Return to Naval Historical
Center home page. Return to Online
Library listing
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Camanche (1865-1899)
USS Camanche, a 1335-ton Passaic class monitor,
was prefabricated at Jersey City, New Jersey. Her materials were
then sent around Cape Horn in the sailing ship Aquila to
San Francisco, California, where Aquila sank in November
1863. The monitor's parts were salvaged and assembled at San Francisco
and she went into commission in May 1865, just after the end of
the Civil War. For more than a year, until the arrival of the
larger twin-turret monitor Monadnock, Camanche was
the Navy's only ironclad warship on the Pacific coast, and she
was one of but two stationed there for nearly two and a half decades.
Camanche's career was a quiet one, with the ship generally
maintained in decommissioned status at the Mare Island Navy Yard,
in northern San Francisco Bay. She was the California Naval Militia's
training ship in 1896-97 and appears to have been reactivated
in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. USS Camanche
was sold in 1899, but photographic evidence indicates that she
remained in the San Francisco area for a few years after that.
This page features all our views related to USS Camanche.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 68679
USS Camanche (1865-1899)
Moored off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in 1889. The
city of Vallejo is in the background.
Photograph from the William H. Topley Collection. Courtesy of
Charles M. Loring, 1969.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 490 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 55251
USS Camanche (1865-1899)
Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in 1898.
Copied from the Journal of Naval Cadet Cyrus R. Miller, page
923.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 565 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 68512
USS Camanche (1865-1899)
In drydock at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, possibly
in about 1898.
Courtesy of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1969.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 490 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 44267
Passaic class monitor
Photographed after the Civil War.
This may be USS Camanche, moored off Vallejo, California,
circa the 1880s or 1890s.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 55198
USS Camanche (1865-1899)
Nearly ready for launching, at San Francisco, California, circa
14 November 1864.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 129KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
|
The following photographs show USS Camanche in the
background of pictures of other ships:
Photo #: NH 71244
Self-Propelled Derrick Barge
Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1890.
The monitor USS Camanche is in the right background.
Photograph from the William H. Topley Collection. Courtesy of
Charles M. Loring, 1970.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 475 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 71766
USS Monadnock (Monitor # 3)
Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, prior to her June
1898 departure for the Philippines.
The monitor USS Camanche is partially visible in the right
background.
Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, 1970.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 70502
USS Monadnock (Monitor # 3)
Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in June 1898, ready
for her voyage to the Philippines.
The old monitor USS Camanche is visible beyond Monadnock's
after gun turret.
Courtesy of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1970.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
|
Photo #: NH 57139
Albatross (U.S. Fish Commission Steamer, 1882)
In San Francisco Bay, California, with a steam launch alongside,
February 1902.
The old monitor Camanche, which had been sold by the Navy
in 1899, is in the right background.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 590 pixels |
|
In addition to the images presented above, the Mariners
Museum, at Newport News, Virginia, appears to hold other views
of USS Camanche, taken during her assembly at San Francisco,
California. The following list features these images:
The images listed below are NOT in
the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
Photo from the Robert L. Hague Collection at the Mariners
Museum, Newport News, Virginia:
Nearly bow-on view of Camanche being prepared for launching,
circa 14 November 1864. This photograph is taken from about the
same angle as Photo # NH 55198 (seen above), but has fewer people
on deck and shows less of the surrounding shipyard.
Photo from the Behrman Collection at the Mariners Museum,
Newport News, Virginia. Mariners Museum photo # PN-630:
Port bow view of Camanche alongside a pier, probably at
about the time she was commissioned in May 1865. The ship has
her boats aboard, but is still painted white or very light grey.
The photograph bears the inscription "Assembled in San Francisco.
Ready for Action. Monitor Comanche 1865"
Reproductions of these image should be available from the
Mariners Museum. Contact that institution directly concerning
details. Their address can be readily found through the use of
standard Internet browsers.
The images listed in this box are NOT
in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain
them using the procedures described in our page "How to
Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
|
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
Page made 23 October 2001