Thursday, November 14, 2013

150 Years Ago:-- November 14, 1863: Problems With Confederate Ships at Charleston

NOVEMBER 14TH: USS Bermuda captures schoooner Mary Campbell which had been seized earlier today by Confederates under the command of Master Duke, CSN. Five months earlier he had seized a Union ship near New Orleans The capture took place off Pensacola.

**  Paymaster John deBree, CSN, reported to Mallory: "Restricted as our main resources are by the blockade and by the limited number of producers in the country, it has...been the main object to feed and clothe the navy without a strict regard to those technicalities...."

**  General Bearegard lamblasts the shortcomings of Confederate ships at Charleston saying: "Our gunboats are defective in six respects: First. They have no speed....Second. They are of too great draft to navigate the harbor.... Third. They are unseaworthy by their shape and construction.... Fourth. They are incapable of resisting the enemy's XV-inch shots at close quarters. Fifth. They are not fight at long range.... Sixth. They are very costly, warm, and unconfortable, and badly ventilated; consequently sickly."

--Old B-Runner

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