Gunboats On James

[JPK Huson 1863]

You can tell that as I'm sorting through allll the photos, which one has one bazillion files? I counted them, it's exactly one bazillion, the Civil War Navy file.

I can't remember if I've seen this posted here- it's a favorite though because I just think a few gunboats all together looks SO, so formidable, plus one of these appears to be using half sail? Not sure how that would work, adjusting sail and engine to maintain company? I can't stay on course or up with a d*m kayak myself, ( admittedly with a sail and jib the size of a Kleenex ) , no idea how these folks pulled any of this stuff off. And is that a double wheel on the steamer? The mainsail looks kind of saggy, maybe they were just taking the op to dry them while running?

If these are just distracting and idjit questions, feel free to ignore. For what it's worth, I genuinely, really would like to know, they just missed this stuff in our Kindergarten.

 

[Carronade]

The schooner appears to be a pure sailing craft, maybe a supply boat? Either raising or lowering sail. Note the angle of her anchor cable, clearly taking a strain. That would be caused by wind or current, but since the other presumably anchored ships are pointing in different directions, it would not appear to be current. My guess, she just came in and anchored, the wind swung her around, and her crew are furling sail.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Yeah, schooners were used by the dozens-- by both sides, really. They were frequently used as small supply ships by the Union, and as blockade runners by the Confederacy (the sexiness of the steam blockade runners overshadows the larger number of humble little schooners that were in the trade).

 

[AndyHall]

The derrick-y-looking davits on the monitor seem unusual. They look more like permanent fixtures, rather than something that could be unshipped and stowed quickly when action was anticipated.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Ah. Now see, I did not realize they were at anchor, gee whiz. I'm not used to picking out details yet, miss most details which I'm sure are obvious.

I'd just figured out that whole derrick thing, but on steamers, Mark having gone into it on another thread- would this have been the same kind of thing? I wouldn't ask except I've now paged through the d*m book and it's not there. Of course, it's a hugely frustrating book, the author for some reason ignoring the ACW almost entirely. There's ONE illustration the size of a mushed cockroach of the Monitor, and even a wooden, 1864 schooner has no reference to it. It's good for the nautical bits and pieces, though.

 

[Carronade]

Quite a bit of structure on the monitor's deck, does seem odd.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

The monitors did tend to accumulate a lot of stuff on their decks as time went on. Some of it doesn't look to me like it could have been struck below very quickly or easily; perhaps in a scrap, they'd have just basically written it off.