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Originally named USS ''Manayuk'', after a town in Pennsylvania,〔Silverstone 1984, p. 460〕 USS ''Ajax'' was a single-turreted built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Completed after the end of the war, ''Ajax'' was laid up until 1871, although she received her new name in 1869. The ship was briefly activated in 1871 before a much longer commission began in 1874–75. She was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron during this time. ''Ajax'' was again placed in reserve in 1891. The ship was on militia duty when the Spanish–American War began and she was recommissioned in 1898 to defend Baltimore, Maryland, although she was decommissioned later in the year before the necessary refit could be completed. ''Ajax'' was sold for scrap in 1899. ==Description and construction== The ship was long overall,〔 had a beam of and had a maximum draft of . ''Ajax'' had a tonnage of 1,034 tons burthen and displaced .〔Silverstone 2006, p. 7〕 Her crew consisted of 100 officers and enlisted men.〔 ''Ajax'' was powered by a two-cylinder horizontal vibrating-lever steam engine〔 that drove one propeller using steam generated by two Stimers horizontal fire-tube boilers.〔Canney, p. 85〕 The engine gave the ship a top speed of . She carried of coal.〔Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 122〕 ''Ajax''s main armament consisted of two smoothbore, muzzle-loading, Dahlgren guns 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°.〔Olmstead, et al, p. 94〕 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 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 snipers based on a suggestion by Commander Tunis A. M. Craven, captain of her sister ship .〔West, pp. 15–16〕 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.〔Canney, p. 86〕 The contract for construction of ''Ajax'' was signed by Snowden & Mason on 15 September 1862,〔''Ajax''〕 and the keel of the ship was laid down later in the year in their new shipyard at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.〔Silverstone 2006, p. 6〕 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. She was ready to be launched in April 1864, but the very low level of the Ohio River rendered that impossible. She was finally launched on 18 December. While fitting out, Ajax was ripped loose from her moorings on 5 March 1865 and she had to be towed back to her berth. The following day she was towed to Mound City, Illinois where she arrived on 11 March. Snowden & Mason had to pay $7,000 for the tow as well as ship of material needed to finish the ship.〔Roberts, pp. 75–76, 80, 118–19, 140, 166–68〕 The monitor joined her sisters and 〔 in ordinary〔 opposite Cairo, Illinois〔 when she was completed on 27 September 1865,〔 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. This was a persistent problem and the Navy finally decided to move the ships down to New Orleans in May 1866.〔Roberts, p. 182〕 The ship was renamed ''Ajax'' on 15 June 1869.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Ajax (1864)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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