USS Wyandotte ( 1864 ) Originally named USS " Tippecanoe , after the river in Indiana , USS " Wyandotte was a single - turreted built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War . Completed after the end of the war , " Wyandotte " was laid up until 1876 , although she received her new name in 1869 . The ship was commissioned in 1876 and assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron for the next three years . She became a receiving ship in 1879 until she was placed in reserve again in 1885 . " Wyandotte " was on militia duty when the Spanish - American War began and she was recommissioned in 1898 to defend Boston , Massachusetts from any Spanish raiders . The ship was decommissioned after the end of the war and sold for scrap in 1899 . Description and construction . The ship was long overall , had a beam of and had a maximum draft of . " Wyandotte " had a tonnage of 1 , 034 tons burthen and displaced . Her crew consisted of 100 officers and enlisted men . " Wyandotte " was powered by a two - cylinder horizontal vibrating - lever steam engine that drove one propeller using steam generated by two Stimers horizontal fire - tube boiler s . The engine gave the ship a top speed of . She carried of coal . " Wyandotte " s main armament consisted of two smoothbore , muzzle - loading , Dahlgren gun s mounted in a single gun turret . Each gun weighed approximately . They could fire a shell up to a range of at an elevation of + 7° . The exposed sides of the hull were protected by five layers of wrought iron plates , backed by wood . The armor of the gun turret and the pilot house consisted of ten layers of one - inch plates . The ship ' s deck was protected by armor thick . A soft iron band was fitted around the base of the turret to prevent shells and fragments from jamming the turret as had happened to several of the older " Passaic " - class monitors during the First Battle of Charleston Harbor in April 1863 . The base of the funnel ( ship ) was protected to a height of by of armor . A " rifle screen " of armor high was installed on the top of the turret to protected the crew against Confederate sniper s based on a suggestion by Commander Tunis A . M . Craven , captain of her sister ship . The only known modification after the ship ' s completion was the addition of a hurricane deck between the turret and the funnel sometime after the end of the Civil War . The contract for " Wyandotte " , the only Navy ship to be named after the Wyandotte Indian Tribe , was awarded to Miles Greenwood ; the ship was laid down on 28 September 1862 at the shipyard of John Litherbury in Cincinnati , Ohio . She was launched on 22 December 1864 and completed on 15 February 1866 . The ship ' s construction was delayed by multiple changes ordered while she was being built that reflected battle experience with earlier monitors . This included the rebuilding of the turrets and pilot houses to increase their armor thickness from to 10 inches and to replace the bolts that secured their armor plates together with rivets to prevent them from being knocked loose by the shock of impact from shells striking the turret . Other changes included deepening the hull by to increase the ship ' s buoyancy , moving the position of the turret to balance the ship ' s trim and replacing all of the ship ' s deck armor . Completion of the ship was further delayed by the low depth of the Ohio River which prevented her movement from Cincinnati in December 1864 to finish their fitting out . The river finally rose in March 1865 which allowed the ship to reach New Albany , Indiana on 14 March . " Wyandotte " was moved to Evansville , Indiana in late May to complete her hull where rudimentary facilities and illness among her workers delayed her construction still further . The monitor joined her sisters , " Manayunk " , and in ordinary opposite Cairo , Illinois when she was completed on 15 February 1866 although they drew enough water that they had to be anchored in the main channel where they were often struck by debris , drifting ice , and were vulnerable to accidents . " Wyandotte " s anchor chain was broken on 27 March when she was struck by a steamboat towing barges and the ship collided with " Oneota " and the two ships were dragged downstream before they could be brought under control . This was a persistent problem and the Navy finally decided to move the ships down to New Orleans in May 1866 . In 1869 , she was twice renamed , first to " Vesuvius " on 15 June and then " Wyandotte " on 10 August . Service history . The monitor was moved to Key West , Florida in 1870 and then to the Philadelphia Navy Yard by 1872 . In 1873 – 74 , " Wyandotte " was thoroughly overhauled by John Roach & Sons in Chester , Pennsylvania and commissioned for the first time on 24 January 1876 , under the command of Lieutenant Thomas C . Terrell . The ship was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron through 1879 and spent her time on exercises and training cruises ; she was based at Hampton Roads , Virginia for a while . She served as the station ship at Washington , D . C . , beginning in 1879 , before she was again placed in reserve in 1885 , first at Richmond , Virginia and then at Norfolk , Virginia . " Wyandotte " was transferred to the Connecticut naval militia in 1896 , and she was recommissioned for local defense duties on 30 April 1898 during the Spanish - American War in response to political pressure . Commanded by Lt . John B . Milton , the ship sailed from New Haven , Connecticut on 17 May , to guard Boston and remained on there from 19 May to 5 September . " Wyandotte " sailed to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania after the end of the war and arrived there on 9 September . She was decommissioned on 20 September and sold for scrap on 17 January 1899 .