Ships live because of the men, and now women, who give them life. Most often it is the crew that provides the essence of the ship, but at times a single individual provides it, whether by leadership, heroism, or design. The latter is the case for U.S. Navy Engineer-in-Chief Benjamin Franklin Isherwood’s brainchild, the screw frigate Wampanoag of 1863. Today, neither is well remembered, both having been relegated to the backwaters of naval history despite their prominence at the time.
The Wampanoag, which never fought a battle, was nevertheless given credit in some circles for persuading the British government to submit the CSS Alabama claims for arbitration. And no less an authority than Frederick T. Jane cited her for fostering a whole breed of warships. He declared that the Wampanoag inspired the design of the Inconstant, which first manifested the theory that offensive speed and gun power could offset losses in defensive strength, and that the American cruiser “represents the germ idea of our present battle-cruisers, and is supremely important on that account.” Dean C. Allard Jr., former director of the Naval Historical Center (the present-day Naval History and Heritage Command) proclaimed Isherwood the “father of the modern steam navy.”
Tensions between the United States and Great Britain, which was sympathetic to the Confederate cause, did not greatly decrease over the course of the Civil War. It was not lost on the North that by 1863 Rebel commerce raiders, led principally by the British-built Alabama and Florida and soon-to-be-acquired Shenandoah, had dramatically increased U.S. insurance premiums, forced merchants to ship their wares in foreign ships, and diverted Union warships from blockade duty.
With an eye toward the Royal Navy, which surpassed that of the United States in a number of respects, the U.S. Navy looked to commerce raiding as the best means for neutralizing potential British involvement. Congress authorized the construction of a fleet of large, fast steam cruisers—the Wampanoag and her seven siblings. They were designed to be, at 15 knots, the fastest in the world, with the intention of attacking British ports and commerce in hit-and-run operations. They could cruise for great periods of time under sail and use their high-speed steam engines to overhaul enemy commercial vessels and escape heavier armed combatants.
Isherwood was nothing if not confident in his own ability. Born in 1822 and the product of a family of means and education, by age 14 he was hired as a draughtsman in the locomotive shop of the Utica and Schenectady Railroad. In 1844 he was appointed a first assistant engineer in the Navy, one rank below that of chief engineer, the highest in the corps. On 26 March 1861, he received the presidential appointment to engineer-in-chief from fifth on the seniority list.
With that confidence, he urged Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to build the eight large, fast commerce destroyers. He made the radical proposal of using a narrow hull with fine forward lines. This virtually precluded the press of sail; his ships would rely solely on steam for speed. Despite protests from other corners of the Navy Department, Isherwood convinced the secretary of the practicability of his proposal, and construction was authorized.
Welles had four of the eight fast cruisers built with Isherwood engines at Navy yards: the Wampanoag (New York), Pompanoosuc (Boston), Neshaminy (Philadelphia), and Ammonoosuc (Boston). The New York Navy Yard built the Madawaska with engines by John Ericsson of Monitor fame, and two of the ships were built by private yards with engines by Merrick and Sons of Philadelphia (in the Chattanooga), and Edward Nicoll Dickerson (in the Idaho). The eighth, the Bon Homme Richard, was never laid down; she was to have been built at the Washington Navy Yard.
Laid down on 3 August 1863 and built of live oak, the Wampanoag was launched on 15 December 1864 and commissioned on 17 September 1867 with Captain J. W. A. Nicholson in command. An 1869 report by the Secretary of the Navy noted, “All the materials used in her construction are of superior quality, and the workmanship bestowed on them speaks for itself. Better than either perhaps cannot be seen anywhere.” She was bark-rigged, but so disproportioned that the same report said “her sails cannot be otherwise than of small general account.” Her battery consisted of ten 9-inch smoothbores, three rifled 60-pounders, two 24-pounder and two 12-pounder howitzers. The fineness of the ship’s hull, however, prevented direct fire ahead and severely hampered stern fire. But with speed as her main attribute, an extraordinary amount of hull space was devoted to the machinery. Eight coal-burning boilers, four of them with superheaters, were arranged in two boiler rooms. Between these were two compound reciprocating engines to turn the cruiser’s four-bladed 19-foot propeller.
