USS Katahdin (ram)

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Career
Launched:	4 February 1893
Commissioned:	20 February 1897
Fate:	sunk as a target
Struck:	9 July 1909
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2155 tons
Length:	250.8 feet
Beam:	43.5 feet
Draft:	15 feet
Speed:	16 knots
Complement:	97 officers and men
Armament:	four 6-pounder rifles

USS Katahdin, an ironclad harbor-defense ram of innovative design, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Her keel was laid down by the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine. She was launched on 4 February 1893 sponsored Miss Una Soley, daughter of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 20 February 1897 with Commander Richard P. Leary in command.

Katahdin's design was a new departure in naval architecture, built to ride extremely low in the water with her bow awash while under way. Her hull embodied several new features later used in early submarines.

Katahdin departed New York Harbor 4 March 1897, the day of President of the United States William McKinley's first inauguration, and sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, before decommissioning at Philadelphia Naval Yard on 17 April. A year later, with the Navy preparing for an impending war with Spain, she recommissioned there 10 March 1898. She was attached to the North Atlantic Squadron and operated along the Atlantic Coast from New England to Norfolk protecting the Nation's seaboard cities from possible attack. After decisive American naval victories at Manila Bay and Santiago Harbor eliminated this threat, the ram decommissioned for the last time at Philadelphia Navy Yard 8 October. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 9 July 1909 and designated "Ballistic Experimental Target 'A'". Katahdin was sunk by gunfire at Rappahannock Spit, Virginia[?], that September.

See USS Katahdin[?] for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.