USS HARTFORD (1858)

"An August morning with Farragut; the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864" by William Heysham Overend

Courtesy Wadsworth Atheneum Musuem of Art

The Fighting Flagship of Admiral Farragut

Type: "Screw" (steam powered propeller) Sloop-of-War
Laid down: January 1, 1858
Launched: 22 November 1858
First Commissioned: 27 May 1859
Fate: Sank at her berth, 20 November 1956. Subsequently dismantled.

One of the most famous vessels constructed by the Navy Yard, the screw sloop USS Hartford served as the flagship of Adm. David Farragut during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Due to the ship's reputation, Congress routinely exempted USS Hartford from the Congressional limitations on repairs to wooden-hulled ships after 1883. USS Hartford also served as a training ship into the early 1900s. Neglect finally set in, however, and the ship sank at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in November 1956. Shortly thereafter, workers refloated and dismantled the ship.

USS HARTFORD, 1864

Library of Congress

Construction of Hartford

Navy Yard workers laid the keel of USS Hartford on January 1, 1858 on the shipways under Shiphouse H. The wooden vessel took shape over the ensuing months. After eleven months of work in the Shiphouse, Hartford was launched on November 22, 1858. Hundreds of people turned out to watch the launch. People packed Shiphouse H and the adjacent piers to see the spectacle of Hartford siding into the sea for the first time. Following launch, Hartford entered Dry Dock 1 for caulking of its hull while workers and engineers completed and installed its two steam boilers and the engine. The machinery was built and installed by the Boston firm Harrison Loring, as the yard workers did not yet have the capabilities to machine and cast their own boilers and engines. Completed and fully outfitted, Hartford entered commission on May 27, 1859 and left for its first cruise by the next month.

Hartford was built in just over fifteen months. Though from the outside, it still took the form of sailing ship, steam power played a considerable role in its design and inner-workings. Though it could only steam for 13 days without resupplying with coal, Hartford could carry provisions for a crew of 266 for up to eighty days and had a water distilling plant on board to produce freshwater out at sea. This meant that under sail it could operate virtually independently while crossing vast oceans, and when under steam it could attain speeds that could outmaneuver an enemy. In a sense, screw sloops like USS Hartford featured the original hybrid technology.