Lisa Murphy
Corporal
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2019
- Location
- Washington State
Anthracite coal (the good stuff!)
USS Susquehanna image from Wikipedia
I'm looking for a little expert advice on how much coal the Blockader USS Susquehanna was able to carry. According to Wikipedia she was 2,450 long tons. I know that the HMS Warrior (a British 40-gun steam-powered armored frigate, 1860) weighed 9,137 long tons and could carry 850 tons of coal. Using this a rough proportional gauge, I calculate that the USS Susquehanna could have reasonably carried about 220 tons. Does this sound about right to you folks? Does anyone know the actual number of tons she could carry?
There is a marvelous chapter, (Ch 9 "Coaling the Gunboats" ) in the book From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil War by Robert M. Browning in which he says:
"By November 1862, the average consumption was 1,200 tons a month and each vessel took an average of 140 tons each time she went to Beaufort." [Beaufort being one of the coaling stations.]
So this implies a lot less than I calculate.