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USS Puritan (BM-1)
Encyclopedia
The second USS Puritan was a Puritan class monitor in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, constructed in 1882. She was the only ship in her class.
Construction
The never-completed of the American Civil WarAmerican 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...
underwent the same extent of rebuilding as the four Miantonomoh-class under the direction of Secretary of the Navy
United States Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy of the United States of America is the head of the Department of the Navy, a component organization of the Department of Defense...
George Robeson
George M. Robeson
George Maxwell Robeson was an American Republican Party politician and lawyer from New Jersey who served as a Union army general during the American Civil War, and then as Secretary of the Navy during the Grant administration. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1879 to...
. The revised design of the "repaired" Puritan called for two turrets, and with her superstructure, tall stack, and military mast, she had the characteristics which identified the monitors built between 1889 and 1903.
Because of the level of disrepair on the original Puritan, a new Puritan was built by John Roach & Sons
John Roach & Sons
John Roach & Sons was a major 19th-century American shipbuilding and manufacturing firm founded in 1864 by Irish-American immigrant John Roach. Between 1871 and 1885, the company was the largest shipbuilding firm in the United States, building more iron ships than its next two major competitors...
of Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 33,972 at the 2010 census. Chester is situated on the Delaware River, between the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware.- History :...
and completed by the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York. Officially the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
records list this action as a repair and redesignation of the original Puritan, not the building of a new vessel even though very few building materials from the original were included in the construction of the second. The new Puritan was launched December 6, 1882 and commissioned on December 10, 1896, with Captain John Russell Bartlett in command.
By 1891, she had been equipped with four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in barbette turrets, with a plane of fire ten and a half feet (3.2 m) above the water. The armored belt was 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 m) deep, 14 inches (360 mm) thick amidships, with an armor deck of 2 inches (50 mm); barbettes, 14 inches (360 mm); and inclined turrets, 8 inches (200 mm). The original officer quarters were below deck, but these were given up to be additional crew quarters after new officers quarters were constructed in the superstructure.
Service history
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Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. Assigned to the Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n blockade in April, she joined and in shelling Matanzas
Matanzas
Matanzas is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. It is famed for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore.It is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas , east of the capital Havana and west of the resort town of Varadero.Matanzas is called the...
on the 27th. After a stop at Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
in early May, she departed on the 20th to join the force building under Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
William T. Sampson
William T. Sampson
William Thomas Sampson was a United States Navy rear admiral known for his victory in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War.-Biography:...
that would eventually move against Santiago
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
. Puritan linked up on the 22nd and Sampson moved his ships to Key Frances on the Nicholas Channel
Nicholas Channel
Nicholas Channel is a strait off the northwestern coast of Cuba. It lies east of Havana. It separates Cuba from the most southwestern of the islands of the Bahamas....
in order to execute his plan to contain the Spanish Fleet at Santiago. The success of Sampson’s squadron at Santiago on July 3 resulted in almost the complete destruction of the Spanish Fleet.
After Cuba, she sailed for Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
where she landed a party of US Marines and shelled the Spanish positions at the Battle of Fajardo.
Following war-time service, Puritan served as a practice ship for the Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
from 1899 to 1902. She was decommissioned on April 16, 1903 at Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
but was recommissioned June 3 to serve as a receiving ship at League Island
League Island
League Island was an island in the Delaware River, part of the city of Philadelphia, just upstream from the mouth of the Schuylkill River, which was the site of the Philadelphia shipyard, which eventually became the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, now known as the Philadelphia Naval Business...
. In 1904, she was loaned to the Naval Militia
Naval militia
A naval militia in the United States is a reserve military organization administered under the authority of a state government. It is often composed of Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard reservists, retirees and volunteers. They are distinguishable from the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, which is a...
of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and served with them until September 14, 1909. Puritan then moved to Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
where she was again decommissioned on April 23, 1910.
In March 1910, it was proposed by a commodore that the monitors in service with the U.S. Navy, including Puritan, , and , be used as forts near Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
in order to make it into "an American Gibraltar". The Spanish–American War of 1898 and the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
(under construction in 1910) had caused Key West's military importance to rise because of its geographical location. It was pointed out that the defenses of Fort Zachary Taylor
Fort Zachary Taylor
The Fort Zachary Taylor State Historic Site, better known simply as Fort Taylor, , is a Florida State Park and National Historic Landmark centered on a Civil War-era fort located near the southern tip of Key West, Florida....
on the island were not enough, as ships could sit seven miles south of the fort (outside the range of its guns) and shell Key West. As such, the proposal advocated the placement of monitors in strategic locations around Key West. Dykes of "piling, rock and riprap" would then be constructed around the ships. Water inside of these dykes would be pumped out to be replaced by dirt, creating an artificial island
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
that was a "complete, modern double-turreted fort".
She was struck from the Navy List
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
February 27, 1918 and, with the submarine USS Plunger (SS-2)
USS Plunger (SS-2)
USS Plunger SS-2 was one of the earliest submarines of the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the her class and was later renamed A-1 when she was designated an A-type submarine.-Early service:...
on board, was one of several vessels sold on January 26, 1922, to J. G. Hitner and W. F. Cutler of Philadelphia.