Most Astonishing American Civil War Ship Afloat 1861-1865 ? Your Pick

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
USS Choctaw shack.jpg

We had some great ships. It's like designers held a meeting and things got competitive " Oh yea? Well beat this. " Then Choctaw was born ( above I think ), and Chattanooga and Maratanza and those gunboats like Rattler that look like an ironclad and a transport steamer had a kid. We never saw them again, a wonderful blip on history's screen.

uss rattler correct pic.jpg


With apologies to @major bill , just spent awhile trying to wrap my head around the theme for his thread on beauteous iron clads. While browsing this mess called files on the laptop, realized one reason for an ( extremely amateur ) interest in ships of the war is because they're just so gosh darn interesting looking ( read; entertaining ). Dad was a British Navy buff, had only come across his ideas of amazing ships previous to getting interested in the ACW. What's not to love about HMS Victory- saw her in Portsmouth, in the 70's.

But really, we had some awesome, astonishing, delightful ships. No ' rules '- from the Chattanooga where someone glued boxes together out of necessity to Tyler, looking like a dangerous barn, had some crazy cool ships. Your pick, please?
 
While my heart yearns to see tall ships with billowing sails, like this ill-fated one, the C.S.S. Alabama, I picked the steam powered marvel in your third image above, a precursor to streamlined modern navy vessels, with its edgy technology, ability to maneuver fore and aft. Is that a paddle wheel I see... and if so, for added power, or emergency use?

When researching for my book, I learned about the Union manufacturing gunboats in Bridgeport, Alabama, and the Confederacy manufacturing ships in Selma, Alabama. How did I live my life in the midst of such rich history, and in such ignorance while being an avid reader with eight years of college education? History has been buried. I had to dig deep for eight years in four states and North Wales to find the truth about my family and region's history. Today, knowing what took place before I was born feels like a rebirth, a mind-broadening experience, and stabilizing like a ship's ballast.

300px-CSSAlabama.jpg
 
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USS_Keokuk_plan.jpg


The most memorable description of this (or perhaps any) ship was by Robert MacBride, in Civil War Ironclads :

"Whereas the hull of the Monitor was low and flat, that of the Keokuk was high and sloping; instead of one heavily armored rotating turret with two guns, she had two lightly armored nonrotating, nearly circular casemates... instead of one simple engine and one large propeller, she had two extremely complicated engines driving two small propellers; instead of one completely protected anchor, she had two ridiculously exposed ones... Withal, she was oddly beautiful. There was a kind of Victorian elegance about her which the Ericsson boats lacked."

Another book adds, "She sank gracefully." :laugh:
 
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Another book adds, "She sank gracefully." :laugh:
Plus, Keokuk provided the Confederates with a nice pair of salvaged guns!
As I recall, after engaging the Charleston forts, someone compared her condition to a colander (or was it a seive?). Anyway, IMHO she ties with USS Galena in the ACW category "pretty, but hazardous to man". Unless you enter CSS H. L. Hunley into the contest.
 
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CSSShenandoah.jpg


Shenandoah had remained at sea for 12 months and 17 days, traversed 58,000 miles (carrying the Confederate flag around the globe for the only time) and sank or captured 38 ships, mostly whalers, all of them American civilian merchant vessels. Waddell took close to one thousand prisoners without a single war casualty among his crew; two men died of disease.
 
As I recall, after engaging the Charleston forts, someone compared her condition to a colander (or was it a seive?).

Interestingly, one of the reasons she got hammered so hard is because she got farthest into the harbor, closest to Sumter. While the Passaic class monitors with her were significantly damaged as well, one wonders if they would have gotten quite so riddled as the higher-riding Keokuk.

I think it's reasonably certain that she got farthest in because she was commanded by Alexander Colden Rhind, a derring-do officer in the mold of William B. Cushing (although less fortunate), and she had an expert pilot aboard-- none other than famous escaped slave Robert Smalls.
 
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We had some great ships. It's like designers held a meeting and things got competitive " Oh yea? Well beat this. " Then Choctaw was born ( above I think ), and Chattanooga and Maratanza and those gunboats like Rattler that look like an ironclad and a transport steamer had a kid. We never saw them again, a wonderful blip on history's screen.

