USS Clifton

[mjr251]

My drawing, in progress, of USS Clifton as she looked just before the Second Battle of Sabine Pass.

I have the benefit of having the guidance of Justin Parkoff, a Texas maritime archeologist who has done extensive research on both Clifton and USS Westfield. Justin recovered artifacts from the wreck of USS Westfield before the site was destroyed by expansion of the Houston Ship Channel.

 

[JOHN42768]

Looking good, way to go

 

[The Chattanooga Rebel]

Looks superb!! Absolutely will be following your progress.

 

[Johnny Shafto]

Outstanding…and much needed!

 

[Pollaco]

I just visited the Sabine Pass Historic Site last Saturday and here's one of the pictures there

 

[Seduzal]

way Wow! Awesome drawin but still a long way to go. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[Zack]

Incredible! The technical skill on display here is out of this world.

 

[mjr251]

Outstanding…and much needed!

Thank you, and yes, I agree! A part of the war that's not covered terribly well, at least not as much as others.

 

[mjr251]

I just visited the Sabine Pass Historic Site last Saturday and here's one of the pictures there

Man, lemme know next time you're there. It's about a fifteen-minute drive from my house.

That drawing of Clifton is as accurate as they could make it, as no photographs of her exist, but it lacks a few important details. This is where my archeologist friend comes in, as his specialty has been Westfield and Clifton.

The biggest issue with the drawing is that the artist depicted Clifton's sponsons open to the sea - the bracings under the main deck guards were covered with planking, making a sort of 'bubble' of planking that extended to either side of the paddlewheels. She would have never made the trip from New York to Louisiana and Texas with her deck bracings intact if not for this modification. Also, the positions of the walking beam and smokestack should be swapped, and there should be armor plating on the sides of the main cabin. In the rest of the drawing, Sachem is on the wrong side of Clifton.

Regardless, the period drawing is accurate enough and more importantly, it tells the story of what happened. I think the artist probably looked at a New York ferryboat, then added details from Doctor DDT Nestell's drawings of Clifton and Sachem to complete his illustration of the battle.

 

[mjr251]

way Wow! Awesome drawin but still a long way to go. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Indeed, it's a process but so worth it. Thanks for the kind words

 

[mjr251]

A poor-quality photo, but this view of USS Commodore McDonough is very close to what Clifton and Westfield looked like. Check out the vent ports on the paddleboxes.

 

[damYankee]

Excellent, looks almost like a lithograph printing, have you trained as a mechanical draftsman?

 

[mjr251]

Excellent, looks almost like a lithograph printing, have you trained as a mechanical draftsman?

Very kind, I appreciate that!

No, I don't have really any art training beyond high school. However, I was very fortunate to have the same art teacher through all four years of high school, and I still keep up with her. She consistently stressed the importance of "lightest lights and darkest darks," and placed a lot of value on drawing still-life objects under lights. Twenty years later, I still use the principles she taught.

That being said, I certainly wish I were a professional artist I normally draw birds, so this is a step in another direction for me.

 

[mjr251]

Progress on my Clifton drawing. Added the paddlebox vents - which need a lot of touching up - some armor plating, and some of the rigging.

Though Clifton was called an ironclad, that's not what she was. Ironclads like USS Cairo and CSS Tennessee were designed to withstand heavy ordnance and keep fighting. Clifton, on the other hand, had relatively thin iron panels, backed by oak framing, that were apparently meant to protect her crew, gun crews, and marines from musketry and rifle fire, not shells from heavy shore-based guns. And yet she had charged Confederate forts numerous times with good results.

Though the shortcomings in her armor had been made apparent by damage she sustained in battles in Louisiana, they were tragically proven at Sabine Pass, Texas on September 8, 1863. The accurate fire of CS Lieutenant Dick Dowling's artillerymen devastated Clifton, rupturing her steam drum, blasting away her structures, and killing and horribly injuring many aboard her during the fight.

 

[DaveBrt]

Calling @Mark F. Jenkins

 

[Louisiana Jayhawker]

Wonderful work and I appreciate it. But I recalled the vessel and the others grounded directly down from the Fort on their first entrance in the channel. There was no charging "numerous times with good results." I don't think the structural damage was significant and most of the crew losses were from the steam cloud. It's easy to hit a ship stuck on a sandbar pointblank in front of your guns. And it's easy to capture said ship if another ship will not tow it away from you. The ship was somewhat in the order of a Tinclad gunboat maybe. To be honest I am unaware of any armor covering the ship. If some sections had it, it would like be around the engine room and steam barrel. But a 32 pound heavy gun solid shot is believed to pass through tin plated metal on wood especially if the barrel is rifled at close range. Unsure if the shell round could do so.

 

[mjr251]

Wonderful work and I appreciate it.

Thanks for the kind words!

But I recalled the vessel and the others grounded directly down from the Fort on their first entrance in the channel. There was no charging "numerous times with good results."

Sorry, I was referring to Fort Burton at the Battle of Butte La Rose, and of her attack, with Westfield, on Port Lavaca. I actually don't recall whether Fort Esperanza was completed at that time, but she was engaged by Dan Shea's artillerymen. Both of those incidents were good results for Clifton, as she captured Fort Burton, and retreated safely after shelling Port Lavaca.

I don't think the structural damage was significant and most of the crew losses were from the steam cloud.

I may be mistaken on this, I'll research again where I think I found this. The fact that she was in service as a CS gunboat so relatively quickly would contradict my assertion, unless there were some fast-working carpenters in Orange!

It's easy to hit a ship stuck on a sandbar pointblank in front of your guns. And it's easy to capture said ship if another ship will not tow it away from you.

Agreed on both.. wasn't the commander of Granite City disciplined for this?

The ship was somewhat in the order of a Tinclad gunboat maybe.

Probably a better term, and certainly more accurate than ironclad.

To be honest I am unaware of any armor covering the ship. If some sections had it, it would like be around the engine room and steam barrel.

Yes, she actually was covered in armor, in a sort of "belt" arrangement. See where I have it drawn, if you would extend that around the fore and aft parts of the ship, that would be the entirety of her armor. Don't want to give away too much of my archeologist partner's research (to be published in a book, eventually), but there's a period illustration of how these wooden bulwarks with iron plating were to be laid out. Lots of these plates were recovered from the Westfield wreck, a ship which was virtually identical to Clifton.

But a 32 pound heavy gun solid shot is believed to pass through tin plated metal on wood especially if the barrel is rifled at close range. Unsure if the shell round could do so.

Sorry, I sometimes forget to differentiate ammunition types.

Thank you for mentioning these things, keeps me on my toes

 

[mjr251]

Still working on my USS Clifton drawing. Tonight I added a few of her officers looking out over the hurricane deck. They don't represent anyone in particular, but the figure on the right, with the wheel cap, is a nod to my late friend Ron Strybos, who wore one while reenacting Clifton's last Union commander, Frederick Crocker. The poses are taken from a period photograph of USS Hunchback's crew.

 

[Louisiana Jayhawker]

Could someone provide a few details of the shelling of Port Lavaca. I have not heard of this which I suppose is in Texas?

 

[Pollaco]

Could someone provide a few details of the shelling of Port Lavaca. I have not heard of this which I suppose is in Texas?

I'd like to hear some details myself. As a youngster there used to be a local TV Show about the Corpus Christi museum. The curator showed a cannonball that was found in an outhouse after the shelling of Corpus Christi by a yankee gunboat.Probably about the same time as the shelling of Port Lavaca. Alot of coastal towns were "visited" by yankee gunboats.