The USS Monongahela

Built in Philadelphia, she was launched July 10, 1862 as a barkentine-rigged screw sloop-of-war.  (A barkentine has three masts, the foremast with square rigging, while the main and mizzen masts have fore and aft sails.  The screw was a mechanical means of propulsion.)

She first saw duty as a part of Admiral Farragut’s blockading squadron off Mobile Bay.  On the night of March 14/15, 1863 she and six other ships were ordered to run the Confederate batteries of the Mississippi at Port Hudson.  The first two made it up the river.  Two others lost steam power and drifted back down the river.  Monongahela and Kineo, lashed together, grounded and took a pounding losing 6 men including the Captain, with 21 more wounded.  After working loose they again attempted an upriver run only to lose engine power and drifted back downriver.

On May 27^th, and again on July 7^th she fought two more battles on the Mississippi before being sent to Texas waters for aid in capturing the towns of Brazos Santiago and Brownsville between the 2^nd and 4^th of November.  She then returned for duty off Mobile where she remained on duty until the end of the Civil War.

While in the West Indies on November 18, 1867 an immense tidal wave was created by an earthquake.  The Monongahela happened to be in direct alignment, was raised on a 30’ wave and carried nearly a mile inland on St. Croix Island, where it was set high and dry in an upright position.  It took 4 months to get it back in the water.  It was then towed to New York City, and thence to Portsmouth. Five years later it was finally seaworthy again and rejoined the Atlantic Fleet in 1873.  Six more years of duty found her once more in need of repair so she was decommissioned in 1879.

It was in 1883 that she next appeared with all weaponry removed and used as a supply ship.  Her rigging had been changed from a Barkentine to a Bark, by re-rigging her mainmast as square.  After a short stint off Peru, she rounded South America’s Cape Horn to Portsmouth Navy Yard where she was fitted out as a training ship for the Naval Academy in 1890.  She made yearly Academy cruises through 1897, skipped 1898 due to the war with Spain, and made another in 1899.  The USS Monongahela then moved on to Newport Rhode Island as a training ship for apprentices.  She spent three years in that capacity cruising to Europe and the Caribbean.

 

In 1904 she was detached from that duty and began use as a storeship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  On St. Patrick’s Day 1908 the 46-year-old ship was totally destroyed by fire.  Salvaged from the wreck was a 4” gun that, due to the intense heat, had a warped barrel.  It was named “Old Droopy,” and has been on display at Deer Point, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station since then.