Why we're boarding parties seldom used during riverine warfare? Could they have been effective?

I would count the battle at plum point bend as a 2nd fleet on fleet battle.

The Confederate fleet rammed the union ironclads Cincinnati and Mound City which both then went to shallow water to sink. So the city class wasn't immune to ramming.
Plum Point Bend, that's another interesting battle. Suprised Memphis was such the opposite of what happend prior. Bad luck or bad planning I guess.
 
In theory the Union fleet held major advantage in both battles, being upriver they had the current with them instead of having to fight it which reduces the downriver fleets speed and agility.

At plum point they were surprised, offsetting the advantage. At Memphis a fight was expected.
 
USS Diana was captured by land forces after they shot away her tiller rope and she drifted into shore
At the battle of Sabine Pass, both the Clifton and Sachem were hit in the boiler by confederate artillery, which demobilized them leading them to surrender before the boarding parties arrive
So demobilizing steam vessels doesnt seem that unlikely
True. But a lot more were run onto the river bank and later refloated and repaired. Not too many were attacked by a boarding party on a vessel. The exceptions seem to prove the rule.
I think the Kearsage v Alabama was more typical of actions at sea. Range and accuracy mattered more when crews were manning guns on a vessel that could turn in any direction.
 
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In the age of solid shot canons, wooden ships could be beaten into helpless wrecks and still stay afloat to be boarded. In the age of Shells Ships seldom stayed afloat very long, especially the loser.

Boardings are usually costly and difficult, and usually to take a ship as a prize to benefit the officers and men of the winning ship, no such incentives in the CW.
 
In the age of solid shot canons, wooden ships could be beaten into helpless wrecks and still stay afloat to be boarded. In the age of Shells Ships seldom stayed afloat very long, especially the loser.

Boardings are usually costly and difficult, and usually to take a ship as a prize to benefit the officers and men of the winning ship, no such incentives in the CW.
In the age of shells, as the ships came closer the winner could easily blow huge holes in the loser near the water line.
 
Perhaps this has been mentioned elsewhere, but would-be boarding parties were often "repulsed with hot water" from steam hoses aboard riverine vessels, to devastating effect. Several examples are recounted by gunner William L. Park on the USS Essex, including a failed effort by members of the USS Carondelet to board the Confederate ram Arkansas as she came down the Yazoo River to run the Federal fleet above Vicksburg (July 1862). Park's detailed, three-year diary is published in Two Civil Wars (LSU Press, 2016).
 
Perhaps this has been mentioned elsewhere, but would-be boarding parties were often "repulsed with hot water" from steam hoses aboard riverine vessels, to devastating effect. Several examples are recounted by gunner William L. Park on the USS Essex, including a failed effort by members of the USS Carondelet to board the Confederate ram Arkansas as she came down the Yazoo River to run the Federal fleet above Vicksburg (July 1862). Park's detailed, three-year diary is published in Two Civil Wars (LSU Press, 2016).
Another advantage of steam powered military vessels.
 
In the age of solid shot canons, wooden ships could be beaten into helpless wrecks and still stay afloat to be boarded. In the age of Shells Ships seldom stayed afloat very long, especially the loser.

Boardings are usually costly and difficult, and usually to take a ship as a prize to benefit the officers and men of the winning ship, no such incentives in the CW.
Cannons are the incentive.
Lubliner.
 
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