'Gunboat' Only?

[Robert Gray]

I can't really look for this to see if it's been posted already, so if it has please excuse. The site said ' Gunboat on Jame River, 1864 ', but I'd have to think a photo this good of a gunboat is elsewhere, well identified?

View attachment 14706

A converted New York ferry boat, this is the U.S.S. Commodore Morris.

 

[redriver6]

Yup, looks like she has a bit of a gash there.

or it is not a gash but a 'split'...as the tide goes out the hull settles lower than the upper deck.....

 

[AndyHall]

Poking around the web, there are several folks who speculate that this vessel is Commodore Barney. I myself have no idea, but the more I look at this image, the more I'm struck by the irregular spacing of the windows -- that seems to be very unusual in these vessels, and may be useful for comparison against other, identified images.

 

[Jantzen]

Looks like a converted ferry, much like the Hunchback.

Actually, that may very well be Hunchback

Is that a monitor in the far background by the shore? If so, am I seeing three turrets? D#@$'d spectacles!

 

[AndyHall]

Is that a monitor in the far background by the shore? If so, am I seeing three turrets? D#@$'d spectacles!

I'll defer to others, but that looks to me like one double-turret monitor (Onondaga?) and (closer) a single-turret ship.

 

[Jantzen]

I'll defer to others, but that looks to me like one double-turret monitor (Onondaga?) and (closer) a single-turret ship.

View attachment 14739

Thanks, Andy for the close up. IIRC, the Onondaga was on the James River, but I didn't think there was a single turret in the squadron. Going to go look it up . . .

 

[Jantzen]

Thanks, Andy for the close up. IIRC, the Onondaga was on the James River, but I didn't think there was a single turret in the squadron. Going to go look it up . . .

Wiki (I know, I know) says that USS Mahopac was a Canonicus-class monitor that served along with Onondaga on the James.

 

[Jantzen]

Wiki (I know, I know) says that USS Mahopac was a Canonicus-class monitor that served along with Onondaga on the James.

Expired Image Removed

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

This is what I mean when I say ' trolling for information ', drop a photo in the water, gee whiz, have to re-read all the posts a few times to collect all the news properly. I was flattened, btw, to see the monitor on the far shore with her excort on the second photo, how cool was that?? Thanks for all of this, I can look at these old things for hours, not KNOW what on earth I'm looking at. Makes it hugely different knowing more.

This also does correct something ( a LOT ), a misapprehension I'd had on these converted ferries. Teach me to make assumptions, again. It simply never occured to me they were put into service as gunboats because they were GOOD at it, being relatively fast plus awfully maneuverable. They seemed to the amateur eye so big and clunky, maybe they'd just been pressed into service out of sheer need in the war, a vessel is a vessel, here's one! This pic gets more and more interesting ( to me ), the more you folks spot this stuff, too- the man just standing at the rails while clothing or something is drying tells you of the enforced inactivity. That's a very bored man, must have been nice to see a photographer set up camp huh?

So that's probably a gash? Would they ( whomever the theys would be ) have been somewhat frantically working on her inside there at the time kind of against the clock, to repair it? Maybe it's why she was purposefully aground in the first place, to fix that gash?

So this was posted at some point before? If so, please excuse, unintentional dual posting- clueless on how to look for it.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I almost forgot. Here's one I found which was mislabeled " Ferry Boat ", right? Someone please tell me this is indeed a converted ferry/gunboat, and probably a well known photo of USS Someone Bigwig.

I have some time free this morning to devote to sorting the mess out in my photos file, can you tell?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Expired Image Removed

Wiki (I know, I know) says that USS Mahopac was a Canonicus-class monitor that served along with Onondaga on the James.

Very likely. Saugus and Canonicus both served in Hampton Roads and up the James at times as well, but the light-colored band on the turret leads me to believe your ID of Mahopac is correct.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

I'll defer to others, but that looks to me like one double-turret monitor (Onondaga?) and (closer) a single-turret ship.

Winner winner chicken dinner! Unquestionably Onondaga. Monadnock was the only other twin-turret monitor to see active service in the East, and she didn't serve up the James.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Winner winner chicken dinner!

That's awesome. It must be ' Ohio ', I don't remember hearing it around PA and am rapidly becoming one of the longer-lived portion of the population.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Here's another photo I suspect has been more completely identified elsewhere. I have it listed for some reason only as " Boat Appomattox ", which is really incomplete. If anyone knows which ship this is, please say so?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Looks like a sidewheel ferry to me... can't quite make out if it's armed or not. It might have been taken on the Appomattox River, but that's a pure guess.

 

[Mike Serpa]

For Post #29

Gunboat "Commodore Perry", James River, VA (LOC)

 

[Mike Serpa]

For Post #1

U.S. gunboat Commodore Barney (LOC)

 

[Mike Serpa]

For Post #4

James River, Virginia. Gunboat COMMODORE PERRY and monitor on James River (LOC)