The first USS Cumberland was a 50-gun sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first ship sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia.
USS Cumberland
Cumberland holding a grand ball in the harbor of La Spezia, Kingdom of Sardinia, 1853
Depiction of Cumberland after her conversion from a frigate to a sloop of war.
CSS Virginia ramming and sinking Cumberland, 1862.
CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the razéed original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack. Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's USS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.
CSS Virginia. The image is captioned Merrimac; see below.
Display showing 4 inches (102 mm) of iron armor backed by 24 inches (610 mm) of wood
Merrimack is rebuilt into Virginia
Chromolithograph depicting the Battle of Hampton Roads