Kalamazoo was the lead ship of the Kalamazoo-class double-turreted monitors

Monitor (warship)

A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...

, designed by Benjamin F. Delano. Kalamazoo was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in 1863, but work on her was suspended on 27 November 1865 following the end of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. She was renamed Colossus on 15 June 1869. Designed to be built at U.S. Navy naval yards, which lacked the facilities to construct metal-ribbed vessels, she was built with improperly seasoned timber, and left exposed to the elements. Colossuss hull began to rot while still on the stocks and she was broken up in 1884.