High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The second USS Amphitrite—the lead ship in her class of iron-hulled, twin-screw monitors—was laid down in 1874 at Wilmington, Delaware, by the Harlan and Hollingsworth yard; launched on 7 June 1883; sponsored by Miss Nellie Benson, the daughter of a Harlan and Hollingsworth official; and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 23 April 1895, Captain William C. Wise in command. Rapid changes in naval technology and doctrine during the two decades she was under construction had repeatedly delayed her progress, and she was redesigned twice while still under construction.