# Contoocook-class sloop

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The ***Contoocook*-class** was a series of [screw sloops](/source/Screw_sloop) operated by the [United States Navy](/source/United_States_Navy) following the [American Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War). The ships were designed during the war to serve in a post-war Navy, and were intended to operate as [commerce raiders](/source/Commerce_raiding) as an economic disincentive to European powers planning a future war. However, they suffered from poor construction quality and had a brief service life during peacetime as the Navy lost funding. Despite an initial ten ships planned, only four were [launched](/source/Ceremonial_ship_launching) and were all decommissioned after a decade in service.

## Development

Despite the United Kingdom's official stance of neutrality during the American Civil War, British assets were used to support the rebelling [Confederacy](/source/Confederate_States_of_America), particularly in the development of its [navy](/source/Confederate_Navy). [Shipyards](/source/Shipyard) in [Liverpool](/source/Liverpool) indiscreetly constructed [blockade runners](/source/Blockade_runner) and [privateers](/source/Privateer) for the Confederates, exploiting a legal loophole by ensuring the vessels were not armed until they reached Portugal. Among these ships were [CSS *Alabama*](/source/CSS_Alabama), [CSS *Florida*](/source/CSS_Florida_(cruiser)), and [CSS *Alexandra*](/source/CSS_Alexandra), which wreaked havoc on Union shipping; *Alabama* alone was responsible for destroying 65 merchant vessels.[1][2][3]

The Union Navy was alarmed by these developments, as the disruption of American trade routes drove up domestic prices, damaged the economy, and forced the reassignment of ships from [blockade duties against the South](/source/Anaconda_Plan). By 1863, the Union, already provoked by these developments, feared that Britain might intervene to support the Confederates directly - a scenario that would have left the Union Navy hopelessly outmatched by the [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy). Faced with that prospect, the Union Navy began planning for a possible war with the United Kingdom. While the Union fleet could not match the Royal Navy in conventional battles, the plan called for employing tactics similar to those used by the Confederacy: [commerce raiding](/source/Commerce_raiding). By using cruisers to launch hit-and-run attacks on British [ports](/source/Port) and merchant shipping, the Union hoped to make a war too costly for Britain to justify, ultimately forcing it back into neutrality.[4][5][6]

For the new role, the Navy developed a breed of warship known as "commerce destroyers" that had the range and speed to intercept enemy ships at sea. Twenty-seven such ships were ordered by Congress in 1863, split into three classes varying in size, speed, and armament. Largest and fastest was the [*Wampanoag*-class frigate](/source/Wampanoag-class_frigate), most well armed was the [*Java*-class frigate](/source/Java-class_frigate_(1863)), and the smallest was the *Contoocook*-class sloop.[4][7]: 295, 296 The new ships were built according to a new [doctrine](/source/Doctrine) of the Navy planned for the post-war era. [Congress](/source/US_Congress) was only interested in a Navy that could directly protect the United States, not one that could rival the [Royal](/source/Royal_Navy) or [French Navies](/source/French_Navy). Instead of large, costly, ocean-going ironclads such as [USS *Dunderburg*](/source/USS_Dunderberg), the legislator wanted the Navy to only consist of costal [ironclads](/source/Ironclad_warship) that would protect the shoreline and the commerce destroyers to operate out at sea and deter aggression from said navies.[7]: 295[8]: 121

## Design

The *Contoocook*-class was envisioned as "[clipper](/source/Clipper) screw sloops,"[8]: 127 and featured [hulls](/source/Hull_(watercraft)) that were long, narrow, and shallow in an attempt to achieve high speeds.[9]: 125 The hulls were designed by [John Lenthall](/source/John_Lenthall_(shipbuilder)) and featured a shape similar to the earlier sloops [USS *Swatara*](/source/USS_Swatara_(1865)) and *[Quinnebaug](/source/USS_Quinnebaug_(1866)).* The ships had a length of 290 feet (88 m), [beam](/source/Beam_(nautical)) of 41 feet (12 m), [draft](/source/Draft_(hull)) of 18 feet (5.5 m), and a [displacement](/source/Displacement_(ship)) of 3,100 short tons (3,100 short tons).[8]: 127-128 The design also featured either one or two funnels and a complement of 350.[8]: 128[9]: 125

The initial design included a cast-metal ram mounted on the stem, although the feature was removed at the end of the Civil War. The main armament initially comprised a [broadside](/source/Broadside_(naval)) of eight 9 in (23 cm) [Dahlgren cannons](/source/Dahlgren_gun) and a 60 pounds (27 kg) [Parrott rifled](/source/Parrott_rifle) [muzzle-loading](/source/Muzzle-loading) gun mounted on the foredeck. The engines was designed by [Benjamin Isherwood](/source/Benjamin_F._Isherwood); the power plants featured four main boilers and two superheating boilers that provided steam to two [horizontal back action steam](/source/Horizontal_steam_engine) 36 in (91 cm) [stroke](/source/Stroke_ratio) engines, which turned a single propeller. While initially planned to be rigged as barques, the rigging plans on the ships were later altered.[8]: 128 The engines alone could produce 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph),[9]: 125 and speeds up to 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) could be reached with ideal circumstances under both steam and sail. *Contoocook*'s sea trials was a success, and she was praised for stability and handling.[8]: 129 In 1875, [David Porter](/source/David_Dixon_Porter) described the ships as, "The most efficient kind of ships we have had in the navy, and the model of which for steaming and sailing cannot be surpassed."[8]: 127

