The Lost Fleet - CSS Richmond.

[rebelatsea]

The locations of CSS Richmond, Federicksburg and Virginia (II) are known in and around Trent's reach, they are in the river and not buried, apart from in the river bottom.

Received wisdom, and just about every printed work and author repeats " the ships were blown up and sunk"

CSS Richmond has been dived on, the casemate is upside down with the funnel casing and funnel inside still present, but all other features gone and there is no hull or remains present. This is due to post war salvage and subsequent clearance operations.

The presence of the intact casemate upside down does in fact indicate that CSS Richmond was scuttled in deep water so that she rolled over , not blown up.
So far as I know currently, no diving attempt has been made on the other ironclads, but it would be interesting to see if the wrecks share the same or similar characteristics.

 

[Jamieva]

@Jerry43 was talking about this earlier this year at Drewrys Bluff I think?

 

[USS ALASKA]

CSS Richmond Overview 2020

James Tuite

Jan 18, 2021

"Eight miles south of the City of Richmond Virginia, in a quiet section of the James River, lies one of the State's most significant, yet unknown, historical artifacts, the wreckage of the Confederate States Navy Ironclad Steamram Richmond. Now lying in approximately 38 feet of water, the Richmond's short lifespan ended with her scuttling in April 1865 with the fall of the Confederate capitol. This presentation, given to the Nautical Archaeological Society in the Fall of 2020 tells her story and of those who seek to find her secrets."

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[rebelatsea]

@Jerry43 was talking about this earlier this year at Drewrys Bluff I think?

That's the one, I mentioned it somewhere here in a thread too.

 

[rebelatsea]

CSS Richmond Overview 2020

James Tuite

Jan 18, 2021

"Eight miles south of the City of Richmond Virginia, in a quiet section of the James River, lies one of the State's most significant, yet unknown, historical artifacts, the wreckage of the Confederate States Navy Ironclad Steamram Richmond. Now lying in approximately 38 feet of water, the Richmond's short lifespan ended with her scuttling in April 1865 with the fall of the Confederate capitol. This presentation, given to the Nautical Archaeological Society in the Fall of 2020 tells her story and of those who seek to find her secrets."

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

Leaving aside the obvious inconsistancies in Meagher's drawings, that is a fascinating piece of archeology indicating there is far more of the ship present than the previous diving video found.

Only one of her engines came from the Arctic, the other, a duplicate came from the Shokoe foundry at Richmond, and they were in fact single cylinder mill engines.
The drawing from CSS Texas shows an 11"Brooke SB on a centre pintle mounting, and is from a Union source after she was taken intact..

 

[Story]

Years ago I found an 1890's Corps of Engineers report on a wreck of personal interest that detailed how the site was cleared of any obstruction, along with details of the bidding process. A quick poke over coffee today failed to turn up any trail of breadcrumbs but those reports are out there - found it on archive.com I think.

Tangential, also found this 30+ year old article while looking for that https://www.dailypress.com/1993/03/24/dredging-wont-disturb-ironclads/

 

[USS ALASKA]

@Jerry43 was talking about this earlier this year at Drewrys Bluff I think?

Upcoming Drewry's Bluff NPS Walk | Traveler's Companion - Visit Historic Sites

On Saturday May 17 at 10am, there will be a guided walk and talk about the significance of the battle of Drewry's Bluff in 1862. I hear that Park Ranger Anna Willis has some new info from her research. It's also important that we make an effort to attend NPS sponsored events to show support in...

civilwartalk.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Journal Article
Threatened James River Shipwreck and Historical Sites
Kevin J. Foster
Historical Archaeology
Vol. 26, No. 4, Advances in Underwater Archaeology (1992), pp. 58-68
Springer Nature

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25616195

Full article at above link on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[rebelatsea]

Leaving aside the obvious inconsistancies in Meagher's drawings, that is a fascinating piece of archeology indicating there is far more of the ship present than the previous diving video found.

Only one of her engines came from the Arctic, the other, a duplicate came from the Shokoe foundry at Richmond, and they were in fact single cylinder mill engines.
The drawing from CSS Texas shows an 11"Brooke SB on a centre pintle mounting, and is from a Union source after she was taken intact..

I should add that the oft quoted speed of four knots is a myth. CSS Richmond patrolled up and down the James River for three years, at four knots she would not have been capable of breasting the current let alone steaming about freely.

 

[Rhea Cole]

I should add that the oft quoted speed of four knots is a myth. CSS Richmond patrolled up and down the James River for three years, at four knots she would not have been capable of breasting the current let alone steaming about freely.

The James River at Richmond average flow is 1.5 to 3 MPH. During periods of high water the flow is higher, creating white water conditions. The flow varies considerably depending on location. (+/-) a ton of coal an hour would be required to steam upriver.

Against the Mississippi River's 3 MPH current the City Class ironclads were accompanied by a towboat. They were capable of (+/-) 5 MPH. No reason to rule out such an arrangement on the James.

Managing the required tonnage of coal / hour with the tidal effect on flow & depth must have been challenging.

At 50 pounds / cubic foot, a ton of coal is (+/-) 40 cubic feet. The load in coal bunkers of the gunboats was dependent on the stage of the river. Tidal flow meant that depth of the channel was constantly changing. The Mississippi Squadron gunboats had coal barges lashed on.

I have no source on the availability of coal or the lift capacity dedicated to hauling it for the gunboats.

 

[rebelatsea]

Dr William Still reported that John L Porter required his designs to accommodate stores and supplies for one month.

 

[DaveBrt]

Considering the demand for coal in the Richmond area, there are almost no documents on the subject. The only one I have is NA, RRB 2-5A-64 where the QM Transportation Agent at Lynchburg reports sending 4 car loads of coal (63,000 lbs coal) to Maj. Downer (Supt. of Armories) on the river/canal boat "Wave" from J. H. Adams & Bro. of Christianburg. This was probably from Shenandoah mines.

Other mines were just west of Richmond (shipped by river boats) and the mines between Richmond and Petersburg (shipped by Richmond & Petersburg RR). I know of no coal shipped to Richmond from any other parts of the Confederacy.

 

[gary]

Raise the wreck, restore it just in case Mamluks attack us.