I present the USS Niagara.
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USA, USS Niagara (1855) EDIT: REVISION
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USA, USS Niagara (1863 Refit) EDIT: REVISION
1854 saw the most significant modernization program in the USN's history with the formal adoption of steam as a tactical motive force. The initial program was a new line of super frigates, harking back in spirit to the original 6 back in the 1790's.
This program provided for 6 frigates that incorporated screw propellers rather than paddle wheels for auxiliary propulsion. Keep in mind, steam plants were still prone to breakdowns, fairly inefficient, weak, and the world still couldn't build ships big enough for all the needed fuel. Sail was still required for long distances and higher speeds.
The Niagara differed from the other 5 ships in several significant ways:
1) She was designed by George Steers, a noted designer of fast "extreme" Clipper ships. She was an attempt to apply an extreme clipper hull to naval purposes. At the time it was felt that sharp ended hulls couldn't support the weight of the guns. Steers got around this problem by designing extra length and carrying capacity. In this regard, she was a success and the fastest of the 1854 Program under both sail and steam. She also wasn't plagued with the engine problems of her class sisters.
2) She was classed as a frigate but technically a sloop of war. The classification was due to her immense size! She was 50 feet longer than the others in the class and 700 tons heavier. Briefly, she was the largest ship ever built in the world. She wasn't initially armed and didn't receive her weapons until 1860 when she was fitted as a heavy sloop with 12 11" Dahlgrens. Steers in designing her also had the foresight to built into her a gun deck suitable for a proper frigate load-out...more on that in 1863.
The Niagara's early career included the laying of the first Transatlantic Cables. Armament was removed and a variety of cable laying gear and storage was incorporated into her vast hull.
Let's move forward to the American Civil War and the 1863 rebuild.
The Navy needed heavily armed ships with the perceived possibility of England joining sides with the Confederacy so they looked at Niagara with the intent of using that extra gun deck. Remember that Steer's intent in designing her was to make sure she could carry the armament of the class sister frigates.
The Navy in it's wisdom felt that more was better. They opened ports in that gun deck for a 20 gun battery of 11" Dahlgrens weighing over 260 tons. The spar deck Dahlgrens were replaced by 12 150 Lb. Parrott rifles making here a true 32 gun frigate armed with the most formidable battery in the fleet. Basically they didn't listen to the designer and went crazy on adding too massive a battery. The weight of shot thrown in a broadside was 2,385 Lbs. The next largest ship in the fleet could throw 1,936 Lbs. Niagara's broadside was actually heaver than even the HMS Warrior, the most powerful contemporary ship of the day.
This massive battery was the ship's undoing. It badly impacted the ship's seaworthiness, the gun-deck ports were barely 6 feet above the waterline, shipping water in any sea...also rendering much of the lower guns unusable in a fight. Pretty quickly this was remedied by reducing the battery (and utility of the ship).
The sister frigates in the 1854 Program included the Merrimack, Colorado, Roanoak, Wabash, and Minnesota. More on these later, I'm toying with drawing this group to finish out the Program.
CraigH
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... Very Nice 
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