USS Dictator

History
United States
Name	Dictator
Builder	Delamater Iron Works, New York
Laid down	16 August 1862
Launched	26 December 1863
Commissioned	11 November 1864
Decommissioned	1 June 1877
Stricken	5 September 1865
Reinstated	20 July 1869
Fate	Sold for scrap, 27 September 1883
General characteristics
Type	Monitor
Displacement	4,438 long tons (4,509 t)
Length	312 ft (95.1 m)
Beam	50 ft (15.2 m)
Draft	20 ft 6 in (6.2 m)
Installed power	3,500 ihp (2,600 kW)
Propulsion	2 screws; vibrating-lever steam engine
Speed	10 knots (18.5 km/h; 11.5 mph)
Complement	174 officers and enlisted men
Armament	2 × 15 in (381 mm) Dahlgren smoothbores
Armor	Turret: 15 in (381 mm) Pilothouse: 12 in (305 mm) Hull: 6 in (152 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)

USS Dictator was a single-turreted ironclad monitor, designed for speed, and to sail on the open sea. Originally to be named Protector, the Navy Department preferred a more aggressive name, and she was renamed Dictator. Despite her being designed for speed, design problems limited her to a maximum of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She served in two different periods; from 1864 to 1865, serving with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and from 1869 to 1877, with the North Atlantic Fleet. After her final decommissioning in 1877, she was sold for scrap in 1883.