The First Dreadnought.
To the Editor of the U. S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PROCEEDINGS:
In the PROCEEDINGS for December, 1909, there was published a letter from me claiming that the frigate Roanoke was altered into a dreadnought in 1863, and that she was the first of the type. Mr. Percival A. Hislam has since replied, claiming that Great Britain had the honor, as the old frigate Royal Sovereign was altered like the Roanoke, but in 1862-63, thus antedating the Roanoke, though she carried one gun less, namely, five instead of six. On one of my walls hanging alongside of the lithograph of the Roanoke is another, of an ironclad called the Onondaga, made for the Navy Department and presented to me in 1863 by the late Hon. G. V. Fox, the Assistant Secretary (a photograph of which is here reproduced).
Though antedating the Roanoke, I did not originally make a claim for her, preferring to take the heavier ship, but as Mr. Hislam has put forward the Royal Sovereign, I now enter the Onondaga, to try to go him one better. As dates in this argument are important, I wrote to Lord Brassey, one of the best English authorities on naval matters, to get all the particulars about the Royal Sovereign, and I quote his reply:
"The exact date—day and month—of the conversion of the Royal Sovereign is hard to determine. The time occupied in the conversion was long and the cost great, and took place between 1862-64. The vessel made her official trial of speed and power of circling, with full and reduced steam pressure, in Stokes Bay in June, 1864. The speed after conversion
at the measured mile was eleven knots. In July she began a series of experimental firing trials off the Isle of Wight, which were continued throughout the autumn off Portland harbor. She does not appear to have ever been a fully commissioned seagoing ship afterward, being principally used as a tender to the Excellent. Her only officers were a staff commander and chief engineer 'borne in Excellent.' No sails were carried on her three pole masts after conversion. She was armored all over. Her sides were composed of three feet of solid timber, strengthened internally by diagonal iron bands, and clothed externally to the usual distance below the water-line with 5%-inch rolled armor plates."
It will thus be seen that both the Royal Sovereign and the Roanoke were frigates altered into dreadnoughts, the former, however, carrying one gur. less.
Now the Onondaga was not an altered vessel. She was authorized and absolutely laid down as a dreadnought. The Secretary of the Navy sent a communication to the House of Representatives dated December t, 1861, asking. for "the immediate construction of twenty-one ironclad steamers." The House promptly responded to this recommendation, and passed a bill "authorizing and empowering the Secretary of the Navy to cause to be constructed, by contract or otherwise, as he shall deem best for the public interest, not exceeding twenty-one, etc., ironclad steam vessels of war.” Among these was the high-freeboard Onondaga, the only one, as far as I know, of this type. The rest were the low-freeboard monitors, the Manhattan, Tippecanoe, Dictator, Weehawken, and vessels of other types. It is, therefore, fair to assume from the wording that this bill was passed for the Onondaga the first week and not later than the second in December, 1861.
Now the Royal Sovereign and Roanoke were altered vessels, but here is a bona fide ironclad dreadnought authorized as such at the start, the year previous to the altering of the Royal Sovereign, although carrying one gun less.
The Onondaga was built at the yard of T. F. Rowland of the Continental Iron Works at Greenpoint, Long Island; George W. Quintard, proprietor of the Morgan Iron Works, New York, being the contractor for the hull and machinery. The Onondaga was of 1250 tons; length, 228 feet; beam, 50 feet; had four propeller engines, the diameters of whose cylinders were 30 inches, with a length of stroke of 18 inches. Her hull was armored for its whole length. In a letter from Admiral W. L. Capps, Chief Constructor United States Navy, to whom I am indebted for some of the information herein contained, he writes: " In accordance with an act of Congress dated March 2, 1867, the Onondaga was returned to George W. Quintard, on payment by him to the government of $759,673, being the amount received by him for building said vessel. After the transfer of this vessel to Mr. Quintard, it was sold by him to the French government, where (its name having been changed) it served for years in the French Navy."
It will thus be seen that the Onondaga antedates the altered Royal Sovereign and Roanoke, and was absolutely laid down at the start as an armored vessel having, though smaller, the properties of the dreadnought.
-WILLIAM BOERUM WETMORE.