Bomb Brigs

[JohnDLittlefield]

Reading Symonds, Confederate Admiral and ran across a term that needs some explanation. Vesuvius (1846) and Stromboli (1846) are described as "bomb vessels" in the Mexican War. Other sources describe them as "bomb brigs."
Can someone shed some light on these terms with a little description, please?

 

[DaveBrt]

These were mortar vessels, most likely very much like those used in the CW. Bomb Brig bring up the Naval History of Vesuvius II of the Mexican War, "Vesuvius' 10-inch mortar shells dispersed the snipers."

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

The bomb vessel concept had been around for awhile. To give an idea of what they looked like, here's a model of the English HM Bomb Vessel Granado 1756:

http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Nelson_13.htm

 

[Talos]

Bomb vessels were traditionally fitted with a ketch rig that allowed greater arcs of fire for the mortars without interference from masts or stays. The US Navy bought four bomb vessels in 1806, two of them purpose-built bomb ketches, Etna and Vesuvius. Both were armed with a 13" mortar, ten 9-pounders, and a pair of carronades or howitzers. Neither of those or the purchased and converted merchantmen Spitfire or Vengeance were good sailors.



The bomb vessels you were talking about were three merchant vessels bought and outfitted as bombs for the Mexican-American War. Stromboli and Vesuvius were brigs and Etna was a coasting schooner.



Of the three, Etna's schematics and sail plan survive in the national archives and were reproduced by Chapelle in his "The History of the American Sailing Navy". She was originally a schooner, probably named Walcott, and was converted to a brig because the schooner rig conflicted with the placement of the gun. Rather than a mortar, they were fitted with a single 10" shell-firing Army Columbiad of 15,000 pounds on a pivoting, high-angle mount in the center of the brig. The gun (marked as a 10" mortar) is visible in Etna's schematics. A detailed drawing of the mount for the gun is reproduced in Spencer Tucker's "Arming the Fleet: U.S. Navy Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era".



None of the three vessels lasted long, all three were sold immediately after the war was over. I imagine they are pretty similar to the Civil War-era bombs the US Navy purchased, like the ones in use down in the Gulf with David Porter during the New Orleans and Mississippi campaigns.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

From the Naval History and Heritage Command website:

Stromboli

(Brig:- t. 180; Ibp. 80'; b. 22'8"; dph. 8'; a. 1 10" columbiad)

In 1846, the Navy purchased brig Howard at Boston to strenghen its forces for the Mexican War. Commissioned on 18 March 1847 as bomb brig Stromboli, the ship sailed for the Gulf of Mexico under the command of Comdr. William S. Walker.

Stromboli performed blockade duty in the Bay of Compeche, especially off the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River. t year.

More at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/s/stromboli.html

Vesuvius II (Bomb Brig)


(Bomb Brig:- t. 239; I. 97'0"; b. 26'0"; dph. l0'0"; dr. 9'8" (forward), 11'4" (aft); a. 1 10" mortar)

The second Vesuvius, a coastal cargoman built in 1845 at Williamsburg, N.Y., as Saint Mary, was acquired by the Navy at New York in 1846 for use with the blockading squadrons in the Gulf of Mexico. Records of the ship's service are sketchy at best, especially for her early service in the Navy. However, reports indicate that she apparently operated as Vesuvius, off Vera Cruz, although one source dates her renaming as occurring on 5 January 1847. In August of 1846, after many members of her crew contracted yellow fever while she was stationed off Vera Cruz, Vesuvius put into Bermuda en route north for recuperation.

More at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/v/vesuvius-ii.html

 

[Talos]

This is what a Model 1844 10" Columbiad like at least Etna and Stromboli carried (though Spencer Tucker claims it for all three instead of a mortar on Vesuvius). This particular one was rifled and banded, but you can still see the original breech diameter under the band.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50467989@N05/5069520668/

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Henry Walke was first lieutenant on the Vesuvius during the Mexican War. He had some sort of unspecified difficulty with the skipper, Commander George Magruder, and was transferred to the steam frigate Mississippi... (I've had the opportunity to see a hand-drawn chart of Laguna Bay, Mexico, sounded and surveyed by Walke while the Vesuvius was stationed there on blockade duty.)