The Stranding of USS MONONGAHELA, November 18, 1867 - Frederiksted, St. Croix





The Stranding of USS MONONGAHELA

November 18, 1867

Frederiksted, St. Croix

 

On November 20, 1867, Commodore S.B. Bissell, USN, wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells the following;

 

Sir: I have to state with deep regret that the Monongahela, under my command, is now lying on the beach, in front of the town of Frederiksted, St. Croix, where she was thrown on the 18th instant by an influx of the sea, the effect of the most fatal earthquake ever known here. 

 

USS MONONGAHELA was built in 1862, and commissioned in January of 1863. Barkentine rigged, she was 2078 long tonnes, 227 ft long, 38 ft broad, and drew 17 ft. Built in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, at the foot of Broad Street, MONONGAHELA served as Farragut’s flag ship for a short time, and rammed CSS TENNESSEE at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Like many of the ships of the era, MONONGAHELA had a steam plant for auxiliary propulsion, but in keeping with post war Navy policy, spent most of her time under sail to conserve coal. 

 



 

Just two years after the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy, under Wells and Admiral David Farragut, had been gutteded out by a country embroiled in the conduct of reconstruction. The size of the fleet shrank from 671 ships during the war to just 59 actively plying the world’s oceans and North America’s Great Lakes. Congress used the Navy as a political football, cutting the budget from $125 million in 1865, to just $2 million in 1866, killing all new ship construction. In 1867 the budget returned to $20 million, but the majority of the Navy’s ships were laid up quayside, rotting and rusting. 

 

The Navy’s Squadrons, broken up to conduct the blockade of the South at the start of the war, have been reconstituted, with ships sailing individually, conducting naval diplomacy, protecting American interests in foreign lands. Admiral Farragut was taking a victory lap, sailing with the European Squadron, being feted by heads of state for his conduct during the rebellion. 

 

In the Asiatic Squadron, the commanding Admiral, Henry H. Bell, USN, drowned within sight of his command when his barge overturned in Osaka harbor. The squadron joined foreign naval forces in landing bluejackets and Marines at Yokohama, occupying the port to protect foreign interests. Ships of the squadron investigated the disappearance of the crew of the merchantman GENERAL SHERMAN in Coree, and visited the island of Formosa to gather facts on the murder of the crew of the bark ROVER. 

 

Rear Admiral James S. Palmer, USN, commanding the North Atlantic Squadron dies of Yellow Fever at St. Thomas. Ships of the squadron ply the waters of the Caribbean, protecting American interests at Aspinwall, Panama and Hayti. The ships of the South Atlantic Squadron “show the flag” in the ports of South America, and on the western coast of Africa, along with monitoring the fighting in Paraguay. The North Pacific Squadron patrols Pacific waters off Mexico and Central American, and the Sandwich Islands with an interest in developing a harbor at Midway Island. The South Pacific Squadron focused on affairs in South America, keeping an eye on the day when it can visit Australia and the islands across the Pacific. 

 



 

On November 18, 1867, MONONGAHELA sat at anchor offshore the port of Frederiksted on the west end of St. Croix, a Danish colony east of Porto Rico. Commodore Bissell reported that at 3pm, the ship started shaking at anchor, for a period of 30 seconds, causing the boiler to blow steam. 

 

Bissell reported the surf retreated from the beach, as in a tsunami, before returning rapidly in the form of a 30-foot wave to carry MONONGAHELA over the beach, the shore road, and the row of store houses ashore on the first block near the beach. The captain attempted to preserve his ship by dropping an additional anchor and setting sails to take advantage of onshore breezes while all this was happening. 




 

Backwash from the surge carried the ship back over the beach, to the coral, where she came to rest upright at a 15-degree list in the shallows. The entire incident took only about three minutes. The ship lost three men, in small boats at the time, including the coxswain of the captains gig, when they were crushed in the rush of water against the ship. While the ship’s propeller shaft remained undamaged, the ship did lose 15 feet of keel, and suffered damage to anchor mechanisms. 

 

On December 23, Secretary Wells enlisted the aid of Naval Constructor Thomas Davidson Jr. who sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on the 17th of January 1868 aboard the PURVEYOR with 26 shipwrights to free MONONGAHELA from the beach. Davidson and his crew arrive at St. Croix on the 31st of January, and began repairs to the hull of the ship immediately. By March 4th they made repairs to the hull, and laid 240 feet of timber ways to move the ship into deeper water offshore.


Between the 17th of April, and the 11th of May, Davidson’s crew moved the ship from the beach to 14 feet of water, where the ship floated for the first time in six months. Nine days of further repairs meant that MONONGAHELA could be towed to New York on the 21st of May. After arriving on the 1st of June, she underwent further repairs and travelled on to Portsmouth Navy Yard for further repairs, and returned to service with the South Atlantic Squadron in 1873. 

 

In later years, she served with on the Asiatic Station, then as a stores ship with her plant removed, then as a training ship for recruits, and a summer cruise ship for Naval Academy Midshipmen. In the 20th century she served as a store ship until she caught fire at Guantanamo Bay and was struck from the rolls in 1908.

 

MONONGAHELA had an extraordinary history in an era when the Navy was rapidly hollowing itself out. For another two decades the Navy would dither in its attempts at modernization, relying on ships of MONONGAHELA’s vintage to pursue naval diplomacy in all corners of the world. Only when Congress, American commercial interests, and American shipbuilding capabilities all matched up would the U.S. Navy begin to deploy a fleet capable of handling any of the great powers. 

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