International sales of casemate ironclads post-war?

sawpatin

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Aug 12, 2019
I'd be curious to know how many of the ACW casemate ironclads, Confederate or Union, ended up seeing service outside the US after the war. The CSS Stonewall (later Japanese Kotetsu) is the closest example I can find. Nothing about the likes of the Pook turtles or similar vessels being sold abroad. Does anyone know of any examples?
 
USS Dunderberg

From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS, Vol. II, p. 305.

Dunderberg
A Swedish word meaning "thunder(ing) mountain."

Dunderberg, an ironclad screw frigate of 16 guns, was built by W. H. Webb, New York, N.Y., and was launched on 2 March 1865. She was never commissioned, and in 1867, in accordance with the Navy's policy to reduce its number of vessels, was returne d to her builder. She was sold by Webb to the French in whose navy she rendered notable service under the name Rochambeau.



Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
...also USS Atlanta...

Iron-clad Ram:
  • Built as an iron-hulled, schooner-rigged, screw steamer at Glasgow, Scotland, by James and George Thompson in the Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard
  • Completed as SS Fingal early in 1861, employed by Hutcheson's West Highland Service between Glasgow and other Scottish ports
  • Purchased by James D. Bulloch in September 1861 as for service as Confederate blockade runner
  • SS Fingal successfully ran the blockade at Savannah, GA., 12 November 1862
  • Taken into the Confederate Navy at Savannah and converted to an Iron-clad Ram in 1862
  • Converted for naval service by Asa & Nasa Tift, Savannah, GA. cutting her down to the waterline and adding an armored deck which projected 6' beyond the hull with a casemate on top
  • Surrendered to USS Weehawken, 17 June 1863, at Wassaw Sound, GA. after attempting to run the Union blockade at Savannah, GA.
  • Placed in temporary commission as USS Atlanta, 26 September 1863, at Port Royal S.C. after repairs
  • Decommissioned and condemned by the prize court at Philadelphia
  • Repaired at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
  • Re-commissioned USS Atlanta, 2 February 1864, Act. LT. Thomas J. Woodward in command
  • Atlanta was assigned to the James River Flotilla of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
  • Decommissioned, 21 June 1865, and placed in reserve
  • Sold at auction, 4 May 1869, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard to Sam Ward for $25,000
  • Subsequently delivered to representatives of Haiti, 8 December 1869, by Sydney Oaksmith, a lawyer who had received an advance of $50,000 on her purchase price of $260,000
  • The ship was briefly seized by the Customs Service, possibly for violations of neutrality laws as she had just loaded four large guns and a number of recruits for the forces of Sylvain Salnave, President of Haiti, who was embroiled in a civil war
  • Atlanta was released and sailed for Port-au-Prince three days later
  • The ship broke down in Delaware Bay and had to put in at Chester, PA. for repairs
  • Now renamed Triumfo she departed Chester, 18 December 1869
  • Final Disposition, vanished en route to Haiti, apparently sinking with the loss of all hands, either off Cape Hatteras or the Delaware Capes.
www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86291.htm

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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The Pook Turtles, along with nearly all of the Mississippi Squadron except most of the monitors, were sold at auction soon after the war, and many went into some sort of civilian service. For example.... as Clive Cussler relates in The Sea Hunters, the Carondelet ended her days as a wharfboat at Gallipolis, Ohio, until a storm broke her away from her moorings and washed the wreck some miles downstream.

Many of the "tinclads," which weren't altered that much when they were made into gunboats, simply returned to the cargo and packet trade.
 
Other vessels like Stonewall that went into foreign service include CSS North Carolina I, CSS Georgia, CSS Mississippi II, CSS Texas, CSS Cheops, and 'Ironclad Frigate No. 61'

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Other vessels like Stonewall that went into foreign service include CSS North Carolina I, CSS Georgia, CSS Mississippi II, CSS Texas, CSS Cheops, and 'Ironclad Frigate No. 61'

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
None of those were casemate ironclads. Two were the Laird rams, two were wooden cruisers, "Cheops" was Stonewalls sister, and The last one was "Norths Ironclad" which as a broadside ship became Danmark. Of the captured and surrendered CSN ironclads ,the only one sold abroad was Atlanta.
 
Funny stories of the ships.
Norths Ironclad was build for the CSA navy, but never entered CSA service and was sold to Denmark before the civil war ended. Doing just one cruise as "Danmark"

Sphynx was also build for the CSA navy, but then tested under danish colors as "Stærkodder"... before being refused and then it did end up in the CSA navy as CSS Stonewall.
And then ended in Japan as Kōtetsu

One day I really should write something about Denmarks involvement in the civil war.
The mentioned ships, the federal interest in buying the danish vest-indies (As did happen in 1917)
The Danish blockade in 1864 of north German ports and to what extent ships (with immigrants) going to the US was not stopped.
 
