USS Nantucket (1862)

The first USS "Nantucket" was a "Passaic"-class coastal monitor in the United States Navy.

"Nantucket" was launched 6 December 1862 by Atlantic Iron Works, Boston, Massachusetts; and commissioned 26 February 1863, Commander Donald McNeil Fairfax in command.

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, "Nantucket" participated in the attack on Confederate forts in Charleston Harbor 7 April 1863. Struck 51 times during the valiant but unsuccessful assault on the vital Southern port, the single-turreted monitor was repaired at Port Royal but returned to Charleston to support Army operations on Morris Island, engaging Fort Wagner 16, 17, 18, and 24 July. She captured British steamer "Jupiter" at sea 15 September. She again challenged the Charleston Harbor forts 14 May 1864 and thereafter remained on blockade duty through the end of the American Civil War.

Decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 24 June 1865, she remained in ordinary there for a decade. Renamed "Medusa" 15 June 1869, she resumed the name "Nantucket" 10 August 1869. Transferred to Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, in 1875, "Nantucket" twice briefly recommissioned 29 July to 12 December 1882 and 16 June to 6 October 1884, and operated along the northern east coast. She lay in ordinary at New York until turned over to the North Carolina Naval Militia in 1895. During the Spanish-American War, "Nantucket" was stationed at Port Royal, South Carolina. She was sold to Thomas Buller & Company, Boston, 14 November 1900.

See also

See USS "Nantucket" for other ships of the same name.

References

DANFS
"Additional technical data from" cite book
last = Gardiner
first = Robert
coauthors =
title = Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905
publisher = Conway Maritime Press
date = 1979
pages = p. 120
month =
isbn = 0 85177 133 5

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/n1/nantucket-i.htm history.navy.mil: USS "Sangamon"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/nantucket.htm navsource.org: USS "Sangamon"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/monitors/nantucke.htm hazegray.org: USS "Sangamon"]