USS Weehawken-- Part 6: Sinking December 6, 1863

The next two months were uneventful.

On the morning of 6 December, 1863, the Weehawken was  anchored off Morris Island during a moderate gale.  Suddenly it called for assistance and appeared to observers on shore to be sinking.

Attempts to beach it failed and she sank bow first five minutes later in thirty feet of water.

A court of inquiry found that the Weehawken had recently taken in a considerable amount of heavy ammunition in her forward compartments.  This excessively  reduced her forward seaboard, causing water to rush down an open hawsepipe during the storm.

As the bow sank and the stern rose, water could not flow aft to the pumps and the vessel foundered.

Four officers and 27 enlisted men  drowned in the Weehawken.

--Old B-Runner