Nausett I (Monitor)
(Mon.: dp. 1,487; 1.225"; b. 45'; dr. 6'6"; s. 5 k.; cpl. 60; a. 2 XI-inch D. sb.; cl. Casco)
A misspelling, common until the 1870's, of Nauset, an inlet on the east coast of Cape Cod. The misspelling was perpetuated with the naming of later ships for the first Nausett.
I
The first Nausett, a light draft monitor, built by Donald McKay, South Boston, Massachusetts, was launched 26 April 1865, and commissioned 10 August 1865, Acting Master Win. U. Grozier in command.
Delayed by changes in design necessary to make her seaworthy, Nausett, intended for use in the rivers, bays, and shallow coastal waters of the Confederacy, was not completed in time to serve in the Civil War. Soon after her commissioning, she steamed to New York, where she decommissioned, 24 August 1865, and was laid up at the New York Navy Yard. She remained in ordinary at New York for 10 years, during which time she was renamed twice: Aetna, 15 June 1869; and Nausett, again, 10 August 1869. In August 1875, she was broken up by John Roach of New York.
