View attachment 67335 The corrected Dismal and the CSS Georga. John, the dimensions I found for the Georgia is 250'X60'. Is that close to what your notes have. The model looks so much larger than the others it makes me wonder. But that is why we are doing them all in the same scale, so we can see the sizes in relation to each other.
Rhett--- to be sure, your question was directed at John but, give Jason a few(+-10) years and he may be able to help you out.
Aha, Jimmy ,you have fallen for another piece of "received wisdom" !
Name : CSS Macon
Class: Modified Nashville, Type: Ironclad sloop. 2 side-wheels. Speed: 8.3 knots calculated..
Dimensions: 250ft (OA), x 60ft (EX), x 10ft (D).
2,143 tons displacement
Guns: 8
Armour:. 4" iron on 24" wood, 35 degree slope to casemate.
Design. Original J. L .Porter..
Conjectural appearance if fitted with USS Waterwitch's machinery
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Contracted for with an unknown builder at Savannah, Georgia in 1862, this vessel has been confused with CSS Georgia ever since.
Believed to be contracted for as CSS Macon, she surrendered her name to the wooden gunboat formerly known as "Ogeechee" when it became apparent she would not be completed.
Stated in the ORNs to be "long in construction", she was referred to by Scharf as a Nashville class ironclad. Her length and beam as quoted in the ORNs and US Naval Chronology special appendix certainly match the proportions of the class.
The vessel never received machinery, guns or armour. Union spies and Confederate deserters, seeing her in the incomplete condition, confused her with CSS Georgia, a much smaller vessel to a different design.
The capture intact of USS Waterwitch and subsequent inability to utilise that vessel led to a proposal to remove her machinery for use in the incomplete ironclad.
Events overtook any such proposal and the vessel disappeared during the fall of Savannah to the Union. However her final fate and resting place is unknown, and probably never will be due to reconstruction of the Savannah waterfront over the years and it is probable that she has been lost forever if not completely destroyed under land reclamation.
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Name: CSS Georgia
Type: See below. Screw(s): two, Speed: 8 knots calculated , 2 knots in reality
Dimensions: 180ft (OA) x 44ft (EX)x 10 ft (D), 1,131 tons.
Guns: 10 guns intended. In April 1863 : 3 – 8"SB, 1 -32pdr MLR Stbd,
2-9" SB, 2-32pdr MLR port, 1 -32pdr MLR bow, 1 -24pdr SB, 1 -6pdr
SB on hurricane deck 4 heavy guns and the two light guns were on board
when she was scuttled
Armour: 2 layers of rail (3.5"), the outer driven between the gaps in the inner spiked or screwed to the 24" timber backing, with a mixture of cement and iron filings filling in the gaps between the rails forming a solid mass. Angle of casemate 45 degrees
Design: See below, Builder: James A Withington at Hardings Shipyard, Savannah Ga.
Laid Down: February / March 1862; Launched: 20/05/1862; Completed: Late 1862
History:
Redrawn by Author from an original plan in the Report of the In Situe Archeological Investigation
In October 1861, a plan by James R Butts was submitted to the Confederate Government and apparently rejected. A plan and model by H.F.Willink and A.N. Miller was sent , also in October 1861 to Richmond, approved by Mallory in January 1862 but no construction began.
A board led by Josiah Tattnall then submitted a plan by A.N.Miller to Richmond, There was apparently no response, and the vessel which became Georgia was commenced to this design, without any formal plans of construction.
Mallory or Porter sent S.J. O'connell to draw up an elevation and sectional plan, during the vessels construction, but, despite these being listed in the archive, no trace of these, nor the preceding plans have been found.
Constructed with funds raised by a ladies gunboat association for the Georgia State Navy at Hardings shipyard next to A.N.Millers engineering works, the ship was transferred with that Navy to the CSN.
Confusion has been caused by references to Mercer's Battery, but this was caused by General George Mercer ordering one of his officers, Captain Pritchard to offer to build the "battery" with troops from his command, which was subsequently done.
Master Shipbuilder James A Withington supervised her construction.
Unfortunately, her engines, built in A.N.Miller's works, were too weak to propel her, a heavy timber from the launching ways was attached to her bottom, and she leaked badly. In consequence, she was moored as a floating battery opposite Ft Jackson in the Savannah river, where she was scuttled in December 1864.
Variously described as a battery, gunboat and ram, the wreck, on the edge of the deep water shipping channel was subject to salvage attempts, scouring by the current, collisions, and dredging by the water authorities. The archeological investigation on behalf of the US Army Corps of Engineers in 2003 revealed that only parts of the casemate, the six guns, some of which have been recovered, and bits of the engines have survived, her hull has totally disappeared.
Enough casemate was present to recreate an accurate plan of that, but the hull type and dimensions were arrived at by careful study and elimination of the hull types used by the CSN, until the one shown in the plan was arrived at.
Based on the Louisiana/Mississippi type "box hull" capable of construction by untrained carpenters and labour, the decision was influenced by the known presence of Nelson Tift with H. F Willink at Savannah, and reinforced by the discovery of a piece of wreckage in the shipping channel nearby which could have come from just such a hull.
Of the several known prints depicting CSS Georgia, only one shows apparent deck projections beyond the casemate, although it is thought that, as in CSS Louisiana and CSS Virginia , the eaves of the casemate and thus the fore and aft decks were intended to be submerged when in full commission. In reality none of the three vessels actually achieved this, and had no protection below the casemate edges.
Whether her decks were intended to be, or ever were armoured is unknown.
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The above may well be altered as the remaining portion of the vessel are recovered in June.
Bringing the