navy Yard was she set into fire an scuttled trying to prevent being captured by the Confederate forces. She was however salvaged and converted into the ironclad CSS Virginia famous for her battle with the USS Monitor. As the steam frigate USS Merrimack was her displacement 3.200 tons and the dimensions 84 x 11,7 x 7,3 metres or 275 x 38.5 x 25 feet. Her armament consisted of 14-8” guns, 24-9” guns and 2-10“ guns.
