Hampton Roads Naval Museum
USS Roanoke![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
![Wavy Line](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/bg_header.png)
Hampton Roads Naval Museum
29. USS Roanoke![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
![Wavy Line](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/bg_header.png)
![Wavy Line](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/bg_header.png)
Between late March 1862 and June 1863, the steam frigate Roanoke was cut down to her gun deck and rebuilt as a triple-turret armored warship. It was originally expected that this work would produce a seagoing ironclad ram in minimal time, but problems with armor supply and fabrication slowed her conversion considerably. Commissioned in late June 1863 and sent to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to rejoin the blockade, her voyage southward convincingly demonstrated that she was unsuitable for fighting on the open ocean. Roanoke was therefore employed in the defenses of Hampton Roads. While her deep draft restricted her to the main shipping channels, her six heavy guns provided a final barrier in case the Confederate ironclads on the James River should break out. Following the end of the war, she was sent to New York, where she was decommissioned in June 1865. Despite her flaws, Roanoke lasted for nearly two more decades. Though most of this time was spent laid up "in ordinary", she was commissioned for harbor service during 1874-75. USS Roanoke was finally stricken from the Navy list in August 1882 and sold for scrap in September 1883.
![Image 1 - USS Roanoke - Hampton Roads Naval Museum](https://media.wejunket.com/images/bdc900b8ae9d20dee431aad3aa4357ad.jpg)
•••
- Puppet Tour of the Museum
- Hampton Roads
- Seaman's Jacket & ECD uniform
- Battle off the Virginia Capes
- Ville de Paris
- Capture of USS Chesapeake
- 18-Pounder Naval Cannon
- USS Chesapeake
- USS Constellation
- US Gunboat 135
- American Musket, 1812
- First American Drydock
- USS Delaware
- USS Norfolk
- Fore and Aft Hat
- USS Pennsylvania
- Intro to the Civil War
- The Anaconda Plan
- Life At Sea
- Confederate Defenses
- USS Monitor
- CSS Virginia
- Duel of the Ironclads
- USS Cumberland
- USS Congress
- USS Minnesota
- Capture of Roanoke Island
- G.W.P. Custis
- USS Roanoke
- USS New Ironsides
- Engine Room Clock
- Gangway Headboards
- USS Onondaga
- Fall of Fort Fisher
- CSS Richmond
- CSS Florida
- The Civil War Final
- Shipfitters' tools, 1800s
- Steel Navy
- USS Maine
- Spanish-American War
- The Great White Fleet
- Jamestown Exposition
- Naval Station Norfolk
- Birth of Naval Aviation
- USS Truxtun (DD-14)
- USS Subchaser 136
- Mines in WWI
- Propaganda Posters
- USS New York (BB-34)
Map Loading...
Choose Another Adventure
Map Loading...