USS Cumberland (1842)

  Sierra Clone (27/64") EmbeddedNautical 3/8" Tube EmbeddedCustom Single Tube Embedded These single blank tubes are a custom label cast image of the USS Cumberland. The ends of the blank sections are a short piece of wood salvaged from the Cumberland. The first USS Cumberland was a 50-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy.[1] She was the first ship sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia. Cumberland began in the pages of a Congressional Act. Congress passed in 1816 "An act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United States." The act called for the U.S. to build several ships-of-the-line and several new frigates, of which Cumberland was to be one. Money issues, however, prevented Cumberland from being finished in a timely manner. It was not until Secretary of the Navy Abel Parker Upshur came to office that the ship was finished. A war scare with Britain led Upshur to order the completion of several wooden sailing ships and for the construction of new steam powered