Confederate Navy Achievements

[Poorville]

The Laird Rams didn't go to the Condfederacy thanks in part to the sharp eye the US Embassy kept on British shipyards not the least of which were the Laird shipyards. The Japanese Navy bought the Laird Rams and used them for a number of years there is a Wiki article on them most likely others as well.
There is a technique in which countries buy arms even if there boycotted or under sanction called " third party transfer" and it was used at least several times by the Confedracy . The warship known as the "Stonewall Jackson" started life in a French shipyard and due to US diplomatic pressure it couldn't be sold to the Confederacy so it was sold to the Dutch who then somehow sold it to the Confederacy but by the time it got close to US waters the war ended so the captain went to Havana and then the US Counsel General purchased the ship from Spain.
The Alabama ,Florida and Shenendoah were technically not war ships but cargo ships and they were equipped with cannon if I remember right if the Azores far from the UK.
Leftyhunter

Hi lefty, thanks for sending me to Wiki, what would we do without her? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion-class_ironclad

I still can't find any reference to the Japanese Navy, perhaps there was another ship you're thinking of?

The Laird rams, HMS Scorpion (ex-North Carolina) and HMS Wivern (ex-Mississippi), both joined British Channel Fleet in 1865.
Scorpion went to Bermuda in 1869 as a guard ship and a plan to convert her to a harbour defence monitor with all-around fire was dropped 1878. She was fitted with searchlights and quick-firing guns in 1890 and was sunk as a target in 1901, raised in 1902, sold in 1903 but sank under tow to Boston.
Wivern burst one of her 9-inch guns in 1867, but none of the 13 people in the turret was injured. The ship became a guard ship at Hull early in 1870 and was then placed in reserve from 1870 until 1880. That year she was sent to Hong Kong where she became a harbour defence ship. She became a distilling ship in 1898 and was sold in 1922 for scrap.

Poorville

 

[rebelatsea]

The Laird Rams didn't go to the Condfederacy thanks in part to the sharp eye the US Embassy kept on British shipyards not the least of which were the Laird shipyards. The Japanese Navy bought the Laird Rams and used them for a number of years there is a Wiki article on them most likely others as well.
There is a technique in which countries buy arms even if there boycotted or under sanction called " third party transfer" and it was used at least several times by the Confedracy . The warship known as the "Stonewall Jackson" started life in a French shipyard and due to US diplomatic pressure it couldn't be sold to the Confederacy so it was sold to the Dutch who then somehow sold it to the Confederacy but by the time it got close to US waters the war ended so the captain went to Havana and then the US Counsel General purchased the ship from Spain.
The Alabama ,Florida and Shenendoah were technically not war ships but cargo ships and they were equipped with cannon if I remember right if the Azores far from the UK.
Leftyhunter

The "Laird rams" were taken by the Admiralty and commissioned into the Royal Navy. CSS Stonewall and her sister were consruvtede by L'arman at Bordeuax in France. Stonewall was sold to the Japanese Shoganate Fleet at the War's end as Azuma. Her sister to Prussia as Prinz Adelbert.

 

[leftyhunter]

Hi lefty, thanks for sending me to Wiki, what would we do without her? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion-class_ironclad

I still can't find any reference to the Japanese Navy, perhaps there was another ship you're thinking of?

The Laird rams, HMS Scorpion (ex-North Carolina) and HMS Wivern (ex-Mississippi), both joined British Channel Fleet in 1865.
Scorpion went to Bermuda in 1869 as a guard ship and a plan to convert her to a harbour defence monitor with all-around fire was dropped 1878. She was fitted with searchlights and quick-firing guns in 1890 and was sunk as a target in 1901, raised in 1902, sold in 1903 but sank under tow to Boston.
Wivern burst one of her 9-inch guns in 1867, but none of the 13 people in the turret was injured. The ship became a guard ship at Hull early in 1870 and was then placed in reserve from 1870 until 1880. That year she was sent to Hong Kong where she became a harbour defence ship. She became a distilling ship in 1898 and was sold in 1922 for scrap.

Poorville

So yes I did confuse the Laird Rams with the Stonewall as @rebelatsea has indicated.
Leftyhunter

 

[leftyhunter]

The Confederate Navy had some great accomplishments like the Hunley Submarine that was entirely man powered, CSS Virginia an ironclad, and getting weopons and supplies through the blockade. But I would like to discuss these and hear about other achievments.

One great accomplishment the CSN didn't make is they didn't fully intergrate their Navy. The Union Navy was approximately twenty five percent African American including per an article from @andy Hall one of Jefferson Davis's own sons.
Leftyhunter

 

[wausaubob]

They were brilliant innovators. But the US could build 580,000 tons of ships, boats and barges, per year, by 1854.

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/preliminary-report/1860e-06.pdf?# p.107

 

[wausaubob]

Live shipping inventory of the US in 1860 was about 5.5 Million tons. Losses to casualty usually exceeded 100,000 tons per year.

 

[wausaubob]

Its hard to find any evidence that the Confederate navy produced results that hurt the US operations on the Atlantic or the Mississippi. Their mines and harbor obstructions accomplished much more and held some ports open for 3 years.

