USS Cumberland

1862

Hampton Roads, the ironclad, the ram Location: Hampton Roads, Newport News, Virginia · Coordinates: 36.98°N 76.30°W · Casualties: 121 · Survivors: 255 · Depth: 18 m · Cause: naval ramming — Rammed by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads at 14:00 on 8 March 1862. The ram punched a seven-foot hole in her starboard bow below the waterline. She returned fire as she heeled over and sank bow-first, flag still flying. · Fate: protected war grave · partly salvaged · Type: sloop-of-war · 24-gun sail frigate · Tonnage: 1,726 tons · Crew: 376 · Flag: United States · Union · Launched: 1842 Union Navy sloop, flagship of the Hampton Roads blockade squadron. Rammed and sunk by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia on 8 March 1862, one day before USS Monitor arrived. 121 dead; her flag stayed flying as she went down. Her destruction proved that wooden-hulled warships could no longer survive the age of steam and armor, and sent the Union's untested Monitor hurrying south overnight to meet the same adversary. The Vessel USS Cumberland was an American sailing frigate of the United States Navy, built at the Boston Navy Yard between 1825 and 1842 and launched on 24 May 1842. She was 53 metres long, 1,726 tons displacement, and originally armed with 54 guns of mixed 32-pounder and 9-pounder calibre. Her design reflected the final generation of American sailing frigate construction; at her commissioning in 1843, she was among the most advanced purely-sailing warships in the United States Navy. Her service history was substantial. She had been Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship during the Mexican-American War blockade of Veracruz (1846-1847); she had served as flagship of the US African Squadron conducting anti-slavery patrols off the West African coast (1850-1851); she had participated in the US Mediterranean Squadron operations of the 1850s. By 1856, she was substantially outdated by the Royal Navy's and French Navy's contemporary steam-powered ships; she was reduced from frigate to sloop-of-war rating in 1856 and re-armed with 22 of the heavier 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns plus two pivot guns. By early 1862, she was assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate ports of the Chesapeake Bay region. Her master on 8 March 1862 was Lieutenant George Upham Morris, aged 32, commanding in the absence of her commanding officer Captain William Radford (who was ashore on the day of the engagement). Her complement was 376 officers and ratings. The Disaster At approximately 14:00 on 8 March 1862, CSS Virginia closed with USS Cumberland to approximately 90 metres range and opened fire with her bow pivot gun. The 7-inch Brooke shell struck Cumberland's starboard side at approximately the waterline and penetrated her wooden hull; the shell detonated in the berth deck, killing approximately 30 men in a single burst. Cumberland returned fire with her full starboard broadside of 11 heavy guns. The Union shells struck Virginia's iron armour at point-blank range; the armour held. The Confederate ironclad was impervious to the heaviest weapons that a conventional wooden warship could bring to bear. Virginia then closed to ramming range. She had been equipped with a 680-kilogram cast-iron ram on her bow, specifically designed to destroy wooden ships at close quarters. At approximately 14:20 on 8 March 1862, Virginia struck Cumberland on her starboard bow and drove the iron ram into the wooden hull at approximately 4 knots impact speed. The ram punched a breach approximately 2 metres wide in Cumberland's starboard hull below the waterline. The impact was so severe that Virginia's ram sheared off and remained embedded in Cumberland's hull; Virginia reversed engines and pulled away, leaving Cumberland to sink. Water poured into the breached starboard hull at a rate that the ship's pumps could not possibly address; Cumberland began to settle by the bow. Lieutenant Morris's decision was not to abandon ship. The gun crews continued to fire the