USS Keokuk

[Woodstock74]

Thought this was interesting. I was just reading in Canney's Old Steam Navy, Vol 2, regarding the armor protection of the Keokuk. I understand that the outer layer/exposed layer was 3 layers of "boiler iron" as the outer skin, which was backed by alternating 1" x 4" iron plates (with the 1" end edgewise), separated by 1 1/4", with the gap filled with wood (so alternating iron, wood at 1 1/4" intervals), and then a final backing plate of boiler iron, for a total thickness of 5 3/4" which indicates the boiler plates were 7/16" thick each, assuming the boiler plates were all uniform. I'm pulling this all straight from Canney's text and the diagram of the armor cross section that accompanies. Point of all this, from a modeling stand point, most representations of the Keokuk are inaccurate inasmuch as they always seem to show the edge cross section of alternating iron/wood as the outer face when in fact the outer face was clad in those initial 3 layers of boiler plate.

So the Keokuk is my latest obsession, though I'm finding little material on the ironclad and I'm assuming it's because of her obvious failure (something like less than a month between her commissioning and her sinking?). Certainly was wondering what the engineering justification was for the composite armor; weight reduction, lack of available strategic material (iron plate), something else? Thought it was pretty interesting she could take on water ballast to reduce her profile, though I don't think she was unique in that aspect as I seem to recall the Monitor had that capability (though, I could be wrong on that point).

 

[redbob]

As fearsome as the Keokuk may have appeared, when she moved as close as 600 yards off Fort Sumter and remained there for over 30 minutes; she received over 90 hits which riddled her hull and structure with 19 of those hits being below the waterline. The craft was withdrawn, beached and being unable to move her, the Union attempted to destroy her and failed. The Confederates salvaged her guns (2 11" Dahlgrens) and used them in the Charleston defenses where (if I remember correctly) one remains today.

 

[Woodstock74]

That's about all you read regarding the Keokuk (that's about all there is in Canney), it would be interesting to see something more in-depth as the engineering decisions behind her were deliberate, even if a failure. There's much to learn even in failure.

I've been fortunate to see her one surviving gun in Battery Park, Charleston, SC. The gun is also interesting to some extent. Her current carriage is a post-war coastal gun carriage. And she also has a chamfer around her outer barrel ring, either side, to allow her to project through the Keokuk's gun ports. Thus she has unique identifying features that tie her directly to the Keokuk.

 

[redbob]

The Keokuk (formerly named the Moodna), was possibly doomed to failure from it's inception due to changes in mission, design and construction that plagued this craft throughout it's short and unfortunate life. To add to the Union's loss with this unfortunate vessel, it's signal's book had been recovered by the Confederates; allowing the Confederates to be able to read all of the Union's communications.