Ships in Brief #001: USS Housatonic

USS Ossipee, sister ship of the Housatonic (There do not seem to be any extant photographs of the Housatonic)

The second of the US Navy’s Ossipee Class screw sloops, the USS Housatonic was launched in November of 1861 and commissioned in August of the following year. With the United States already embroiled in Civil War, she was immediately dispatched to take part in the US naval blockade of the Confederacy. She would be posted to Charleston, where she would see her first action in the capture of a British blockade runner, the Princess Royal, capturing ship engines intended for Confederate ironclad warships as well as a large quantity of small arms. This victory was hailed at home as one of the most significant interdictions of the war, and the Housatonic furthered her reputation by participating in the destruction of the Confederate Ship Georgiana.

She would land her enduring place in history not for her triumphs, however, but for her destruction. After dark on February 17, 1864 the Housatonic was at her station outside Charleston, when one of the most daring naval actions of the civil war took place. The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley approached the Housatonic,and although the submarine was spotted, it was too late to take evasive action or being the guns to bear, and only scattered small arms fire was offered. The Hunley successfully struck the Housatonic with its single spar torpedo, a canister of black powder on the end of a ram on the submarine, and detonated it.

The resulting explosion tore a large hole in the hull near the aft mast, and the ship rapidly began to sink. Casualties were relatively limited, as the water was sufficently shallow to allow the crew to find safety on the rigging if they could not get to the boats, and only five sailors perished in the attack. The ship would go down in history as the victim of the first successful submarine attack, even as the wreck was broken up after the end of the war, leaving her exact location lost to history, even after the Hunley, her killer, was found after disappearing at the same time.

Specifications: Ossipee Class Sloop - USS Housatonic

Builder: Boston Navy Yard
Operator: United States Navy
Commissioned: August 29, 1862
Lost: February 17, 1864
Length: 205 feet
Beam: 37 feet
Draft: 8.6 feet
Powerplant: 2x steam engines
Armament: 1x 100 pounder parrot gun, 3x 30 pounder parrot guns, 2x 32 pounder guns, 2x 24 pounder guns, 2x 12 pounder guns, 1x 11’’ Dahlgren gun
Crew: 160
Commanding Officer: Captain Charles W. Pickering, USN