This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
Over the years, there has been much cnticism of the wisdom and motivation °f a naval commission which, follow- lng the Civil War, judged the opera- honal characteristics of the steam- Powered screw frigate Wampanoag to e so deficient that she was unfit to be retained in the service. A case in point •s a recent newspaper article critical of are military intelligence of the U. S. rmy, Navy, Air Force, and Marine °rps, in which retired Admiral Stans- jeld Turner accuses the services of narrow parochialism” which “might e ^scribed as the ‘Wampanoag fac- r- (“The Pentagon’s Intelligence ess, ’ The Washington Post, 12 January 1986.) With reference to the com- m*ssions’ 1869 report, Admiral Turner asserts the board “feared that a steam- P°wered ship would make life too easy ror men at sea.”
k ^at were the reasons the 1869 °ard was convened and what consider- a 'ons were involved in its final recommendations?
Laid down in 1863, at a time when ere was deep concern over the possi- lly of a British declaration of war, eWampanoag was one of five war- *Ps built under an act authorizing instruction of screw-frigates capable commerce destruction. Her propul- ’°n plant was designed by the talented ayal Engineer, B. F. Isherwood, ne le^ t*1e Bureau of Steam Engi- enng, who also specified the config- dratl°n of the ship’s hull. The overall es'gn of the frigate was by Naval
£j°nstructor John Lenthall, Chief of the
wUrheau of Construction and Repair, g11 v, advice from clipper-ship architect n ^e*ano’ wh° designed her hull, verwhelming emphasis had been ced on attaining maximum speed. fwrUr ta'l stacks provided enhanced draft r the fires of the seven coal-burning tuhlaCeS Unt*er each °f the eight fire- 0j. e boilers, four forward and four aft cv|t'V° horizontal geared engines (with surf1^6^ inches in diameter and s condensers). There were two De h boilers in the engine room for su- lon Catm^ Jbe steam. An extraordinarily g shaft connected the engines to a arrT k*aC*ec* ProPeNer some 19 feet in di- tj eter> which was driven two revolu- pS f°r each double stroke of a piston. 1867 nim'SSioned on *7 September du ' ’ t^le steamer averaged 16.6 knots p !111^ a trail run down the coast in aid a^ *^^8. Even though she was Wi * ^ 3 f°rce‘three to force-four fair Lab anC*’ P()ss'bly, by the southerly ement. However, because the propulsion plant filled the underwater portion of her narrow hull from the stem to far forward, her capacity for storing coal, water, ammunition, and supplies was severely reduced. The crew’s accommodations were confined because more than one-fourth of the coal had to be stored on the berthing deck. Her suitability for operations in remote areas was also limited. Moreover, the size of the engineering spaces meant that the ship would be highly vulnerable to battle damage.
The frigate was equipped with a bark rig, but the sails were small and so poorly proportioned and distributed that they were of little value. When the Wampanoag joined the fleet, there were complaints about the heavy rolling of the vessel in a seaway, undoubtedly because of the location of the center of gravity and the slimness of the hull.
The Wampanoag served six weeks as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron. She was then decommissioned, laid up, and renamed the Florida. A board of line officers, which convened in 1868, was highly critical of the ship’s characteristics. The Board of Steam Machinery Afloat was appointed the following year “to examine and evaluate the steam engines afloat in our
FRANK M BENNETT, AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS
national vessels.” Its members were Rear Admiral R. M. Goldsborough, Commodore C. S. Boggs, and Engineers E. D. Robie, J. W. Moore, and Issac Newton. Eleven of the 64 pages of their report were devoted to the Wampanoag (now named the Florida). After describing the frigate and commenting on such features as the large machinery spaces, heavy consumption of coal and heavy rolling, they judged the vessel “utterly unfit to be retained in service.” Isherwood and Lenthall took heated public issue with the report. (The board’s report can be found in the annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1869, pp. 142209.)
The Florida was maintained in ordinary for five years, and then served as a receiving and stores ship at New London until 1885. Her sister ship Am- monoosuc, laid up after completing her trials in 1868 and renamed Iowa the following year, was sold in 1883.
After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1931, Admiral Hooper served in a wide variety of assignments at sea and ashore. Upon his retirement in 1970, he was returned to active duty and was the Director of Naval History until 1976.
123
feedings / April 1986