 

[wausaubob]

I think the main US shipping route, from NYC to Panama, and from Panama, to SF, remained open for the entire war. There is not much evidence that Confederate raiders interfered with grain shipments from the US to Britain.

 

[leftyhunter]

I think the main US shipping route, from NYC to Panama, and from Panama, to SF, remained open for the entire war. There is not much evidence that Confederate raiders interfered with grain shipments from the US to Britain.

Possibly because it may have been British or foreign flagged vessels that were shipping the grain.
Leftyhunter

 

[leftyhunter]

They were brilliant innovators. But the US could build 580,000 tons of ships, boats and barges, per year, by 1854.
View attachment 369929
https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1860/preliminary-report/1860e-06.pdf?# p.107

Also @Dixie Boy ,
So far no evidence has been presented that Confedrate Naval Technology was just so cutting edge that it made all that much of a difference.
Yes the Confedracy had what became refered to after the ACW has naval mines but I have an older thread which other posters contributed pictures of Union Minesweepers.
As mentioned the Huntley didn't really work out so great has it twice killed off its crew. There is a reason why other nations didn't immediately use submersible craft( arguably the first true submarines weren't introduced until the 1950s in terms of being able to operate completely under water for their entire tour of duty) until decades after the ACW circa 1907.
Not sure of any naval war was won by innovation vs bigger is better. Not saying there are no such examples just that they don't come to mind.
Leftyhunter

 

[wausaubob]

The Alabama is reported as having taken 65 prizes. Not all of those vessels were destroyed. Some were bonded and released. But even each prize was rated at 1,000 tons, that is only 65,000 tons. Its not a large % of the US water borne fleet.
US vessels in the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean were not a large part of the US economy. The bulk of ship and steamboat vessels were engaged in Atlantic coastal shipping, shipping on the internal rivers, conducting ferries across those rivers, moving freight on canals and shipping on the Great Lakes in the summer and fall.
The biggest trading partners for the US were Britain and British North America. The Confederates were not successful in disturbing trade with Canada and trade with Britain, as noted above, did not require US flagged vessels.

 

[wausaubob]

The biggest problem for the US navy was the exceptionally accurate artillery at Port Hudson, and the numerous forts and batteries lining the harbor at Charleston. The forts that were well built and well manned were very difficult to capture.

 

[Lubliner]

Instead of such a defensive posture by guarding southern harbors and cities from capture, I can't think of any instances where transport of troops and supply efforts by confederate fleets helped maintain morale and boost it's own strength. Can anyone cite references or place times when these two strategies were a boon to the south?
Lubliner.

 

[leftyhunter]

I have read that after Grant was defeated he crossed the James River with a pooton bridge that was the then largest potoon bridge in the world three times larger then any previous potoon bridge and carrying more soldiers and baggage wagons then any other previous potoon bridge crossing. Yet neither the Confedrate or Union Navy had Iornclads nearby to protect or destroy the potoon bridge. The best innovation any Navy can have is to be at the right place at the right time with the right equipment. Cleverness only goes so far.
Leftyhunter

 

[AndyHall]

Actually, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the Hunley was the H.L.Hunley not the C.S.S. Hunley. I don't think it was a Navy vessel.

That is correct. The formal Confederate Navy wanted nothing to do with it. Both HUNLEY and the Davids at Charleston were under direct control of the Army and General Beauregard, although the CSN did allow both officers and enlisted personnel to be detached for service in them.

 

[AndyHall]

No, no snark there. Nope, none at all. . . .

 

[uaskme]

U S didn't do a very good job protecting its Merchant Fleet? Ships that didn't rot at the docks were auctioned off. Curious that the Brits bought most of them and took over Yankee Shipping. Also Curious the Brits sold the Raiders to the Confederacy and manned them.

Negros were in the US Navy. Good indication those jobs were ones that Whites didn't Want.

 

[GwilymT]

Two pages, no significant confederate achievements.

 

[GwilymT]

U S didn't do a very good job protecting its Merchant Fleet? Ships that didn't rot at the docks were auctioned off. Curious that the Brits bought most of them and took over Yankee Shipping. Also Curious the Brits sold the Raiders to the Confederacy and manned them.

Negros were in the US Navy. Good indication those jobs were ones that Whites didn't Want.

Quite similar to cook, or drover, or several of the other jobs done by slaves for the CSA, yet they are to be remembered as "Black Confederates"? One of the oft told tales of "black confederates" involves a slave who is pressed into service by the confederate navy. Perhaps he was doing jobs white confederates didn't want (more likely couldn't) do. It always amazes my how some confederate apologists cannot help but view everything through rebel tinted glasses with a healthy dash of racism.

 

[Stone in the wall]

Not sure about the Huntley being a great achievement. It sank twice both times killing it's crew. Yes it sank a warship but loosing a whole ship even a small craft is not really something to brag about.
There is a reason that navies didn't use submersible craft until the early 1900s and that is because it didn't make sense to do as they were not safe to operate.
Leftyhunter

Even after all that, it's achievement is credited as the first submarine to sink a ship. After 150 plus years do we really even know why she sank? In 1775-1776 the underdog Americans had the same idea and built the Turtle.