View attachment 258340

With apologies to @major bill , just spent awhile trying to wrap my head around the theme for his thread on beauteous iron clads. While browsing this mess called files on the laptop, realized one reason for an ( extremely amateur ) interest in ships of the war is because they're just so gosh darn interesting looking ( read; entertaining ). Dad was a British Navy buff, had only come across his ideas of amazing ships previous to getting interested in the ACW. What's not to love about HMS Victory- saw her in Portsmouth, in the 70's.

But really, we had some awesome, astonishing, delightful ships. No ' rules '- from the Chattanooga where someone glued boxes together out of necessity to Tyler, looking like a dangerous barn, had some crazy cool ships. Your pick, please?

If Darth Vader was around then, the Chocktaw would have been his flagship!
 
View attachment 258400

The most memorable description of this (or perhaps any) ship was by Robert MacBride, in Civil War Ironclads :

"Whereas the hull of the Monitor was low and flat, that of the Keokuk was high and sloping; instead of one heavily armored rotating turret with two guns, she had two lightly armored nonrotating, nearly circular casemates... instead of one simple engine and one large propeller, she had two extremely complicated engines driving two small propellers; instead of one completely protected anchor, she had two ridiculously exposed ones... Withal, she was oddly beautiful. There was a kind of Victorian elegance about her which the Ericsson boats lacked."

Another book adds, "She sank gracefully." :laugh:
Always had a soft spot for Keokuk - still do . Poor little ship !
 
My G-g-grandfather was the Boatswain on the USS Galena. As an ironclad, she was almost worthless. The May 15th, '62 battle revealed her weakness.

While her armor would have been effective against ship-to-ship duels, owing to the angle of her top deck, the shore bombardment rained down shot almost perpendicular to her armor, breaching her topside no fewer than 13 times.

13 sailors and Marines were killed, and 11 more wounded. An account after the battle indicated that her decks were awash in blood, and so slippery that conditions for the survivors were treacherous.

This would be the last time the USS Galena would fight as an ironclad.
 
The most astonishing ship afloat? My vote goes for "The Black Terror". After Confederate forces captured the damaged U.S.S. Indianola, Adm. Porter was forced to make a decision about how to prevent her from being salvaged and repaired for CSN use. Having lost several ships already that were now in Confederate use, he was loathe to risk more in destroying or recapturing the Indianola. His solution: The Black Terror. Porter took a coal barge and build the ironclad's "structure" with a theater stick set and canvas. Logs were used for cannon, stacked pork barrels for the twin smokestacks. She was covered in black tar, a skull and crossbones flag as well as the Union Jack. Some salty sailor painted the words "Deluded People Cave In" on the wheel housing. The total cost for the Union Navy's newest and most fearsome ironclad? Eight dollars and sixty-four cents. She holds the record for the cheapest ironclad constructed, and also the shortest construction time: 24 hours.

The Black Terror was unleashed upriver from Vicksburg to float leisurely past the Confederate batteries, which unleashed all they had on it, but did no apparent damage. Downriver from Vicksburg, The Black Terror was spotted by the Queen of the West, a Union warship captured by the Confederates and now in CSN possession and use. She quickly retreated farther downriver and warned the Indianola, which was being salvaged and repaired. The Queen of the West retreated up the Red River, never to return to the Mississippi. Upon appearance of The Black Terror, the Indianola was destroyed by her crew. At a cost of $8.64, the Indianola was destroyed, the Queen of the West never returned to the Mississippi, and no lives were lost. With no armaments, no propulsion, and no crew, "The Black Terror" earned a battle record worthy of any U.S. warship.
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Those are all great ships, a very hard choice! One of my favorite though is the CSS Palmetto State:


View attachment 258511

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That's a lovely model, but it's not Palmetto State. Here is PS;
CSS PALMETTO STATE as completed.jpg
Courtesy of the Museum at Columbus.
The model most closely resembles CSS North Carolina
NORTH CAROLINA 3.jpg
A contemporary print from sketches done immediately after her launch.
CSS NORTH CAROLINA FROM A COMTEMPORARY IMAGE.jpg
 
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