USS Delaware, 74, is the first navy ship in Gosport's new dry dock, c. 1830.

USS Cumberland

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Two beautiful prints commissioned to celebrate the new dry dock in Gosport, Virginia, dedicated to the memory of Commodore William Bainbridge, U.S.N., who had just then recently passed away:

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0-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

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0 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

Close up of the gun ports Full battleship port lids on the lower deck, half lower lids and removable bucklers on the middle deck, and either nothing, or fully removable bucklers on the spar deck. By the time of the Civil War, the navy was committed to double hinged bucklers for all enclosed gun decks, except maybe for those few battleships still in service:

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0-1 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr
 
Note she's being pulled in by a dozen unlucky sailors on a capstan! How did they keep her straight, and prevent a gust of wind from pushing her sideways into the stone sides?

The Delaware died in the conflagration of the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, as did her identical, un-launched sister, USS New York, 74-guns, and the slightly smaller, 74-gun USS Columbus.
 
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The Delaware died in the conflagration of the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, as did her identical, un-launched sister, USS New York, 74-guns, and the slightly smaller, 74-gun USS Columbus.

If I recall correctly, just before the Civil War started, Navy evaluated them as possible hulls to be reconstructed into steam frigates or sloops - since as sailing ships-of-the-line they have very little value, but their hulls were still quite sound and could serve for decades.
 
If I recall correctly, just before the Civil War started, Navy evaluated them as possible hulls to be reconstructed into steam frigates or sloops - since as sailing ships-of-the-line they have very little value, but their hulls were still quite sound and could serve for decades.
Yes, they did, but I have never seen any drawings of what was intended. A steam Pennsylvania would be an interesting sight. My guess is they would all would have been razeed one deck, or maybe lengthened as the RN did.
USS Raritan a sailing sloop had had a screw shaft hole bored and the stern altered when she was scuttled. She was no 2 on the list of hulls to be salvaged by the CSN after Pennsylvania.
 
Note she's being pulled in by a dozen unlucky sailors on a capstan! How did they keep her straight, and prevent a gust of wind from pushing her sideways into the stone sides?

The Delaware died in the conflagration of the Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, as did her identical, un-launched sister, USS New York, 74-guns, and the slightly smaller, 74-gun USS Columbus.
Ships being taken into dry dock usually had all ordnance and stores removed ,and topmast and spars taken down. There is I suspect a tad artistic licence as there might be one or more oared boats or launches acting as rudders astern. Note the derricks at the dock entrance have lines attached, they will give a measure of control.
 
Two beautiful prints commissioned to celebrate the new dry dock in Gosport, Virginia, dedicated to the memory of Commodore William Bainbridge, U.S.N., who had just then recently passed away:

View attachment 3099910-2 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

View attachment 3099920 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr

Close up of the gun ports Full battleship port lids on the lower deck, half lower lids and removable bucklers on the middle deck, and either nothing, or fully removable bucklers on the spar deck. By the time of the Civil War, the navy was committed to double hinged bucklers for all enclosed gun decks, except maybe for those few battleships still in service:

View attachment 3099930-1 by Stephen Duffy, on Flickr
Am I seeing this correctly? She appears to have had only two chasers, both below decks and to the sides of the supports for the bow sprite.
 
The lower deck is far too low for one, but I bet the forward-facing head access port (unseen from the outside) would double as one if needed, and they would easily chop that lightly-battened decorative headrail vanity-screen away in time of war.
 
The lower deck is far too low for one, but I bet the forward-facing head access port (unseen from the outside) would double as one if needed, and they would easily chop that lightly-battened decorative headrail vanity-screen away in time of war.

That is an interesting point. Chapelle's plans for the North Carolina class show an additional lower deck bow-chaser port on Delaware and Virginia that looks...awkwardly placed. They are just below the hawseholes in the plans I'm attaching.

Delaware Bow.jpg
 
Lovely model and a good illustration of what was called a topgallant forecastle. "Topgallant" also applied to some of the upper (not always uppermost) masts and sails of a ship, not sure exactly what it meant or why the same word was used in such different ways.
 
It just means that it is raised above the rail of the flush-decked ship. Same way a topgallant mast is above the topmast. In this case, it's a non-structural addition too. If we go back to sources like Falconer's, it is always spelled "top-gallant" which is a clue to the origin of the original term, something above the topmasts. On a flush-decked ship, the area around the foremast and forward of it was considered an imaginary forecastle for operational purposes, and the area abaft the main/mizzen was a quarterdeck. Because of this, the same applies to additional structures on the stern of a flush-decked ship (including that Delaware model) being called poop decks, even in something as small as a brig-sloop like USS Peacock or a British Cruizer. William James discusses it in his The Naval History of Great Britain (vol 1. Page 25).
 
Welcome, Mr. Coker! Your book, "Charleston's Maritime History", is a beautifully illustrated classic. :biggrin: It should be on every Civil War naval history student's bookshelf.

You also failed to mention that you built that beautiful Delaware model !!!!!!:wavespin:
 
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