USS Miantonomoh (Monitor #5, later BM-5)
The iron-hulled, twin-screw, double-turreted Amphitrite-class monitor, USS Miantonomoh was built at Chester, Pennsylvania, and commissioned on October 6, 1882, though uncompleted. Transiting to the New York Navy Yard, she was decommissioned, completed, and recommissioned on October 27, 1891. For the next four years, she patrolled the east coast until decommissioned. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Miantonomoh was brought back into service and joined the blockading force in May, patrolling off the east coast and Cuba. Following the war, she was decommissioned in March 1899 and remained in the reserve fleet at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was loaned to the Maryland Naval Militia. She was recommissioned in April 1907 for the Jamestown Exposition and was decomissioned for the last time that December. Miantonomoh was then laid-up at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until December 21, 1915, and her hulk was finally sold in January 1922.
A model of Miantonomoh used to be on display in the Spanish-American War section at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy until 2022.
Image: Lot-3370-25: USS Miantonomoh, 1893. Photographed by J.S. Johnston. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
