Paddle Steamer Presto, Blockade Runner

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I want one of these.

Published: February 14, 1864

• The correspondent of the Boston Herald, writing from the fleet off Charleston, describes the destruction of the blockade-runner as follows:

OFF CHARLESTON, Tuesday, Feb. 2.

"Very early this morning some daring Englishman made a bold attempt, just before daybreak and during a fog, to run the blockade. He succeeded in getting in as far as the mouth of the harbor, where he was run ashore by trying to avoid the shells from our batteries, which were flying in every direction. The fog soon cleared up, and there was the blockade-runner hard and fast on the beach. She was a splendid looking side-wheel steamer, with two smoke stacks and rakish masts. Forts Wagner and Gregg, aided by two monitors, at once commenced to shell her, and by noon she was a complete wreck. A two hundred-pounder Parrot from Fort Wagner cut her nearly in two.
http://www.nytimes.com/1864/02/14/n...runner-presto-failure-attempts-reinforce.html

 

[vikingbear]

I don't think that will fit in the bathtub.
How big is it anyway?

GRIZZ

 

[AndyHall]

Classic Clydebuilt steamer, based on the Irish Sea packets. I'd bet that's a 1/4 inch (1:48) scale model, that would put it at somewhat over four feet long overall.

 

[AndyHall]

Loss of the blockade runner Presto:

https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/tag/blockade-runner-presto/

 

[AndyHall]

Here's the build log for the model. The builder ordered some paddlewheels for it and had to scale the model up to match those, to about 1:40, or 63 inches long.

http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5526.0

Turned out to be a really nice model, that works well both as R/C and purely for display.

She was originally built as Fergus:

 

[vikingbear]

Andy,
Not bad for his second build! (and he said his first attempt was a failure?)

Also 20.5kts in 1865! No wounder ships were still making it through the blockade at this stage of the war! With the northern complaining about needing faster ships never understood why they never built copies of these blockade runners that were captured, or even British built engines to be fitted into hulls built here. There was a third option, have them built in Britian by a known merchant who would sell them to the Navy.

GRIZZ

 

[AndyHall]

They actually used a fourth option, which was to purchase captured runners and commission them into the U.S. Navy -- which they did with roughly twenty of them, all told. The poacher made gamekeeper, as Pete Joseph observed a while back.

Twenty knots was exceptionally fast for the day, likely achieved by tying down the safety valves and other don't-try-this-at-home-kids tricks. Probably that was only good in short bursts, as well, like a runner sprinting. Twelve to fifteen knots would be more usual, and still quite fast for that day.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Twenty knots was exceptionally fast for the day, likely achieved by tying down the safety valves and other don't-try-this-at-home-kids tricks.

Of course, then there's the point that I believe you brought up in your recent Houston talk on video-- speed was not necessarily the most important factor in a successful blockade run. It sounds like a lot of it was stealth and good piloting... the speed was mostly a factor if you were caught at it!

 

[AndyHall]

Denbigh was a good example of stealth-over-speed. She was not well maintained, and during most of her blockade-running period was not capable of more than 8 1/2 knots (down from 14.7 at her builder's trial in 1860). Yet she made eleven successful round voyages in and out of the Confederacy in the Gulf of Mexico. Runners were generally not maintained beyond the minimum to keep them going, as they could be captured or wrecked on any run.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Bumped into this while looking for something else... it caught my eye because of the unusual camera angle. USS Clyde was the former blockade-runner Neptune, built by Napier in Glasgow, Scotland.

 

[AndyHall]

That looks like a big Dalhgren howitzer on a naval slide carriage there.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Here's the build log for the model. The builder ordered some paddlewheels for it and had to scale the model up to match those, to about 1:40, or 63 inches long.

http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5526.0

Turned out to be a really nice model, that works well both as R/C and purely for display.

She was originally built as Fergus:

View attachment 60327

Thanks for finding the link to the build log. That fellow is good.

 

[Carronade]

Bumped into this while looking for something else... it caught my eye because of the unusual camera angle. USS Clyde was the former blockade-runner Neptune, built by Napier in Glasgow, Scotland.

Good illustration of the tracks on deck enabling the gun to be used on either side, and trained over a wide arc.

Also a good view of the bridge between the paddle boxes, which became the control station in steamers, whereas sailing ships had been commanded from the quarterdeck aft.

 

[rebelatsea]

Good illustration of the tracks on deck enabling the gun to be used on either side, and trained over a wide arc.

Also a good view of the bridge between the paddle boxes, which became the control station in steamers, whereas sailing ships had been commanded from the quarterdeck aft.

Before really effective means of communication between parts of the ship were developed, it was left to messengers running about in time honoured fashion or to use of bugles.
The Japanese developed the latter to a high art, except that at Tsu shima, no one could hear the bugles. A RN observer said that the system reached it's highest efficiency when the buglers gave up and the turret and gun captains did their own thing !

 

[Carronade]

That looks like a big Dalhgren howitzer on a naval slide carriage there.

Looks like you're right; DANFS gives Clyde's armament as two 24pdr howitzers, the second probably in a similar arrangement aft. She was a relatively small ship and spent most of her USN service patrolling coastal waters of Florida. Note that she did not carry, probably could not accommodate, the "bow chaser" rifle often mounted on ships tasked with chasing other blockade runners.

 

[Ptarmigan]

I am personally doubtful as to whether this is a photo of Neptune , there are a lot of features that don't tally with what we know about her .

 

[Ptarmigan]

I am no longer doubtful about this picture being the Neptune since I have found additional supporting evidence .