The ship was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, in 1854, and built in part of materials salvaged from the previous USS Franklin. For a time housed over, she was launched on 17 September 1864, commissioned on 3 June 1867 at Boston, Massachusetts, and on 28 June 1867 sailed from New York City as flagship of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, who assumed command of the European Squadron. Relieved by USS Ticonderoga, she arrived back in New York on 10 November 1868.