U.S.S. St. Clair

4th-MSM

Sergeant
Joined
Aug 4, 2012
USS-St.-Clair-31991.jpg


Link: http://ozarkscivilwar.org/photographs/2011/09/uss-st-clair/
 
Expired Image Removed

St. Clair was one of the first steamboats brought to Buffalo Bayou (Houston, Texas) after the war, along with Silver Cloud. She ran between Galveston and Houston until 1869 or thereabouts. I wrote this about her in my recent steamboat book:

The first new boat to arrive and enter the trade after the war was Arizona, which tied up to the Houston wharf on the first day of September 1865. She was followed a few months later by the packets Silver Cloud under the command of John Sterrett, and St. Clair, Captain Curtis Blakeman, both purchased by Sterrett and outfitted for the Buffalo Bayou trade. The local press offered glowing reports on the new boats, noting Sterrett’s “reputation for attention to passengers and for keeping the best table anywhere to be met with. . . . Under such favorable auspices,” the Galveston News concluded, “there cannot be a doubt that these new steamers will be liberally patronized and well supported by the public.”
Left unstated was that both St. Clair and Silver Cloud had been bought new by the U.S. Navy during the war and put into service as gunboats on the Mississippi. Their main decks were fitted with lightweight metal plating to provide some protection around the boilers and other machinery, but this was really only sufficient to protect against small arms fire. This flimsy armor earned boats like this the derisive nickname of “tinclads”— as opposed to properly armored, ironclad naval vessels—and they were used primarily for patrols along the river, trying to intercept the passage of men and materiel between Confederate-held territory on either side of the Mississippi.
The 203-ton sternwheeler St. Clair had been launched at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, in 1862 and was intended to run between Pitttsburgh and St. Louis. On her first visit to that latter port, however, she was bought by the Federal government and commissioned as Tinclad No. 19. St. Clair participated in several small engagements as part of the navy’s Mississippi Squadron, including the relief of Fort Donelson in January 1863, convoying supply transports in support of Union forces besieging Vicksburg in the spring and summer of that year, and the Red River campaign in 1864. . . .
Both Sterrett, who commanded Silver Cloud, and Blakeman, in St. Clair, had run steamboats for the Confederacy during the war, and seem to have kept mum about their new boats’ role in the “late unpleasantness,” presumably to avoid putting off potential customers. Their reticence on that subject seems to have worked, for the local press appears never to have mentioned their previous incarnation as Union gunboats. A few weeks after their arrival, the Galveston Weekly News commented on a series of northers that had caused several boats to become stranded. Silver Cloud and St. Clair had not, the paper noted, “and the reason doubtless is that they were constructed expressly for our trade.”
The image immediately above is from the Metropolitan History Center of the Houston Public Library. The image at the top, of St. Clair as Tinclad No. 19, is originally from the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, National Park Service.
 
Expired Image Removed

St. Clair was one of the first steamboats brought to Buffalo Bayou (Houston, Texas) after the war, along with Silver Cloud. She ran between Galveston and Houston until 1869 or thereabouts.I wrote this about her in my recent steamboat book:

The first new boat to arrive and enter the trade after the war was Arizona, which tied up to the Houston wharf on the first day of September 1865. She was followed a few months later by the packets Silver Cloud under the command of John Sterrett, and St. Clair, Captain Curtis Blakeman, both purchased by Sterrett and outfitted for the Buffalo Bayou trade. The local press offered glowing reports on the new boats, noting Sterrett’s “reputation for attention to passengers and for keeping the best table anywhere to be met with. . . . Under such favorable auspices,” the Galveston News concluded, “there cannot be a doubt that these new steamers will be liberally patronized and well supported by the public.”
Left unstated was that both St. Clair and Silver Cloud had been bought new by the U.S. Navy during the war and put into service as gunboats on the Mississippi. Their main decks were fitted with lightweight metal plating to provide some protection around the boilers and other machinery, but this was really only sufficient to protect against small arms fire. This flimsy armor earned boats like this the derisive nickname of “tinclads”— as opposed to properly armored, ironclad naval vessels—and they were used primarily for patrols along the river, trying to intercept the passage of men and materiel between Confederate-held territory on either side of the Mississippi.
The 203-ton sternwheeler St. Clair had been launched at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, in 1862 and was intended to run between Pitttsburgh and St. Louis. On her first visit to that latter port, however, she was bought by the Federal government and commissioned as Tinclad No. 19. St. Clair participated in several small engagements as part of the navy’s Mississippi Squadron, including the relief of Fort Donelson in January 1863, convoying supply transports in support of Union forces besieging Vicksburg in the spring and summer of that year, and the Red River campaign in 1864.
The image immediately above is from the Metropolitan History Center of the Houston Public Library. The image at the top, of St. Clair as Tinclad No. 19, is originally from the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, National Park Service.

Great info, thanks for posting it!
 
I wonder if that boiler box on the cotton bails is outbound or inbound cargo.
 
I wonder if that boiler box on the cotton bails is outbound or inbound cargo.
The bales would be outbound, but it seems unlikely that boiler would be being shipped out of Houston (and presumably to Galveston) -- going the other direction seems more likely. During that postwar period, the Buffalo Bayou boats derived substantial income carrying heavy cargo (e.g., rail) being used in the expansion of railroads across the state, and Houston was the primary rail hub in the state at that time -- the railroads went out from Houston like the spokes of a wheel.

That looks like a small locomotive boiler to me, but hard to say without a clearer image.
 
Funny you should ask, since I was interested in the sternwheel machinery & such.
jfu8mUa.jpg

Choo choo? ^

My first thoughts are 'how & where did they load that?' Bow cargo deck, lots of logs?

(on second thought, could have been waiting for a barge too)

(I once had a half-shed delivered in my driveway, 180 degrees out of phase to how I wanted it placed. Used scrap pipes and a tanker bar to lever it around and into place, by myself. Pharoh would have had me on his payroll)
 
I may have a better image of that from the book. I'll check later at the house. As far as I can determine, St. Clair was pretty typical of Western Rivers sternwheelers of that period.
 
Ok, that's completely awesome - easy to understand, without being dumbed-down to a pajama boy level.

For those also interested in western river paddleboats, there's the Arabia museum http://1856.com/
 
If I may suggest, a book that would help you immensely is the Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopedium, by Alan Bates. There are some used copies not too expensive on Amazon, and it is a book that was written specifically for model builders. Every page is a guide both to the way the boats themselves were built, as well as how to re-create it in the scale. I can't recommend that book enough, and I think you'll find it very useful.

Here is a friend inspecting an 1860s riverboat boiler in East Texas last month:

IMG_2300.JPG
 
If I may suggest, a book that would help you immensely is the Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopedium, by Alan Bates. There are some used copies not too expensive on Amazon, and it is a book that was written specifically for model builders. Every page is a guide both to the way the boats themselves were built, as well as how to re-create it in the scale. I can't recommend that book enough, and I think you'll find it very useful.

Here is a friend inspecting an 1860s riverboat boiler in East Texas last month:

View attachment 117168
It's just sitting out in the woods rusting?
 
It's just sitting out in the woods rusting?
It has been, but hopefully that will change soon. The inspection was part of planning for conserving and exhibiting it. The boiler itself appears to be in very good shape, all things considered.
 
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