The Pook Turtles, along with nearly all of the Mississippi Squadron except most of the monitors, were sold at auction soon after the war, and many went into some sort of civilian service. For example.... as Clive Cussler relates in The Sea Hunters, the Carondelet ended her days as a wharfboat at Gallipolis, Ohio, until a storm broke her away from her moorings and washed the wreck some miles downstream.

Interesting, did they strip the armour off for civilian use? Any other significant alterations? I imagine it would depend on what civvy job the vessel ended up in, but I'd still be interested to hear any examples of how they were repurposed.
 
Interesting, did they strip the armour off for civilian use? Any other significant alterations? I imagine it would depend on what civvy job the vessel ended up in, but I'd still be interested to hear any examples of how they were repurposed.

Oh yes, the armor, armament, and all other fittings of that nature were removed prior to auction.
 
Recall that the casemate type iron-clad, while swiftly superseded, influenced the replacement of sea-going broadside ironclads like HMS Warrior with the central battery ironclad. Such ships would be used by the Royal Navy and that of Austria-Hungary among others.

British shipyards began to build such ships by 1865, and in 1875 the Chilean navy obtained the Almirante Cochrane and the Blanco Encalada from the UK/ Edward Reed. During the War of the Pacific over control of the nitrate trade, Peru had two ex-U.S.N. monitors, the Manco Capac and the Atahualpa as well as the sea-going turret warship Huáscar and iron-clad frigate Independencia.
 
Funny stories of the ships.
Norths Ironclad was build for the CSA navy, but never entered CSA service and was sold to Denmark before the civil war ended. Doing just one cruise as "Danmark"

Sphynx was also build for the CSA navy, but then tested under danish colors as "Stærkodder"... before being refused and then it did end up in the CSA navy as CSS Stonewall.
And then ended in Japan as Kōtetsu

One day I really should write something about Denmarks involvement in the civil war.
The mentioned ships, the federal interest in buying the danish vest-indies (As did happen in 1917)
The Danish blockade in 1864 of north German ports and to what extent ships (with immigrants) going to the US was not stopped.
Danmark really was a disaster, as redesigned as a broadside ship it wasn't what the CSN wanted or needed, and It was of limited use in the shallow Baltic waters. I don't really think Staerkodder was what the Danish navy needed either. The Japanese arguably got the best uses out of her.
Cheops, sister ship of Sphinx/Stonewall/Kotetsu, ended up as the Prussian Prinz Adalbert.
The Prussian Navy bought a lemon, unlike her sister, Prinz Adalbert's hull rotted very quickly.
 
Recall that the casemate type iron-clad, while swiftly superseded, influenced the replacement of sea-going broadside ironclads like HMS Warrior with the central battery ironclad. Such ships would be used by the Royal Navy and that of Austria-Hungary among others.

British shipyards began to build such ships by 1865, and in 1875 the Chilean navy obtained the Almirante Cochrane and the Blanco Encalada from the UK/ Edward Reed. During the War of the Pacific over control of the nitrate trade, Peru had two ex-U.S.N. monitors, the Manco Capac and the Atahualpa as well as the sea-going turret warship Huáscar and iron-clad frigate Independencia.
Recall that the casemate type iron-clad, while swiftly superseded, influenced the replacement of sea-going broadside ironclads like HMS Warrior with the central battery ironclad. Such ships would be used by the Royal Navy and that of Austria-Hungary among others.

British shipyards began to build such ships by 1865, and in 1875 the Chilean navy obtained the Almirante Cochrane and the Blanco Encalada from the UK/ Edward Reed. During the War of the Pacific over control of the nitrate trade, Peru had two ex-U.S.N. monitors, the Manco Capac and the Atahualpa as well as the sea-going turret warship Huáscar and iron-clad frigate Independencia.
The central battery ironclad grew out of the development of bigger and bigger guns needing thicker armour which could only be applied to limited areas of the ships hull. If anything the shape of the CSN casemate can be seen in the internal armour schemes of much latter BBs.
 
Recall that the casemate type iron-clad, while swiftly superseded, influenced the replacement of sea-going broadside ironclads like HMS Warrior with the central battery ironclad. Such ships would be used by the Royal Navy and that of Austria-Hungary among others.

Doubt that. It was just a logical process of increasing ship's protection against the first true armor-piercing guns (like Armstrong RML's and French rifled breech-loaders). Since it was realized that the number of guns in ironclad battle is much less important than the power of individual gun, there were no need to have large battery anymore. Weight could be saved & armor protection increased.
 
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