| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Katahdin |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine |
| Launched: | 4 February 1893 |
| Commissioned: | 20 February 1896 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 October 1898 |
| Struck: | 9 July 1909 |
| Fate: | Sunk as target, September 1909 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ironclad ram |
| Displacement: | 2,155 long tons (2,190 t) |
| Length: | 250 ft 9 in (76.43 m) |
| Beam: | 43 ft 5 in (13.23 m) |
| Draft: | 15 ft 1 in (4.60 m) |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 97 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 4 × 6-pounder rifled guns |
USS Katahdin, an ironclad harbor-defense ram of innovative design, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Mount Katahdin, a mountain peak in Maine.
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.
Her keel was laid down by the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine. She was launched on 4 February, 1893, sponsored by Miss Una Soley, daughter of James R. Soley, 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 departed New York Harbor 4 March 1897, the day of President 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 on 8 October.
Katahdin was stricken 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.