## Service history

Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, the Navy faced severe funding cuts, which left many projects stalled; the next year, the last six ships of the class were cancelled.[10]: 26–27 Four years later, the [Secretary of the Navy](/source/United_States_Secretary_of_the_Navy) disapproved of the large number of warships named after [Native American tribes](/source/Tribe_(Native_American)) and the incoherent naming conventions used across the fleet. As a result, he ordered a systematic renaming of vessels, which included *Contoocook* becoming *Albany; Mosholu* named *Severn*; and *Pushmataha* being renamed first to *Cambridge* and later *Congress.*[11][9]: 125 The class's wartime construction meant the ships were built out of [green wood](/source/Green_wood), which limited their lifespan and usefulness. A post-war commission reviewed the class in 1869, and found that the design was unsatisfactory due to [overengineering](/source/Overengineering) of the engines and a high [length-to-beam](/source/Fineness_ratio) ratio; by the next year, both the newly renamed *Severn* and *Albany* were decommissioned despite only having recently been completed. The last two ships were out of service by the end of the decade.[8]: 128129

## Ships in class

Data[10]: 26–27[8]: 129 Name Old name Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned Decommissioned Albany Contoocook Portsmouth Navy Yard 1863 3 December 1864 14 March 1868 7 January 1870 Congress Pushmataha, Cambridge Philadelphia Navy Yard 1863 17 July 1868 4 March 1870 26 July 1876 Severn Mosholu Brooklyn Navy Yard Oct 1864 22 December 1867 27 August 1869 31 December 1871 Worcester Manitou Boston Navy Yard 1863 25 August 1865 27 February 1871 1879 Arapaho, Keosauqua, Mondamin, Tahgayuta, Wanalosett and Willamette cancelled in 1866

## References

1. ["Supplying Warships · Liverpool's Abercromby Square and the Confederacy During the U.S. Civil War ·"](https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/britain-and-us-civil-war/supplying-warships#:~:text=Confederates%20used%20the%20CSS%20Alabama,other%20British-made%20Confederate%20ships.). *ldhi.library.cofc.edu*. Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240719215801/https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/britain-and-us-civil-war/supplying-warships) July 19, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-03-14.

1. Quarstein, John V. (2021-08-21). ["Roll, Alabama, roll! - Sinking of CSS Alabama"](https://www.marinersmuseum.org/2021/08/roll-alabama-roll-sinking-of-css-alabama/). *The Mariners' Museum and Park*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240623202011/https://www.marinersmuseum.org/2021/08/roll-alabama-roll-sinking-of-css-alabama/) June 23, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-03-14.

1. ["Liverpool's Abercromby Square and the Confederacy During the U.S. Civil War"](https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/britain-and-us-civil-war). *ldhi.library.cofc.edu*. Lowcountry Digital History Initiative. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20241214173438/https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/liverpools-abercromby-square/britain-and-us-civil-war) 14 December 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-03-14.

1. Caiella, J.M. (April 2016). ["The Wampanoag: 'Germ Idea' of the Battlecruiser"](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2016/april/historic-ships-wampanoag-germ-idea-battlecruiser). *Naval History Magazine*. **30** (2). Retrieved 2025-03-14.

1. Small, Stephen C. (August 2002). ["The Wampanoag Goes on Trial"](https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2002/august/wampanoag-goes-trial). *Naval History Magazine*. **16** (4). [United States Naval Institute](/source/United_States_Naval_Institute)

1. Sloan, III, Edward W. (December 1965). ["Isherwood's Masterpiece"](https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1965/december/isherwoods-masterpiece). *Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute*. **91** (12)

1. Kinnaman, Stephen Chapin (2022-06-07). [*John Lenthall: The Life of a Naval Constructor*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/John_Lenthall_The_Life_of_a_Naval_Constr/3CJnEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1). Vernon Press. ISBN 978-1-64889-437-4.

1. Canney, Donald L. (January 1, 1990). *The Old Steam Navy Volume 1: Frigates, Sloops and Gunboats, 1815–1885*. [Naval Institute Press](/source/Naval_Institute_Press). ISBN 978-0870210044.

1. [*Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905*](http://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2). New York : Mayflower Books. 1979. ISBN 978-0-8317-0302-8.

1. Silverstone, Paul H. (2006). "Unarmored Steam Vessels". *Civil War Navies, 1855–1883*. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97872-9. [OCLC ocm63178925](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/ocm63178925)

1. ["The Evolution of Ship Naming in the U.S. Navy"](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming/the-evolution-of-ship-naming-in-the-u-s--navy.html#:~:text=Ships%20acquired%20for%20Navy%20use,Medusa,%20Goliath,%20and%20Atlas.). *[Naval History and Heritage Command](/source/Naval_History_and_Heritage_Command)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20250210160121/https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming/the-evolution-of-ship-naming-in-the-u-s--navy.html) 10 Feb 2025 at the Wayback Machine.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Contoocook-class sloop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contoocook-class_sloop) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contoocook-class_sloop?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.