USS Cairo, Ironclad

[Adsos Letter]

Vicksburg, Mississippi

[NV Whino]

1. The wood substructure is magnificent

What are the cylinders? They look like they might be flotation devices.

[Adsos Letter]

2. They are boilers. She was steam powered, she was.

...until she hit a "torpedo" in the Yazoo River, that is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cairo_(1861)

[NV Whino]

3. are they reconstructing her?

Or are they leaving her like that for display? Either way those are a spectacular shots.

[Adsos Letter]

4. She's been left like that for display, with some reconstruction/preservation.

The museum next door contains bunches of artifacts associated with this ironclad.

[NV Whino]

5. One tends to think of only the Monitor and Merrimack

I didn't realize there were other ironclad ships. Thanks for posting not only great photographs but enlightening me as to the existence of other ironclad vessels.

[alfredo]

7. Can you imagine the noise when a cannon ball bounced off

the side of it?

[Adsos Letter]

8. Hey, alfredo! Here is an account of what it was like inside the USS Monitor

when it fought the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) at Hampton Roads; it gives a bit of the flavor of fights between ironclads, I think.

"Now mark the condition our men and officers were in. Since Friday morning, forty-eight hours, they had had no rest, and very little food, as we could not conveniently cook. They had been hard at work all night, and nothing to eat for breakfast, except hard bread, and were thoroughly worn out. As for myself, I had not slept a wink for fiftyone hours, and had been on my feet almost constantly. But after the first gun was fired we forgot all fatigues, hard work, and every thing else, and fought as hard as men ever fought. We loaded and fired as fast as we could...Five times during the engagement we touched each other, and each time I fired a gun at her..Once she tried to run us down with her iron prow, but did no damage whatever. After fighting for two hours we hauled off for half an hour to hoist shot in the tower. At it we went again as hard as we could, the shot, shell, grape, canister, musket and rifle-balls flying in every direction, but doing no damage. Our tower was struck several times, and, though the noise was pretty loud it did not affect us any. Stodder and one of the men were carelessly leaning against the tower, when a shot struck it exactly opposite them and disabled them for an hour or two."
•S. Dana Greene, Executive Officer, Lieutenant, USN
Lydia Minturn, Mrs., ed.: Soldiers' Letters, from camps, battle-field and prison. Published for the U.S. sanitary commission. Bunce & Harrington, New York. 1865. pp 106-115.
http://www.cssvirginia.org/vacsn4/original/index.htm#Monitor

Apparently it did not pay to lean against the inside surface of the iron plating when shot was flying about! :D

[alfredo]

10. Inside the monitor

http://www.civilwarhome.com/monitorturret.htm

[Adsos Letter]

11. Very Cool. The profile view reminds me of eyewitness accounts

of their first sight of it entering the bay: "What appeared to be a cheesebox mounted atop a raft billowing smoke came chuffing into the harbor..." :D

Regarding the noise factor we talked about; apparently the Monitor's gun turret iron was 8" thick, with a further 1" interior plate to reduce noise (not sure how that worked, perhaps an air gap).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor

The USS Monitor probably "rang more like a bell" when struck; USS Cairo's maximum plate thickness was less: 3 1/2" at the front, 2 1/2" at the sides, but backed by 27" of white oak, which was sure to have a deadening, insulating effect. There is some excellent info, accompanied by photos, here:
http://www.cityofart.net/bship/cairo.html

USS CAIRO

[alfredo]

12. Oh Give Us a Navy of Iron

Words by D. Brainerd Williamson, music by James W. Porter
Dedicated to Capt. John Ericson, inventor of the Monitor.

Verse One

O give us a Navy of Iron,
And to man it our Yankee Lads;
And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,
With our Navy of Iron clads;
Then adieu to _Britannia's_ power,
We'll crush it when ever we please;
The _Lion_ shall yield to the _Eagle_,
And _Columbia_ shall rule the sea's.

CHORUS

O give us a Navy of Iron,
And to man it our Yankee Lads;
And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,
With our Navy of Iron clads.



Verse two

Old England the foe of our fathers,
The foe of their children today,
Is gloating in hopes that our Union
In darkness is passing away.
But Treason shall die in its ashes,
And stronger than ever before;
We'll turn on the jealous old tyrant,
And punish John Bull at the door.

CHORUS

O give us a Navy of Iron,
And to man it our Yankee Lads;
And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,
With our Navy of Iron clads.



Verse Three

And where in the wide world a nation,
That could cope with our Iron Jacks?
We would sweep all their seas and harbors,
Of their Warriors and Merrimacs.
Then prove to the despots of Europe,
That freedom must reign on the seas.



CHORUS

O give us a Navy of Iron,
And to man it our Yankee Lads;
And we'll conquer the world's broad oceans,
With our Navy of Iron clads.

[Adsos Letter]

15. Ah, alfredo...now I'll have to dig out my old John Philip Sousa recordings...

"Glory of the Yankee Navy" (1909) might fill the bill. :D

[alfredo]

16. If Monty Python thinks he's great, that's good enough for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1OqPLcIRBs

[JeffR]

6. Excellent shots!

More!

[Adsos Letter]

9. Thanks, Jeff! I'm still trying to find time to work through the shots

and my time is a bit limited after this trip. I was AMAZED at how beautiful the South is...there were a lot of potential places to shoot, but we were more pressed for time than I would have liked, so I didn't get as much wandering time in as I would have liked. Still, we did really enjoy the trip, and spent some time in some great places. Kim and I will be going back next spring for a 3-week jaunt from Boston-Savannah-San Diego, then up CA Hwy 1 to home.

This was the driving force in my eldest daughter's mind during the trip:



:D :hi:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. CSS ain't it?

small nit pick

[Adsos Letter]

14. No, the Cairo was built in the North, for the North; however,

the CSS Virginia was built on the hulk of the USS Merrimac.

edited to add: On 12 December 1862, while clearing mines from the river preparatory to the attack on Haines Bluff, Mississippi, Cairo struck a torpedo detonated by volunteers hidden behind the river bank and sank in 12 minutes; there were no casualties. Cairo became the first armored warship sunk by an electrically detonated mine.

Electrically command-detonated mines in the Civil War...who knew? :shrug:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. wow, I was not even aware the Union

had ships designed like that, of course the river war was different than the defense of NY, Phil, Balt and DC for which the Monitors were designed.

and I am pretty well-read on CW history. I am embarrassed.

thanks