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Photo # NH 45364:  USS Roanoke, as a steam frigate

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Roanoke (1857-1883)

USS Roanoke, a 4772-ton steam frigate built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, was commissioned in May 1857. For the next five months she served with the Home Squadron along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean. Her primary duty was transporting the adventurer William Walker and over two hundred of his men from Nicaragua to the United States. Out of commission from late September 1857 until mid-August 1858, Roanoke then became the Home Squadron's flagship, mainly serving in the West Indies and off Central America. In April and May 1860, she brought a Japanese diplomatic delegation from Aspinwall, in what later became Panama, to the U.S. Again decommissioned at the end of that voyage, she did not return to active service until June 1861, when she was needed for Civil War employment.

Roanoke enforced the blockade during much of the rest of the year, helping to capture or destroy four sailing vessels off North and South Carolina between mid-July and mid-October. She was stationed in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1861, when the Confederate ironclad Virginia attacked Federal warships there. However, her deep draft prevented her from engaging the enemy. Later in the month, Roanoke went to New York, where she was decommissioned. In a project inspired by both the Virginia, which had originally been a very similar steam frigate, and the pioneer turret ship Monitor, Roanoke was then taken in hand for conversion to a very large triple-turret ironclad. Her story is continued on the next page.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Roanoke as a steam frigate, and provides links to views of her as an ironclad.

For pictures of this ship during and after her 1862-63 conversion to a triple-turret ironclad, see:

  • USS Roanoke (1857-1883) -- As an Ironclad.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 45364

    USS Roanoke
    (1857-1883)

    Lithograph depicting her as a steam frigate, prior to her 1862-63 conversion to an ironclad.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 435 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 59308

    "The Navy-Yard at Brooklyn, New York, June, 1861"


    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861, pages 456-457, depicting a large number of Navy ships off the New York Navy Yard, early in the Civil War.
    Vessels shown include (from left to right): USS Montgomery; USS Vandalia; USSBrandywine; USS North Carolina; USS Potomac; USS Savannah; USS R.R. Cuyler; USS Mount Vernon; USS Roanoke; USS Resolute and USS Wabash.
    A rowing launch is underway in the foreground.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 155KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 59302

    "The Blockade of Charleston"


    Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", July-December 1861, page 599, probably depicting the capture of the blockade runner Arthur Middleton, off Charleston, South Carolina, on 21 August 1861.
    Arthur Middleton is shown in the center of the view, flying a Confederate flag. USS Vandalia is at left, and USS Roanoke is at right.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 395 pixels

     

    For pictures of this ship during and after her 1862-63 conversion to a triple-turret ironclad, see:

  • USS Roanoke (1857-1883) -- As an Ironclad.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 14 February 2002