As promised the USS Colorado continues:
The Bell
On the 19th of January 1905 when the Colorado began her first day as a fully commissioned United States Naval Ship, she carried mounted to her bridge a 49-year old bell that was first cast at the Washington Navy Yard in 1856. The ship’s bell in which Captain Duncan Kennedy now commanded was first mounted on the forecastle of the first USS Colorado in 1856. This was a wooded screw steamer built at the Norfolk Navy Yard and first launched on the 19th of June 1856 under the command of Captain W. H. Gardner.
This bell mounted to the forecastle of the first Colorado saw action against several Confederate steamers during the Civil War. She captured at least one Confederate ship, took part in blockades and the bombardment and capture of Fort Fisher in 1865. After the Civil War the Colorado sailed European waters and Mediterranean and Adriatic waters and later in the 1870’s sailed to the Orient and Korean waters. The sound of the ships bell rang on June 1st 1871 when she was attacked by a Korean shore battery. It was 9 days later when again the sound of the bell rang when she launched a punitive expedition on the fort that had fired on then. The men from the Colorado inflicted heavy causalities on the Koreans that day.
The bell finished out it days on the first Colorado serving as the receiving ship at the New York Navy Yard and then was stored away when she was scrapped out on 14 February 1885.
It was not until the 10th of December 1896 before the Colorado’s bell again was heard upon the ocean water. Now attached to the bridge of the Monitor USS Puritan she again saw action this time against the Spanish Fleet during the blockage in April 1898 of Cuba. And this bell also sounded General Quarters with Admiral W. T. Sampson during the bombardment of Santiago in May of 1898. After the Spanish-American War the Puritan was relegated to training duties for the U. S. Naval Academy from 1899-1902 and then served as the receiving ship at League Island.
As the Armored Cruiser Colorado was about to be commissioned in January of 1905 her builder William Cramp & Sons found that no provisions were made for a ships bell. And so they requisitioned the first Colorado’s bell from the Puritan, for such a time only as would be required to obtain a permanent bell for her. So as she was commissioned on the 19th of January the Armored Cruiser USS Colorado was piped into commission with the 49-year old bell of the first Colorado attached to her Bridge. This was a much better life for the old bell than setting on a shelf in the Navy Archives. And so at the sound of the old bell now mounted to the new cruiser, a thousand now silent stories of long ago watches could be heard in her chimes.
Credit Joe Hartwell
Cheers
Sean
