The Mariners’ Park Café / Open to the Public
Visit the Museum on Friday afternoon to enjoy lunch in the Mariners’ Park Café and stimulating Civil War discussion with renowned historian, John Quarstein. There is no charge to participate. Lunch will be available for purchase at the café!
USS Cumberland was completed in 1842. The frigate served during the Mexican War and on several cruises in the Mediterranean. Cumberland was razed into a sloop and after service suppressing the slave trade, the warship was assigned to the Gosport Navy Yard. The sloop of war survived the yard’s destruction in April 1861 only to be sunk by the powerful Confederate ram, CSS Virginia, on March 8, 1862, off Newport News Point.