Saving the USS Vermont

Lubliner

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The USS Vermont was caught in a bad storm 95 miles south-southeast of Cape Cod and was able to send a distress message by March 1, 1862 to the Boston Navy Yard. She had lost her rudder, bower anchors, rigging and four boats, and was helplessly adrift in the height of the storm. The USS Aroostook was just fitted out and under the command of Lt. John C. Beaumont, was sent to the vicinity the USS Vermont had last been seen.

I would like to know how this message of distress was delivered, or has the article on USS Aroostook wikipedia glossed the details and left out some important facts.
Thanks,
Lubliner.
 
According to ORN I:1, p. 336 ff., the disabled Vermont was sighted by the schooner Flying Mist on Feb 27, and the Vermont's storekeeper went via the schooner to Chatham, Massachusetts and alerted the Navy by telegram on March 1. Commander Augustus S. Baldwin's report on the incident is on pp.338-340.

(A schooner generally being a very small vessel, it couldn't have rendered any meaningful direct assistance to the Vermont, other than conveying the message of her distress.)
 
The short story is, the incomplete ship-of-the-line Vermont was to be sent to Port Royal SC to serve as a floating base for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. It left Boston Navy Yard in late February under tow, but was struck by a severe storm off Long Island. They were forced to cast off the tow (I'm not certain what happened to the towing vessel, Kensington), and attempted to anchor to ride out the storm. The storm basically shredded the sails and wrecked the rudder, and she was left adrift (and apparently iced-over, this being the North Atlantic in February). The aforementioned schooner happened by and Captain Baldwin sent his storekeeper with it to alert the Navy.

It took several ships some time to find the drifting ship again; meanwhile aboard the Vermont, they were frantically baling out the ice-melt that dripped down from topside in addition to various leaks, and they attempted several times to jury-rig sails and a rudder.

I'm not all the way through the story, but the Vermont did eventually make it to Port Royal.
 
The story ends happily. Several ships, including the Aroostook, Saxon, and Sabine, were able to transfer various needed supplies and equipment, and the Vermont was able to sail in to Port Royal, SC on her own on April 12, 1862, having drifted from off Cape Cod nearly to Bermuda during her struggle.

Commander Augustus S. Baldwin, evidently an older officer who had received a wound in the landing at Vera Cruz in the Mexican War and was in generally poor health, served out the war as an inspector at the New York (Brooklyn) Navy Yard, being promoted to captain in 1865 and dying in 1876.

The Kensington evidently survived the storm and arrived separately off Charleston SC, serving out the war on the blockade as a supply vessel, as well as towing some of Porter's mortar boats on the lower Mississippi.
 
Incidentally, the Vermont was a (potential) member of the little-known American sailing battle fleet of the early 19th century.

Ships-of-the-line being very expensive to operate, maintain, and repair, it was deemed more fiscally responsible to mostly construct their hulls and leave them in that 'prefabricated' condition, for completion should an emergency arise. Donald L. Canney, in his Sailing Warships of the U.S. Navy, estimates that the antebellum U.S. could have put ten ships-of-the-line (referred to colloquially at the time as 'liners,' although using that word could be confusing today) into operating condition in six months. While a comparative drop in the bucket compared to the British Royal Navy, this was a respectable force compared with most other navies of the era.
 
Here's a couple images of her:

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Not so flattering image at the end of her career:

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A big change over there in the end. She once appears to have been a formidable vessel, able to carry many guns; that, or had many holds for assorted cargo and supplies, I don't know which. The last pictures appear she is a floating paradise for the adventurous traveler.
Thank you @Mark F. Jenkins for filling in those unknowns. I have the O. R. N. on DVD, so I can look further into the incident. I had looked up the USS Aroostook just out of curiosity, and came across the mention of her first seaward mission. Astounded to the fact of her pulling alongside the Vermont and riding out the storm with her left me with tunnel vision. Long drift!
Lubliner.
 
Finally, I've always liked this view of the Vermont. It shows her at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but prior to her shedding-over. Note that even though only her lower masts remain (and her fore and main lower yards), she still retains an iron stern-gallery at the quarterdeck level, and that the configuration of her four stern windows matches the above engravings. The photo must have been taken from the upper floor of a tall building. Note, for scale, the sailor standing on the forward-most gangways:

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0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr
 
The third-generation American ships-of-the-line (the North Carolina class) generally attracted positive comment. According to the appendix on the ships-of-the-line in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) Volume IV, a publication called the Niles National Register noted that an English Royal Navy captain had called the USS Ohio "the perfection of the line-of-battleship." Donald L Canney speculates that the Ohio may have influenced the design of three new British 92-gun ships by Robert Seppings.

(The first generation was composed of the three sail of the line authorized by the Continental Congress, of which only one, America, was completed -- John Paul Jones supervised her fitting-out and was to be her first commander, but in 1782 the Congress decided to give her to France, which had just lost a ship-of-the-line while sailing in American waters, much to Jones' disappointment. The second generation, the Independence -class ships, were not considered especially successful because their lower gunports were too low, likely preventing their use in any but the calmest seas. The Independence herself was razeed, meaning the upper deck was taken off her to make her an unusually large and strongly-built frigate; after this conversion she had quite a successful career.)
 
These five pictures are all attributed to be taken on board the Vermont:

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0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

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0-1 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

This picture looks suspiciously familiar to several other portraits taken on board her sister-ship, the New Hampshire, 74, which replaced her off Charleston in 1864.

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0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

This picture has been variously identified as the deck of both Vermont and New Hampshire:

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0-3 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

Looking out over the poop deck transom of the Vermont. One wonders what good these light howitzers would have been, sticking out five stories over the waterline? Signaling, maybe ...

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0-4 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

Here is another familiar portrait taken in the same spot, but on board the New Hampshire. Note the tarp had been rolled up, revealing the cutlasses and arms chests:

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Same spot, but the tarp is down:

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Same fellow, different pose?

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We all know this monkey (colorized)

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Here's a "colored" sailor, same starboard side at the main mast, looking aft. The same parrot rifle and cutlass-ed break of the poop deck cane be seen aft:

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The sad end of the New Hampshire, renamed Granite State, after a fire that destroyed her in Brooklyn in 1923.

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Vermont's other sister, the USS North Carolina (she had six sisters). Had the Vermont been called up for active-service prior to 1850, then she would have looked, and been fitted-out, like this:

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