Ericsson was often at odds with Isherwood throughout the latter’s tenure as engineer-in-chief. To put their competing theories to the test, Ericsson suggested to Welles that the Madawaska be built identically to the Wampanoag with the only difference being their engines. Both were constructed at the New York Navy Yard, with their radical—for the Navy—hulls designed by the leading American ship designer and builder at the time: clipper ship architect Benjamin Franklin Delano.
This was the great test of Isherwood’s theories for steam propulsion. In late 1863, he published the controversial Experimental Researches in Steam Engineering, in which he broke entirely with accepted engineering principles. Then–state-of-the-art steam-engine design was predicated on the use of small boilers and large engine cylinders. However, small boilers could never generate enough steam to have the cylinders work to optimum capacity. Isherwood inverted the design by using huge boilers with small cylinders. Further, he chose to gear his engines to the propeller. This allowed the engines to run slower, which in combination with the lessened reciprocating mass of pistons, rods, and crankshaft of smaller engines, significantly reduced the pounding vibrations that could wreak havoc with a ship’s construction. His engines could thus be used at maximum speed for long periods of time.
On three successive weeks before the Madawaska was to begin her trials in January 1867, more than a year ahead of the Wampanoag, the Army and Navy Journal published a series of scathing front-page attacks against Isherwood and his geared engines. It was an “enormous blunder” and the “vilely-planned machinery” was “fit only for the scrap heap.” Finally, on 7 February 1868, more than four years after she was laid down, the cruiser left New York for sea trials (see “The Wampanoag Goes on Trial,” August 2002, pp. 32–36). To say she lived up to Isherwood’s predictions is an understatement.
By the time Wampanoag steamed into Hampton Roads on 17 February, she was the fastest ship in the world. Her speed trials began on 11 February, running in rough weather from Barnegat Light, New Jersey, to Tybee Island, Georgia. For 24 consecutive hours the cruiser averaged 16.97 knots and attained her maximum speed of 17.75 knots over four separate half-hour periods. Her economical cruising speed was 11.5 knots.
Compare these speeds to the norms of the period. The top speed of American war vessels rarely exceeded 11 knots and cruised at no more than 9. The fastest British transatlantic merchant ships averaged less than 12 knots with the average ship around 10.
In his report regarding the trials, Isherwood noted: “Indeed, so unexampled is her success that the engineering journals of England have boldly questioned the veracity of the captain by inventing the statement that the speed was obtained by the assistance of sails, with a strong wind abaft the beam, not knowing how else to account for it, and they declare the speed impossible under any other circumstances.”
The Madawaska, with Ericsson’s machinery, failed by more than 2 knots to meet the required speed of 15 knots. At two points in the trial her commanding officer reported speeds of 15.5 and 16 knots, but for very brief periods. There was no failure of machinery; it was simply a mismatch between engines and hull. Ericsson’s design required the substantial foundations that ships such as the monitors provided.
The active life of the Wampanoag, however, was measured in months, and with the exception of a brief explosion of condemnation for her and her sisters, the fastest warship in the world faded from Navy memory. Almost immediately after her trials, from 22 February to 8 April 1868, she was deployed as flagship of the North Atlantic Fleet. Barely a month later, on 5 May, the Wampanoag was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard, and while in ordinary on 15 May 1869 was renamed the Florida. On 5 March 1874, she was moved to New London, Connecticut, for use as the naval station’s receiving and store ship, and nearly 11 years later, on 27 February 1885, she was sold at New York for scrap.
In 1900 Isherwood wrote the Wampanoag’s epitaph: “No vessel was ever more viciously assailed, and none was ever more triumphantly vindicated.”
Wampanoag-class 1st Class Screw Frigate
Displacement: 4,215 tons
Length (between perpendiculars): 355 feet
Breadth (extreme): 45 feet 2 inches
Depth of hold: 23 feet
Armament: 10 9-inch smoothbores
3 60-pounder rifles
2 24-pounder boat howitzers
2 12-pounder boat howitzers