USS Merrimack (1855)

USS Merrimack or Merrimac (sometimes spelled without the "k") was a frigate of the
United States Navy, best known as the hulk upon which CSS Virginia was built during the
American Civil War and then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (often called "the
Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack").

The Merrimack was the first of six screw frigates begun in 1854. Like others of her class
(Wabash, Roanoke, Niagara, Minnesota and Colorado), she was named after a river. In
Massachusetts, the Merrimack River flows through the town of Merrimac, often considered
an older spelling, and this has caused confusion of the name.

History

Merrimack was launched by the Boston Navy Yard June 15, 1855; sponsored by Miss Mary
E. Simmons; and commissioned February 20, 1856, Captain Garrett J. Pendergrast in
command. She was the second ship of the Navy to be named for the Merrimack River, which
is formed by the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers at Franklin, New
Hampshire. The Merrimack flows south across New Hampshire, and then eastward across
northeastern Massachusetts before emptying in the Atlantic at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Shakedown took the new screw frigate to the Caribbean and to western Europe. Merrimack
visited Southampton, Brest, Lisbon, and Toulon before returning to Boston and
decommissioning April 22, 1857 for repairs. Recommissioning September 1, 1857,
Merrimack got underway from Boston Harbor October 17 as flagship for the Pacific
Squadron. She rounded Cape Horn and cruised the Pacific coast of South and Central
America until heading for home November 14, 1859. Upon returning to Norfolk, she
decommissioned February 16, 1860.
 USS Merrimack aflame during the burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard, April 20, 1861

Merrimack was still in ordinary during the crisis preceding Lincoln's inauguration. Soon after
becoming Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles took action to prepare the frigate for sea,
planning to move her to Philadelphia. The day before the firing on Fort Sumter, Welles
directed that "great vigilance be exercised in guarding and protecting"; Norfolk Navy Yard
and her ships. On the afternoon of April 17, the day Virginia seceded, Engineer in Chief B. F.
Isherwood managed to get the frigate's engines lit off; but the previous night secessionists had
sunk lightboats in the channel between Craney Island and Sewell's Point, blocking
Merrimack. On the April 20, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U.S. Navy burned
Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture.

The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, raised Merrimack and rebuilt her as an ironclad
ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. J. M. Brooke, CSN. Commissioned as CSS
Virginia February 17, 1862, the ironclad was the hope of the Confederacy to destroy the
wooden ships in Hampton Roads, and to end the Union blockade which had already seriously
impeded the Confederate war effort.