USS Alarm
USS Alarm was one of two steam-powered torpedo rams (along with USS Intrepid) that were ordered at the behest of Admiral David D. Porter in 1871. Porter, the influential seniormost officer in the U.S. Navy at the time, had been impressed by the potential of the spar torpedo during the American Civil War, and felt that this weapon could play a critical role in harbor and coastal defence as something capable of sinking a monitor, a powerful type of vessel that had nonetheless proven vulnerable below the waterline.
Admiral Porter is said to have taken direct responsibility for the design of Alarm, although detailed design work was done by Isaiah Hanscom, Chief of the Bureau of Construction. She was laid down in 1873 at the New York Navy Yard; was launched on 13 November 1873; and was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 2 November 1874. The most notable characteristic of the design was its 24-foot-long ram bow, which extended like the toe of a shoe from the front of an otherwise conventional-looking ship.
Admiral Porter is said to have taken direct responsibility for the design of Alarm, although detailed design work was done by Isaiah Hanscom, Chief of the Bureau of Construction. She was laid down in 1873 at the New York Navy Yard; was launched on 13 November 1873; and was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 2 November 1874. The most notable characteristic of the design was its 24-foot-long ram bow, which extended like the toe of a shoe from the front of an otherwise conventional-looking ship.
