| Alabama -- one of the "nine ships to rate
not less than 74 guns each" authorized by Congress on 29 April 1816 -- was
laid down in June 1819 at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Navy Yard. In keeping
with the policy of the 74-gun ships-of-the-line being maintained in a state
of readiness for launch, Alabama remained on the stocks at Portsmouth
for almost four decades, in a state of preservation -- much like part of
a "mothball fleet" of the post-World War II years. She was
nearly identical to sister ships of "North Carolina class":
Ohio, Delaware, New York, North Carolina,
Vermont, and Virginia. Needed for service during the Civil
War, the ship was completed, but her name was changed to New Hampshire
on 28 October 1863. |
| New Hampshire sailed from Portsmouth 15 June and relieved
sister ship Vermont 29 July 1864 as store and depot ship at Port Royal,
South Carolina, and served there through the end of the Civil War. She returned
to Norfolk 8 June 1866, serving as a receiving ship there until 10 May 1876
when she sailed back to Port Royal. She resumed duty at Norfolk in 1881 but
soon shifted to Newport, Rhode Island She became flagship of Commodore Stephen
B. Luee's newly formed Apprentice Training Squadron, marking the commencement
of an effective apprentice training program for the Navy. |
| New Hampshire was towed from Newport to New London,
Connecticut, in 1891 and was receiving ship there until decommissioned 5
June 1892. The following year she was loaned as training ship for the New
York State Naval Militia, which was to furnish nearly a thousand officers
and men to the Navy during the Spanish-American War. |
| New Hampshire was renamed Granite State 30 November
1904 to free the name New Hampshire for a newly authorized battleship. Stationed
in the Hudson River, she continued training service throughout the years
leading to World War I when State naval militia were practically the only
trained and equipped men available to the Navy for immediate service. They
were mustered into the Navy as National Naval Volunteers. Secretary of the
Navy Josephus Daniels wrote in his Our Navy at War, "Never again will men
dare ridicule the Volunteer, the Reservist, the man who in a national crisis
lays aside civilian duty to become a soldier or sailor -- They fought well.
They died well. They have left in deeds and words a record that will be an
inspiration to unborn generations." |
| Granite State served the New York State Militia until
she caught fire and sank at her pier in the Hudson River 23 May 1921. Her
hull was sold for salvage 19 August 1921 to the Mulholland Machinery Corp.
Re-floated in July 1922, she and was taken in tow to the Bay of Fundy. The
towline parted during a storm, she again caught fire and sank off Half Way
Rock in Massachusetts Bay. |
Tonnage, 2,633; Length, 203'8"; Beam, 51'4"; Depth
of hold, 22'; Complement, 820; Armament, seventy-four guns |
|
Bibliography
 |
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1991), Vol.1 -- Part A, p. 106 |
|
|
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1969), Vol.4: L-M, p 598-599 |
|
James L. Mooney, Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1970), Vol.5: N-Q, p. 56 |
|
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