Albemarle's gun port doors

corn-fed-erate

Corporal
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Location
Tar/Roanoke River, NC
In the Battle of the Albemarle Sound or Battle of Batchelor ' s Bay the Albemarle lost 5 of the 6 gun port doors. These doors approx 6' h by 3'w. Where these iron clad wooden doors or are there 6' x 3' single pieces of iron laying out the to be found? Also, the piece of the aft Brooke that was broken off during the battle, where is it and was that gun replaced...with what?
 
In the Battle of the Albemarle Sound or Battle of Batchelor ' s Bay the Albemarle lost 5 of the 6 gun port doors. These doors approx 6' h by 3'w. Where these iron clad wooden doors or are there 6' x 3' single pieces of iron laying out the to be found? Also, the piece of the aft Brooke that was broken off during the battle, where is it and was that gun replaced...with what?
Sorry Jimmy, I don't know the answers, but I'm sure someone here will !
 
In the Battle of the Albemarle Sound or Battle of Batchelor ' s Bay the Albemarle lost 5 of the 6 gun port doors. These doors approx 6' h by 3'w. Where these iron clad wooden doors or are there 6' x 3' single pieces of iron laying out the to be found? Also, the piece of the aft Brooke that was broken off during the battle, where is it and was that gun replaced...with what?
I don't know about Albemarle's, but a careful search for a photo of a gunport cover produced only one that could answer the question. In Silverstone's Warships of the Civil War Navies, there is a photo of the Tennessee in the James River that clearly shows the covers being iron over wood.
 
In the Battle of the Albemarle Sound or Battle of Batchelor ' s Bay the Albemarle lost 5 of the 6 gun port doors. These doors approx 6' h by 3'w. Where these iron clad wooden doors or are there 6' x 3' single pieces of iron laying out the to be found? Also, the piece of the aft Brooke that was broken off during the battle, where is it and was that gun replaced...with what?
Here's two enhanced close-ups of the Albemarle's gun port shutters.
Albemarle shutters 3.jpg
Albemarle shutters 2.jpg
 
The photo on the left shows the bow gun port minus its shutter. (There is what appears to be a wooden ramp running up to it. It is too small to be the shutter.)The one on the right shows what appears to be two shutters. Using the 7 inch iron plates for comparison, the shutters appear to be maybe 4-5 inches thick at the most. How heavy would that be if they were solid iron and 4 inches thick? Are there any records of the shutters being rolled at Tredegar?
 
The photo on the left shows the bow gun port minus its shutter. (There is what appears to be a wooden ramp running up to it. It is too small to be the shutter.)The one on the right shows what appears to be two shutters. Using the 7 inch iron plates for comparison, the shutters appear to be maybe 4-5 inches thick at the most. How heavy would that be if they were solid iron and 4 inches thick? Are there any records of the shutters being rolled at Tredegar?
I've been through the Tredager books (Library of Virginia) and I noted nothing related to Albemarle. There are many references to iron sold, giving SOME dimensions -- 4x1" x#, but no length. So I cannot make a reasonable guess on the weight of the doors. The closest I can find is: 33" diameter single plate RR car wheels, 530# each. I don't know how thick the wheels were, but you might try 3" and see what you come up with.
 
Hi Dave. Are we talking about castings or forged iron? In the case of strap rail 2 1/2" wide and 1" thick it ran about 10 lbs per linear foot. I think you can make an estimate from this provided you guess correctly on the size and area of the port covers.
 
My reason for asking was to get an approximate weight. How heavy would be too heavy to lift easily during a battle? I suspect solid iron might be too heavy.
Well if the doors were 3' wide (36") and 6'tall (72"), that area would be more or less covered by 2 of the 33"diameter RR wheels. At 530# each, the iron on the shutter would be in the neighborhood of 1300#.
 
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