USS Merrimack; Engraving by L.H. Bradford & Co., after a drawing by G.G. Pook
History
United States
Name	Merrimack
Ordered	6 April 1855
Launched	15 June 1855
Commissioned	20 February 1856
Decommissioned	16 February 1860
Fate	Burned and sunk in dock, 20 April 1861 Raised and converted into ironcladCSSVirginia
General characteristics
Tonnage	3,200
Length	275 ft (84 m)
Beam	38.5 ft (11.7 m)
Draft	24 ft (7.3 m)
Propulsion	sail, steam engine
Speed	12 knots
Armament	14 × 8-inch guns, 2 × 10-inch guns, 24 × 9-inch guns

USSMerrimack, variant spellingMerrimac, was asteam frigate, best known as thehull upon which theironclad warshipCSSVirginia was constructed during theAmerican Civil War. The CSSVirginia then took part in theBattle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of theMonitor and theMerrimack") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.

Merrimack was the first of sixscrew frigates (steam frigates powered by screw propellers) begun in 1854. Like others of her class(Wabash,Roanoke,Niagara,Minnesota andColorado), she was named after a river. TheMerrimack originates inNew Hampshire and flows through the town ofMerrimac, Massachusetts, often considered an older spelling which has sometimes caused confusion of the name.^[1] After the ship was burned on April 20 1861, it was rebuilt with iron siding in the American Civil War by the Confederacy and renamedVirginia.

Merrimack was launched by theBoston Navy Yard 15 June 1855,sponsored by Mary E. Simmons, and commissioned 20 February 1856, CaptainGarrett J. Pendergrast in command. She was the second ship of the Navy to be named for theMerrimack River.^{[citation needed]}

Shakedown cruises took the new screw frigate to theCaribbean and to Western Europe.Merrimack visitedSouthampton,Brest,Lisbon, andToulon before returning toBoston and decommissioning 22 April 1857 for repairs. Recommissioning 1 September 1857,Merrimack got underway fromBoston Harbor 17 October as flagship for thePacific Squadron. She roundedCape Horn and cruised the Pacific coast ofSouth and Central America until heading for home 14 November 1859. Upon returning toNorfolk, she decommissioned 16 February 1860.^[2]

Merrimack was stillin ordinary during the crisis precedingLincoln's inauguration. Soon after becomingSecretary of the Navy,Gideon Welles took action to prepare the frigate for sea, planning to move her toPhiladelphia. The day before the firing onFort Sumter, Welles directed that "great vigilance be exercised in guarding and protecting" Norfolk Navy Yard and her ships. On the afternoon of 17 April 1861, the dayVirginia seceded, Engineer in ChiefB. F. Isherwood managed to get the frigate's engines lit off; but the previous night secessionists had sunk light boats in the channel betweenCraney Island andSewell's Point, blockingMerrimack. On 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U.S. Navy burnedMerrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture.^[3]

TheConfederacy, in desperate need of ships, raisedMerrimack and rebuilt her as anironcladram, according to a design prepared byLt. John Mercer Brooke, CSN. Commissioned asCSSVirginia 17 February 1862, the ironclad was the hope of the Confederacy to destroy the wooden ships inHampton Roads, and to end the Union blockade which had already seriously impeded the Confederate war effort.^{[citation needed]}

• List of steam frigates of the United States Navy
• Union Navy
• Ships captured in the American Civil War
• Bibliography of American Civil War naval history

 This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Canney, Donald L. (1990).The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Slops and Gunboats, 1815–1882. Vol. 1. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.ISBN 0-87021-004-1.
• Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press.ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• "Merrimack".Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.Naval History & Heritage Command (NH&HC). Archived fromthe original on 14 March 2004. Retrieved1 February 2013.
• Olmstead, Edwin; Stark, Wayne E.; Tucker, Spencer C. (1997).The Big Guns: Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon. Alexandria Bay, New York: Museum Restoration Service.ISBN 0-88855-012-X.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (2006).Civil War Navies 1855–1883. The U.S. Navy Warship Series. New York: Routledge.ISBN 0-415-97870-X.
• Nelson, James L. 2004.The Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack. HarperCollins Publishers, NY.ISBN 0-06-052403-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMerrimack (ship, 1856).

• history.navy.mil/photos: USSMerrimack
• Journal of a Cruise onboard U.S. Steam FrigateMerrimack, 1856–1858, MS 15 held by Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library at the United States Naval Academy

• Sailing frigates of the United States Navy
• Battle of Hampton Roads
• New Hampshire in the American Civil War
• Ships of the Union navy
• Vessels captured from the United States Navy
• Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
• Shipwrecks of the Virginia coast
• Ships built in Boston
• 1855 ships
• Scuttled vessels
• Maritime incidents in April 1861

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2024
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022