Neshaminy (screw frigate)

Neshaminy was a large and powerful 3,850-ton screw frigate with a length of 335 feet that was under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard when she was surveyed by Navy officials who found her construction work to be poor. Construction was halted by the Navy, which eventually sold her for scrap.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Arizona and USS Nevada.

Nevada, formerly Neshaminy, at New London Naval Station, ca. 1872
History
United States
Name: Neshaminy
Namesake: Neshaminy Creek
Builder: Philadelphia Navy Yard
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: 5 October 1865
In service: not placed in service
Stricken: circa 1869
Fate: sold in June 1874
Notes: construction abandoned due to poor workmanship
General characteristics
Type: screw frigate
Displacement: 3,850 tons
Length: 335’
Beam: 44’ 4”
Draft: 11’ 4”
Propulsion: two horizontal direct-acting engines of forty-eight-inch stroke and eight Martin boilers
Complement: not known
Armament: assigned but not installed: two 100–pounder Parrott rifles, one 6–pounder rifle, ten 8-inch smoothbores, and four howitzers

Built in the Philadelphia Navy Yard

Neshaminy, a screw frigate built by the United States Navy during 1863–65 and launched 5 October 1865 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, was a wooden ship of the first rate. She had two horizontal direct-acting engines of forty-eight-inch stroke and eight Martin boilers. Her machinery was built by the Etna Iron Works of New York.

The steamer was assigned a battery of two 100–pounder Parrott rifles, one 6–pounder rifle, ten 8-inch smoothbores, and four howitzers, but the battery was never mounted.

Construction problems

From 1866 through 1868 Neshaminy was at the New York Navy Yard for installation of her engines. In 1869 she was laid up in ordinary at that yard. Her name was changed to Arizona 15 May 1869, and to Nevada 12 August 1869.

In 1869 she was examined by a board which found her hull so twisted and her construction so poor that it was decided not to finish her. She remained in ordinary at New York City in an incomplete state until June 1874, when she was sold to John Roach for $25,000 (equivalent to $564,926 in 2019), in partial payment for rebuilding monitor USS Puritan (1864).

See also

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

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