USS Nantucket (1862)
The first
USS Nantucket was a
Passaic-class coastal
monitor in the
United States Navy.
Nantucket was launched
6 December 1862 by
Atlantic Iron Works,
Boston, Massachusetts; and commissioned
26 February 1863, Commander
Donald McNeil Fairfax in command.
Assigned to the
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron,
Nantucket participated in the attack on
Confederate forts in
Charleston Harbor 7 April 1863. Struck 51 times during the valiant but unsuccessful assault on the vital Southern port, the single-turreted monitor was repaired at
Port Royal but returned to Charleston to support
Army operations on
Morris Island, engaging
Fort Wagner 16, 17, 18 and
24 July. She captured
British steamer Jupiter at sea
15 September. She again challenged the Charleston Harbor forts
14 May 1864 and thereafter remained on blockade duty through the end of the
American Civil War.
Decommissioned at
Philadelphia Navy Yard 24 June 1865, she remained in ordinary there for a decade. Renamed
Medusa 15 June 1869, she resumed the name
Nantucket 10 August 1869. Transferred to
Portsmouth Navy Yard,
New Hampshire in 1875,
Nantucket twice briefly recommissioned
29 July to
12 December 1882 and
16 June to
6 October 1884, and operated along the northern east coast. She lay in ordinary at
New York until turned over to the
North Carolina Naval Militia in
1895. During the
Spanish-American War,
Nantucket was stationed at Port Royal, South Carolina. She was sold to
Thomas Buller & Company, Boston,
14 November 1900.
See
USS Nantucket for other ships of the same name.
*
history.navy.mil: USS Sangamon*
navsource.org: USS Sangamon *
hazegray.org: USS Sangamon 
