Gilbert Elliott's CSS Albemarle-- Part 3: Problems with William Lynch

The project to build the Albemarle was also beset by administrative issues.  Questions over contract terms cropped up, especially  after William F. Lynch, North Carolina's ranking naval officer got involved.  In October 1863, he assumed overall supervision of construction, and, fearing that Edwards Ferry was too vulnerable to Union cavalry raids, ordered the unfinished ironclad towed upstream to Halifax.

"For many reasons it was thought judicious to remove the boat to ...Halifax," Elliott later wrote, "and there the work of completion, putting in her machinery, armament, etc., was done...."

While dragging the hull from the cornfield on a bluff to the river below, the hull was bent,  "but to our great gratification did not...spring a leak."  Once the hull was straightened out, it was hauled 22 miles up the Roanoke River to Halifax where it awaited its iron plates.

--Old B-Runner