The USS Hartford lived for 99 years. At one time she was the most powerful warship afloat. When the end came and the flaming death she had avoided at the hands of Confederate fire ships finally claimed her, the venerable old ship was a worm-eaten hulk. On November 6, 1957, eight workmen, a curious little girl, and her mother saw the surviving hulk of the last remaining and perhaps the most famous ship of the Civil War Era put to the torch.
The Hartford's last voyage took place on August 15, 1957, when she was towed five- eighths of a mile from Saint Helena Annex, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, to an abandoned wharf at the old Norfolk Southern Terminal Piers, Berkley. There three coastal tugs pushed her aground. This last voyage was made more ignominious, for a workman had slyly hoisted a Confederate flag, owned by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, on the former Union ship. Her hull wrapped in canvas, the Hartford seemed to be a pitifully old and wounded veteran, bandaged and scarred, sprawled out on the beach, and unable to rise any longer.
In order to prepare the Hartford for this last voyage, she had to be raised from 27 feet of water and mud. At 4:30 am on November 20, 1956, despite continual pumping, the old vessel had settled to the bottom of her berth amid the idle, mothballed giants of World War II, at the Saint Helena Annex. The Hartford had previously been towed to Norfolk in October, 1945, from the Washington Navy Yard. From 1945 to 1958, many efforts were made by veterans’ organizations, Congressmen, and various civic groups to save the old ship. The efforts to preserve her as a monument to the short-lived transitional navy of sail and steam were to no avail. The tremendous cost of restoring her was prohibitive, and by this time there was little left of interest and value in her teredo ridden hulk.
One hundred years ago the Hartford was launched at the Boston Navy Yard. The exact date was November 22, 1858. She had three sponsors—Commodore Downes’s daughter who smashed a bottle of Hartford Springs water across the bow, Commodore String- ham’s daughter who broke a bottle of Connecticut River water on the ship’s figurehead, and a Lieutenant Preble who emptied a bottle of sea water on the bow.
The Hartford was a steam-screw ship with full sail power. On her engines alone she could steam at eight knots, but with her sails set and a fair wind she could make eleven knots. The Hartford’s displacement varied during her career from 2,000-2,400 tons; her over-all length was 225 feet; she was 44 feet in the beam, and she had a draft of sixteen feet. The Hartford's battery was the best in the world at the time she slid down the ways. She mounted 22 Dahlgren guns, two 20- pounder rifles and howitzers in the tops and forecastle. In 1862 the Hartford mounted twenty 9-inch smooth bore guns, two 12- pounders, and two 20-pound parrot rifles. In 1863 her ordnance consisted of 24 9-inchers, two 30-pounders, and one 45-pounder. During the year of 1864 the Hartford was classed as a 24-gun vessel mounting two 100-pounders, one 30-pound parrot rifle, three 12-pound howitzers, and eighteen 9-inch guns. In 1865 she dropped to a 21-gun ship carrying eighteen 9-inchers, two 100-pounders, and one 30- pounder.
The Hartford's career began with an East Indian trip travelled by way of the Madeira Islands. In 1861 the new ship visited Hong Kong and then returned to the States to be fitted at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for duty as flagship of the Western Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron.
It was during the Civil War, however, that the Harford earned her place in American naval immortality. On February 2, 1862, the Harford sailed from Hampton Roads with the flag of Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut, USN, waving in the Virginia breeze. This greatest of all Civil War vessels carried Farragut through his hours of history, including the battles of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Mobile Bay. During the Battle of New Orleans on April 24, 1862, the Harford was set on fire by Confederate fire rafts but managed to survive. At Port Hudson on the night of March 14, 1863, she was the only Union ship to successfully run the steel gauntlet of Confederate guns. And at Mobile Bay on the morning of August 5, 1864, the Hartford attained the climax of her career by leading the Union fleet that gained command of the last important Southern port, Mobile. It was at this Civil War naval battle that Farragut shouted to Captain Percival Drayton, USN, commanding officer of the USS Harford and to Lieutenant Commander James E. Jouett, USN, commanding officer of the Union gunboat Metacomet, the often misquoted words, “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”
After the Civil War, the Harford remained in service until 1880 when she was decommissioned and put up for repairs at her birthplace, the Boston Navy Yard. Two years later she was once more in commission taking a solar eclipse party around Cape Horn, visiting the Caroline Islands and the Hawaiian group.
The Harford was decommissioned a second time in 1886. The Navy Department then had her rebuilt and rigged as a bark for a training career. In January, 1887, she was designated a training ship for the old rate of landsman. This rate, now gone, was roughly equivalent of today’s seaman recruit. During this training era she sailed to the far corners of the world. In 1907 she was designated a training vessel at the U. S. Naval Academy, serving four years in this capacity.
The Harford remained on the active list till 1926, during which time she was a station ship in the Charleston Navy Yard. Struck from the list, she remained at Charleston until 1938 when she was shifted to the Washington Navy Yard, supposedly to become the nucleus of a naval museum. After seven years she was moved in 1945 to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
Internally she had changed little during her several refittings. Her decks remained basically unaltered, with the exception of the main deck which towards the end was covered with a roof designed to protect it from the elements. Her other decks, named as were the decks of all wooden ships, according to their usage, survived fairly well the ravages of time. Besides the main deck, which was the Hartford’s top full width deck, she had two additional decks and the holds. The deck directly below the main deck was the gun deck, and then came the berth deck and the holds. The crew slept on the berth deck forward in their hammocks. Aft on the same deck were the Officers’ Country and the Wardroom.
Functionally, the officers’ accommodations were not very different from those of today. They consisted primarily of berths with drawers fitted underneath. The ship’s captain had his quarters on the gun deck, directly over Officers’ Country. If a flag officer came aboard, he took over the captain’s stateroom.
Originally fitted with a double-bladed screw, the propulsion system was changed and the old steam system was removed. A 4-bladed propeller was installed.
Today the Hartford is no more. Her guns are gone, some of them to the scrap drives of World War I and World War II. Her ship’s bell is to be mounted on a Hartford memorial in Hartford, Connecticut. Fittingly enough, the original propeller was melted down and cast into the statute of Farragut which stands in Farragut Square, Washington, D. C.