USS New Ironsides

USS New Ironsides under steam and sail
History
United States
Name	New Ironsides
Namesake	USS Constitution
Ordered	15 October 1861
Builder	William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
Cost	$780,000
Yard number	108
Launched	10 May 1862
Sponsored by	Commodore Charles Stewart
Commissioned	21 August 1862
Decommissioned	6 April 1865
Fate	Destroyed by fire, 16 December 1865
General characteristics
Type	Broadside ironclad[1]
Displacement	4,120 long tons (4,190 t)
Length	230 ft (70.1 m) (p.p.)
Beam	57 ft 6 in (17.5 m)
Draft	15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Installed power	4 × water-tube boilers 1,800 ihp (1,300 kW)
Propulsion	1 × shaft; 2 × direct-acting steam engines
Speed	7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph)
Complement	449 officers and enlisted
Armament	14 × 11-inch (279 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns 2 × 150-pounder Parrott rifles 2 × 50-pounder Dahlgren rifles
Armor	Belt: 4.5 in (114 mm) Battery: 4.5 in (114 mm) Deck: 1 in (25 mm) Bulkheads: 2.5 in (64 mm)

USS New Ironsides was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863–65. New Ironsides bombarded the fortifications defending Charleston in 1863 during the First and Second Battles of Charleston Harbor. At the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865 she bombarded the defenses of Wilmington in the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher.

Although she was struck many times by Confederate shells, gunfire never significantly damaged the ship or injured the crew.^[2] Her only casualty in combat occurred when she was struck by a spar torpedo carried by the CSS David. Eight crewmen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865. The ship was destroyed by fire in 1865 after she was placed in reserve.