Revisiting CSS General Polk

[shandy]

As I wanted to make a simple model of CSS General Polk for gaming purposes, I studied the old thread on this forum and the wonderful drawings of rebelatsea.
However, the more I tinkered with the model, the more I got sceptical of the dimensions of the ship. Silverstone states a length of 280', which would make it one of the largest ship not only on the Mississippi, but in all of the Civil War, reaching the dimensions of the monster ironclads - as long as the Eastport, longer than the Choctaw and slightly shorter than the Lafayette. Wikipedia even has 285' (Naval History and Heritage Command prudently doesn't state dimensions).

All say that Polk was converted from a steamer named Ed Howard at New Orleans, so I tried to find out more about her. I quick search found several mentions of her, among them that she was one of the largest and fastest steamers on the Mississippi and that she was involved in at least one accident (collision with another steamer).

However, the most important source was a digitized version of "Ship Reigsters and Enrollments of New Orleans, Louisiana", which includes an entry for the Ed Howard:

What do you think? Do the dimensions of 230' x 29' x 6' sound plausible?

Cheers,
Thomas

 

[Missouri Swampfox]

This may help.

 

[shandy]

Very interesting, thank you! It seems to say 235' length, if I read it correctly... I find it somewhat astonishing how many different numbers are circulating.

 

[RedRover]

Here's some 1862 news paper clips about the Ed Howard's conversion into a gunboat:


Boston Herald, Jan. 24, 1862:

Boston Evening Transcript, 3-15-1862:

A notice from the US Gunboat Lexington, from the White River, June 14, 1862, in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette of 6-20-1862:

 

[shandy]

Thank you! The name "Lady Polk" could be a mistake, though - there was a cannon at Columbus named "Lady Polk", which exploded at a demonstration, killed its entire crew and stunned Gen. Polk so much he had to take sick leave for a month.
Interesting about the railroad iron plating. The same is occasionally mentioned in connection with the CSS Jackson (former Yankee). Is this plausible, considering the difficulties of getting iron for the ironclads that were in production at the time?

 

[Missouri Swampfox]

Here's some 1862 news paper clips about the Ed Howard's conversion into a gunboat:


Boston Herald, Jan. 24, 1862:

View attachment 482433


Boston Evening Transcript, 3-15-1862:

View attachment 482431

A notice from the US Gunboat Lexington, from the White River, June 14, 1862, in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette of 6-20-1862:
View attachment 482432

The Boston article is wrong. The Lizzie Simmons became the Ponchartrain.

 

[RedRover]

Thank you! The name "Lady Polk" could be a mistake, though - there was a cannon at Columbus named "Lady Polk", which exploded at a demonstration, killed its entire crew and stunned Gen. Polk so much he had to take sick leave for a month.
Interesting about the railroad iron plating. The same is occasionally mentioned in connection with the CSS Jackson (former Yankee). Is this plausible, considering the difficulties of getting iron for the ironclads that were in production at the time?

William Still's "Confederate Shipbuilding" notes on p. 17 that the Ed Howard was indeed converted into the "General Polk" by a CS Navy lieutenant.

They evidently spent alot of money on outfitting her:

 

[archieclement]

Be sure to post pics of model completed

 

[rebelatsea]

this will help, from an old discussion.

 

[shandy]

Yes, the old discussion was my starting point. Unfortunately, I think the dimensions are off.
By the way, I found another image of that purports to depict CSS Polk:

(from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_General_Polk)
Polk is supposed to be the leftmost side-wheeler.

What do you think?

 

[rebelatsea]

Yes, the old discussion was my starting point. Unfortunately, I think the dimensions are off.
By the way, I found another image of that purports to depict CSS Polk:
View attachment 482513
(from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_General_Polk)
Polk is supposed to be the leftmost side-wheeler.

What do you think?

Well from that angle it certainly resembles the plan I drew.

 

[usnhm1625]

As I wanted to make a simple model of CSS General Polk for gaming purposes, I studied the old thread on this forum and the wonderful drawings of rebelatsea.
However, the more I tinkered with the model, the more I got sceptical of the dimensions of the ship. Silverstone states a length of 280', which would make it one of the largest ship not only on the Mississippi, but in all of the Civil War, reaching the dimensions of the monster ironclads - as long as the Eastport, longer than the Choctaw and slightly shorter than the Lafayette. Wikipedia even has 285' (Naval History and Heritage Command prudently doesn't state dimensions).

All say that Polk was converted from a steamer named Ed Howard at New Orleans, so I tried to find out more about her. I quick search found several mentions of her, among them that she was one of the largest and fastest steamers on the Mississippi and that she was involved in at least one accident (collision with another steamer).

However, the most important source was a digitized version of "Ship Reigsters and Enrollments of New Orleans, Louisiana", which includes an entry for the Ed Howard:

View attachment 482414

What do you think? Do the dimensions of 230' x 29' x 6' sound plausible?

Cheers,
Thomas

I know the feeling. I build ships also, and I want to tackle the General Polk myself. I just finished the USS Hartford. I going to post pics of her on the miniatures section.