usnhm1625
Private
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2022
- Location
- Coastal North Carolina
20 Casco class light draft monitors were built during the Civil War. These ships had a low profile that was to thwart Confederate guns, this proved to be a design flaw for the ships. Being this low, water would wash over the main deck if not be below water. Redesign provided raising the main deck 21 inches. Each ship had a price tag of half a million dollars for each one built. Out of these 20 the USS Casco and the USS Squando were the only two to see action during the Civil War.
DANFS: Casco I (Monitor)
(Monitor: t. 614; l. 208'9"; b. 37'; dr. 6'6"; cpl. 69; a. 2 guns)
A bay on the coast of Maine.
Casco was launched May 1864 by Atlantic Works, Boston, Mass. Prononunced unseaworthy when nearly completed, on 25 June 1864 she was ordered to be converted to a torpedo vessel, without turret or heavy guns. Casco was commissioned 4 December 1864, Acting Master C. A. Crooker in command.
After completion of additional yard work, Casco was towed to Hampton Roads in March 1865. She assisted in the removal of torpedoes in the James River which made possible the advance of naval forces to Richmond. In mid-April she was transferred to the Potomac Flotilla, with whom she served until the end of May. Casco was decommissioned 10 June 1865 at Washington Navy Yard, where she was broken up in April 1875.
DANFS: Squando (Monitor)
1865–1874
(Monitor: displacement 1,175; 1ength 225'5"; beam 45'2"; draft 8'3"; speed 9 knots; complement 69; armament 2 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores; class Casco)
Squando, a light-draft monitor, was laid down at East Boston, Mass., by McKay & Aldus in 1863.
While Squando was under construction, the launching of Chimo, a sister ship, on 5 May 1864 and subsequent trials revealed that the displacement of that monitor had been miscalculated; and that as a result, she possessed too little freeboard to be seaworthy. The Navy attempted to correct this defect in other Casco-class vessels by making various changes in the unfinished ships. In Squando's case, on 24 June 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered the contractor to raise the monitor's deck 22 inches to provide her sufficient freeboard for safe coastal operations.
The ship, her turret and pilot house installed as originally planned, was launched on 6 January 1865, and work on her was completed on 30 March. She was delivered to the Navy at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard on 5 April, where she was commissioned on 6 June 1865, Acting Master George H. Leinas in command.
After being fitted out at Boston and New York, Squando departed the latter port on 30 July 1865 and proceeded to Charleston, S.C., for service in the North Atlantic Squadron.
Following duty in that historic South Carolina harbor, encouraging the return of stability to the still uneasy birthplace of the Confederacy, Squando returned north in May 1866. She was decommissioned on 26 May 1866 and laid up at League Island, Pa.
While in reserve, the ship was renamed Erebus on 15 June 1869, but resumed the name Squando on 10 August of the same year. She was broken up at League Island in 1874.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
2 December 2020
DANFS: Casco I (Monitor)
(Monitor: t. 614; l. 208'9"; b. 37'; dr. 6'6"; cpl. 69; a. 2 guns)
A bay on the coast of Maine.
Casco was launched May 1864 by Atlantic Works, Boston, Mass. Prononunced unseaworthy when nearly completed, on 25 June 1864 she was ordered to be converted to a torpedo vessel, without turret or heavy guns. Casco was commissioned 4 December 1864, Acting Master C. A. Crooker in command.
After completion of additional yard work, Casco was towed to Hampton Roads in March 1865. She assisted in the removal of torpedoes in the James River which made possible the advance of naval forces to Richmond. In mid-April she was transferred to the Potomac Flotilla, with whom she served until the end of May. Casco was decommissioned 10 June 1865 at Washington Navy Yard, where she was broken up in April 1875.
DANFS: Squando (Monitor)
1865–1874
(Monitor: displacement 1,175; 1ength 225'5"; beam 45'2"; draft 8'3"; speed 9 knots; complement 69; armament 2 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores; class Casco)
Squando, a light-draft monitor, was laid down at East Boston, Mass., by McKay & Aldus in 1863.
While Squando was under construction, the launching of Chimo, a sister ship, on 5 May 1864 and subsequent trials revealed that the displacement of that monitor had been miscalculated; and that as a result, she possessed too little freeboard to be seaworthy. The Navy attempted to correct this defect in other Casco-class vessels by making various changes in the unfinished ships. In Squando's case, on 24 June 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered the contractor to raise the monitor's deck 22 inches to provide her sufficient freeboard for safe coastal operations.
The ship, her turret and pilot house installed as originally planned, was launched on 6 January 1865, and work on her was completed on 30 March. She was delivered to the Navy at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard on 5 April, where she was commissioned on 6 June 1865, Acting Master George H. Leinas in command.
After being fitted out at Boston and New York, Squando departed the latter port on 30 July 1865 and proceeded to Charleston, S.C., for service in the North Atlantic Squadron.
Following duty in that historic South Carolina harbor, encouraging the return of stability to the still uneasy birthplace of the Confederacy, Squando returned north in May 1866. She was decommissioned on 26 May 1866 and laid up at League Island, Pa.
While in reserve, the ship was renamed Erebus on 15 June 1869, but resumed the name Squando on 10 August of the same year. She was broken up at League Island in 1874.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
2 December 2020
Last edited:
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