Virginia I Coal Capacity

DaveBrt

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Location
Charlotte, NC
I have been finding shipments of coal headed for Portsmouth in the spring of '62. Has anyone got any info on the coal capacity of Virginia I? I'd like to put context to these shipments.
 
I don't have an answer to your question, but the subject of Virginia coal is treated in some detail in a book I am just finishing, Ironworker to the Confederacy by Charles Dew.

The operators of Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond had quite a problem insuring an adequate supply of coal and raw pig iron for cannon production, so they had to go out and buy coal pits and iron furnaces in an effort to smooth out the supply chain. The author of the book is a professor of history, so there are tons of footnotes and references on these subjects.

(Ooops. Guses I misunderstood the question. You are talking about the coal-carrying capacity of the naval vessel Virginia 1?)
 
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I have been finding shipments of coal headed for Portsmouth in the spring of '62. Has anyone got any info on the coal capacity of Virginia I? I'd like to put context to these shipments.

Hmm... interesting question. Related question, perhaps: would it have been more or less than in her Merrimack incarnation? (My gut tells me less, but I really don't know...) I have a few places I can look that may shed some light.
 
Hmm... interesting question. Related question, perhaps: would it have been more or less than in her Merrimack incarnation? (My gut tells me less, but I really don't know...) I have a few places I can look that may shed some light.

Off Topic, but you ever do a post on the Cheeney boats?
 
I have been finding shipments of coal headed for Portsmouth in the spring of '62. Has anyone got any info on the coal capacity of Virginia I? I'd like to put context to these shipments.

Sir - don't mean to highjack your thread but your question raised another for me. We have threads that go into great detail of the amount of arms left behind when the Union evacuated Gosport Navy Yard...how much steam coal was captured? Or were any stockpiles fired upon retreat?

Thanks,
USS ALASKA
 
I have been finding shipments of coal headed for Portsmouth in the spring of '62. Has anyone got any info on the coal capacity of Virginia I? I'd like to put context to these shipments.
In our library we have the book "Arming the Confederacy : How Virginia’s Minerals Forged the Rebel War Machine" by Robert C. Whisonant. It has a chapter on "Coal, Confederate Mines and the CSS Virginia". If you like I could scan that chapter for you (or any other one either). Here is the link to the table of content:
http://www.springer.com/de/book/9783319145075

And here is the first page of that chapter, so that you may decide if you like me to scan it. Just send me a PM.
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I will look in Carl Park's Ironclad Down this evening. It's very heavy on technical detail, and might have that information.
 
Sir - don't mean to highjack your thread but your question raised another for me. We have threads that go into great detail of the amount of arms left behind when the Union evacuated Gosport Navy Yard...how much steam coal was captured? Or were any stockpiles fired upon retreat?

Thanks,
USS ALASKA

Good question, possibly an answer to the Federal perplexity in FF's citation.
 
"When operating, the frigate's engines consumed 2,880 pounds of anthracite coal per hour, producing an actual top speed of six knots." The CSS Virginia - Sink before Surrender by John V. Quarstein

Not the answer but it's a start...

USS ALASKA
 
I have made a scan of the chapter called "Coal, Confederate Mines and the USS Virginia" from the brand new book "Arming the Confederacy" by Robert C. Whisonant now.
Should anybody be interested, I could send that scan. Just send me a PM with your email address, you will get a mail back with a link to the document server of our library and an invitation to download that document from there.
At your service :smile:
 
I've checked the chapter that FF has scanned and offered. It makes it clear that the mine was named Merrimac in the early 1900's when a new company bought the mines and was trying to drum up business. The book has no proof that the coal from this area made it to the Virginia, except for "strong local tradition."

The quantities of coal that I have records for would certainly not have been enough for Virginia and some of it is delivered to Franklin Depot, which is not near Gosport (the delivery point for the rest of the coal).
 
From 'Confederate Shipbuilding' by William N. Still

Can't get a line on bunker capacity on Merrimack or Virigina.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

Canney's The Old Steam Navy vol 1 describes 1854 frigate dimensions by Secretary Dobbin that includes 500 ton coal capacity. I can't see Merrimack and her sisters being massively dissimilar to that, nor it changing when the ship was refit into Virginia. He also mentions an average of burning 3,400 pounds of anthracite an hour over the period of 1856-1860. That's about 12 days of steaming if the capacity is 500 tons.
 
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