USS Casco (1864)

USS Casco on the James River, Virginia, 1865, while serving as a spar torpedo vessel. Note the torpedo gear mounted on her bow and the 11-inch (279 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore gun pivot-mounted on deck.
History
United States
NameCasco
OrderedApril 1863
BuilderAtlantic Works, Boston
Cost$500,000
LaunchedMay 1864
Commissioned4 December 1864
Decommissioned10 June 1865
RenamedHero
RefitTo spar torpedo vessel, June 1864
FateBroken up, April 1875
General characteristics
Class & typeCasco-class light draft monitor
Displacement1,175
Length225 ft (69 m)
Beam45 ft (14 m)
Draft9 ft (2.7 m)
PropulsionSteam engine, twin screws
Speed9 knots (17 km/h)
Complement69 officers and enlisted
Armament1 × 11-inch (280 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore cannon, 1 x spar torpedo
Armor
  • Turret 8-inch (200 mm)
  • pilothouse 10-inch (250 mm)
  • hull and deck 3-inch (76 mm)

The first USS Casco was the first of a class of twenty 1,175-ton light-draft monitors built by Atlantic Works, Boston, Massachusetts for the Union Navy during the American Civil War.