Thursday, August 12, 2021

The U.S. Navy's Newest Ship, the USS Nantucket (LCS-27) Christened Saturday. The First USS Nantucket Was a Monitor.

From the August 11, 2021, Boston Globe "USS Nantucket ready for action, carrying out naval legacy which began in Civil War" by Travis Anderson.

It was formally christened  Saturday at a ceremony  on the Menominee River  in Marinette, Wisconsin.  It is a Freedom class Littoral Combat  Ship (LCS).  The new ship is very fast, automated and lethal, equipped with rolling airframe missiles and a Mark 110 gun, capable of firing 220 rounds per minute.

It is the third U.S. Navy ship named Nantucket.

The first one was a Passaic-class coastal monitor commissioned on February 26, 1863.  It was assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the attacks on the Confederate forts, including Fort Sumter, defending Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

During that mission, the Nantucket was struck 51 times.  Battered, but no irreparably damaged, the ship was repaired and returned to duty.  It returned to Charleston and took part in operations against Norris Island.

The second USS Nantucket was a wooden lightship built in 1907 for the Lighthouse Service and transferred to the Navy in 1917.  During World War I, it continued its duty warning ships of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals and aided in guarding the nearby waters against U-boat attacks.

I Have to Admit to Have Never Heard of This Monitor Before.  --Old B-R'er


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