The USS New Hampshire was a large, 2,633-ton vessel originally conceived as a 74-gun ship of the line, based on the design of the ship Alabama. Laid down in June 1819 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, she was part of a group of nine ships authorized by Congress in 1816, coinciding with Alabama's admission to the Union. Although she was ready for launch by 1825, she remained on the stocks for nearly four decades as a cost-effective preservation measure, avoiding the expenses associated with manning and maintaining a ship of the line during peacetime. Launched on 23 April 1864 and renamed New Hampshire in October of that year, she was fitted out as a storeship and depot ship for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the American Civil War. She was commissioned on 13 May 1864 under Commodore Henry K. Thatcher. She departed Portsmouth in June 1864 and relieved her sister ship Vermont at Port Royal, South Carolina, serving there through the war’s end. After returning to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1866, she served as a receiving ship until 1876, before resuming duty at Port Royal, and later shifting to Newport, Rhode Island. Notably, she became the flagship of Commodore Stephen B. Luce’s Apprentice Training Squadron, marking the start of an effective naval training program. Her crew earned four Medal of Honor awards in 1882 for heroism in rescue efforts. In 1891, she was towed to New London, Connecticut, and served as a receiving ship until her decommissioning in 1892. During the Spanish-American War, she was loaned as a training ship for the New York Naval Militia. Renamed Granite State in 1904 to free the name "New Hampshire" for a new battleship, she continued training in the Hudson River until she caught fire and sank at her pier in May 1921. Her hull was salvaged in August 1922, but during towing, she caught fire again and sank off Massachusetts. Today, her wreck lies in 30 feet of water near Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site remains a notable maritime archaeological location, with artifacts still recoverable from the ship’s remains.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.