USS Michigan (1843)
The Michigan seen here later in life as the USS Wolverine | | Career |  | USN Jack |
|
|---|
| Awarded: | � |
| Laid down: | 1842 |
| Launched: | 5 December 1843 |
| Commissioned: | 29 September 1844 |
| Decommissioned: | 6 May 1912 |
| Fate: | Renamed Wolverine, 17 June 1905. Scrapped in 1949 |
| Stricken: | 6 May 1912 |
| General Characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement: | 685 tons |
| Length: | 163 feet |
| Beam: | 27 feet |
| Draft: | 9 feet |
| Powerplant: | Steam |
| Speed: | 8 knots |
| Complement: | 88 officers and men |
| Armament: | One 18 pounder |
USS Michigan, later
USS Wolverine was the
United States Navy's first iron-hulled warship and served during the
American Civil War.
Michigan was designed by naval constructor
Samuel Hart; fabricated in parts at
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, during the last half of
1842; and carried overland to
Erie, Pennsylvania, where assembled. When Hart attempted to launch this pioneer steam
man of war 5 December 1843, she slipped down the ways some 50 feet but halted and stuck before reaching water. After strenuous but fruitless efforts to prod the ship into resuming her descent were ended by darkness, the shipwrights retired for the night. But upon returning to the shipyard before the next morning, Hart found the ways empty. Some distance offshore
Michigan floated easily in
Lake Erie, after launching herself in the night. She commissioned
29 September 1844, Commander
William Inman in command.
Michigan was built by the Navy for defense of Lake Erie after the British Government had armed two steamers there during the Canadian rebellion.
Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur had selected iron for her hull "to use the immense resource of our country in that most valuable metal" and "to ascertain the practicability and utility of building vessels, at least for harbor defense, of so cheap and indestructible a material."
Michigan operated on the
Great Lakes out of Erie, Pennsylvania, throughout her career. In May 1851, she assisted in the arrest of Mr.
James Jesse Strang, known as "King James I," who headed a dissident
Mormon colony on
Beaver Island at the head of
Lake Michigan, some 40 miles from
Mackinac. Strang was soon freed, but 5 years later was assassinated by two of his followers
19 June 1856. The assassins fled to
Michigan for sanctuary and were taken to Mackinac and freed.
During the
Civil War the
Confederacy considered launching attacks against the North from Canada. Early in
1863, Lt.
William Henry Murdaugh, CSN, planned to lead a group of southern naval officers to
Canada where they would purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians and steam to Erie to board
Michigan and use the prize against locks and shipping on the Great Lakes. However, President
Jefferson Davis would not approve.
Michigan cruised on the lakes during most of the war providing an element of stability and security. On
28 July, a short time after
New York City had been seriously shaken by riots, Commander
John C. Carter commanding
Michigan reported from
Detroit "I found the people suffering under serious apprehensions of a riot....The presence of the ships perhaps did something toward overawing the refractory, and certainly did much to allay the apprehensions of the excited, doubting people." During August
Michigan was called on for similar service at
Buffalo,
New York. During
1864, rumors of Confederate conspiracies in Canada again were rife. In March,
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered
Michigan "prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit." In the fall, the Confederates finally struck. Led by Acting Master
John Yates Beall, 20 southerners embarked on
Philo Parsons as passengers and soon sieged the steamer. They next captured and burned steamer
Island Queen.
Meanwhile Captain
Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate agent in the Lake Erie region, was attempting to ingratiate himself with
Michigan's officers as the Union steamer lay off
Johnson's Island helping to guard Confederate prisoners. However, Commander Carter discovered Cole's duplicity and had him arrested before Beall reached Johnson's Island in Philo Parsons. When the prearranged signals from shore were not made, Beall reluctantly abandoned his plan and retired to
Sandwich, Canada, where he stripped and burned his prize.
After the war,
Michigan continued her service, and was the ship which intercepted and interned the army of the
Fenian Brotherhood as it returned from its invasion of
Canada near
Buffalo, New York in 1866.
Michigan was renamed USS
Wolverine 17 June 1905. She decommissioned
6 May 1912. She was turned over to the
Pennsylvania Naval Militia which she served for 11 years making training cruises in the summer for the U.S. Naval Reserve. On
12 August 1923, a connecting rod of her port cylinder broke ending her active career. In 1927, she was pushed up on a sandbank in Erie Harbor and loaned to the city of Erie as a relic. She was sold to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Original USS
Michigan, Inc.,
19 July 1948. But when fundraising efforts failed to acquire sufficient money for her restoration and preservation, she was cut up and sold for scrap in 1949. The next year her bow and cutwater were erected as a monument, near the shipyard where she had been built.
See
USS Michigan and
USS Wolverine for other ships with the same name.
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history.navy.mil: USS Michigan*
navsource.org: USS Michigan
