The USS Keokuk was an experimental ironclad screw steamer built for the United States Navy during the Civil War, notable for being one of the first warships constructed entirely of iron. Laid down in New York City by designer Charles W. Whitney at J.S. Underhill Shipbuilders, she was initially named Moodna but was renamed Keokuk during construction. Launched in December 1862 and commissioned in March 1863 under Commander Alexander C. Rhind, she served a brief but significant role in the Union Navy. Constructed with a hull of five iron box keelsons and 100 iron frames, her design included no transverse wood timbers, differentiating her from earlier monitors. Her armor was a composite of 1-inch-thick iron bars, layered with overlapping iron plates and yellow pine, resulting in a total thickness of 5.75 inches. Her deck was composed of 5-inch wooden planks overlaid with a 1/2-inch iron plate. She featured two stationary, conical gun towers, each equipped with an 11-inch Dahlgren shell gun, mounted on a rounded wooden slide carriage. The armor and construction emphasized her experimental nature, with the hull designed to allow waterline adjustments via flooding spaces. Powered by two twin-cylinder main engines of 250 horsepower each, Keokuk also possessed a total of nine steam engines powering various systems. Her armament and construction made her a formidable, though experimental, addition to the Union fleet. Keokuk's service was marked by her participation in the operations against Charleston, South Carolina. She played a role in laying buoys for the attack and participated in the First Battle of Charleston Harbor in April 1863. During the battle, she was heavily damaged—struck by approximately ninety projectiles, many below the waterline—demonstrating the vulnerability of her thin armor. Despite her damage, she managed to withdraw under her own power but sank off Morris Island on April 8, 1863, after filling with water. Her wreck was deemed irrecoverable, but her two large Dahlgren guns were salvaged by Confederate forces and used for the remainder of the war, with one still displayed at White Point Garden in Charleston. The USS Keokuk remains historically significant as a pioneering ironclad, illustrating the transition from wooden ships to iron-armored vessels in naval warfare.

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