While On the Subject of Shipwrecks-- Part 1

From the October 28, 2022,  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "Six surprising shipwreck facts."

Shipwrecks can have a big impact on ocean science.  Here are six ways:

1.  SHIPWRECKS CAN SERVE AS "UNDERWATER SKYSCRAPERS."

The area around them have much higher fish abundance.

2.  SHIPWRECKS OFTEN OCCUR IN LARGE LAKES

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Michigan protects 36 known shipwrecks and 59 suspected ones.  The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Huron is home to 100 known shipwrecks.

3.  THERE MAY BE AS MANY AS 10,000 SHIPWRECKS IN NORTH AMERICA

The NOAA's Office of Coast Survey (OCS) uses high-tech surveying methods to reveal shipwrecks.  There are now approximately 10,000 wrecked vessels  within our nation's waterways.

--Old B-Runner

A Quick Follow Up on James Alden and Did I See the Words Fort Fisher?

Yesterday, I wrote about this man's grave being at Portland, Maine's Eastern Cemetery, something I discovered while going through a list of American Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War veterans buried at this historic cemetery.

Since he was also a Navy guy, that naturally piqued my interest.  It is more than just a gravestone, actually more of a 4-sided monument to him with four sides that towers over the other gravestones nearby.

It has four panels.

**  The first one also has a rendering of his face as well as birth/death dates and where they took place.

**  The second panel has a rendering of  a mariner's sextant and the  words:

Intrepid Explorer  /  Skillful Hydrographer  /  Cartographer  of the West Coast / Of the United States.

**  Panel 3:   Rendering of the Seal of the United States Navy

Entered the Navy April 1, 1828 / Commissioned Rear Admiral June 19, 1871.

**  Panel 4:  Rendering of sail warships in combat.

Mexican War / Civil War / New Orleans / Vicksburg / Port Hudson / Mobile Bay /  Fort Fisher.

Wait a minute, did I just see the words FORT FISHER?  Plus, that sure was a lot of major Civil War naval battles.

Well then, that sure makes my day, doesn't it?

And, then there's that famous Alden name.  I wonder if....   Could he have been related to that Pilgrim Alden?

So Happy.  --Old B-Runner

Quite the Discoveries Today: James Alden USN Civil War

Back on Feb. 22 I had two great discoveries as I was doing a different blog than this.

While I was going through a list of War of 1812 soldiers and sailors buried at Portland, Maine's Eastern Cemetery, there were also American Revolution and Civil War soldiers in the list.  The very first one was of a Civil War veteran of the U.S. Navy named Rear Admiral  James Alden.

It had this to say from his monument.

**************************

Rear Admiral

James Alden

Born in Portland  March  31, 1810

Died in San Francisco  Feb. 6, 1877

Intrepid explorer, skillful hydrographer,  Cartographer of  west coast of  United States

Entered  the Navy April 1, 1828

Commissioned Rear Admiral  June 19, 1871.

****************************

Obviously with this blog I am greatly interested in anything Civil War Navy.  So, I'll have to do more research on him.

Always Neat When I Find Something New While Working on Other Blogs.  --Old B-Runner

USCSS Walker Commanders-- Pt. 6 Benjamin Franklin Sands-- Part 2: Distinguished Service

Benjamin Sands commanded the ship until 1857 and spent much of the remaining time mapping the Gulf Coast of the United States.

During this time, he wrote:

"I was engaged  upon this interesting hydrographic work in  the Gulf of Mexico, the fields of my especial  surveys being the Florida Keys and the west coast of that state, including Cedar Keys, Tampa Bay and Pensacola Harbor, thence west, taking in the Bay of Biloxi, Chaudeleur  Sound, the Deltas of the Mississippi, and  the westward thereof, including Atchafalaya Bay and Sabine Pass on the Texas Coast."

Sands and his crew also plotted portions of the Gulf Stream from Florida to Cape Hatteras in 1855, which was of key interest to  Superintendent  Bache.

Benjamin Sands, like his predecessors, enjoyed a prominent career that included early Coast Survey duty in the 180s and early 1840s and service in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican War.

He served with distinction on post-Mexican War Coast Survey duty, including his time on the Walker.  Sands' Civil War service was as  a captain on blockade squadron duty on the Atlantic and Gulf (and he was at both Battles of Fort Fisher).  He also was appointed  Superintendent of the  U.S. Naval Observatory.

In 1871, he was appointed rear admiral.

--Old B-Runner

Officers USCSS Walker-- Part 4: James Alden

JAMES ALDEN

Carlile Patterson was followed by Lieutenant James Alden (1810-1877), a promising naval officer who had been on the  Wilkes Expedition,  on board the USS Constitution during a global voyage and the Mexican War where he served withy the Home Squadron off Mexico.

Detached for Coast Survey duty from the summer of 1849 through late winter  1851, Alden commanded  the steamer John Y. Mason and then  the Walker.

After the Walker, he went on to command the Pacific Coast-based USCSS Active until 1860.

A distinguished Civil War career saw Alden promoted  to captain and then commodore. He was also at the two Battles of Fort Fisher.

 Postwar, he served as  a rear admiral  commanding the European Fleet of the U.S. Navy.

--Old B-Runner

Officers of USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 3: Carlile Patterson

Lieutenant (Commanding) Carlile P. Patterson (1816-1881) was the Walker's first  Coast Survey commanding officer, assuming his post in Mobile from Captain Evans of he Revenue Marine.

Patterson served with the Coast Survey with distinction as a naval officer on detached service, and commanded the Survey's first ship in the Gulf of Mexico, the schooner  Phoenix, in 1845.

After commanding the Walker, Patterson resigned and headed into merchant service with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company commanding the vessels Oregon and Golden Gate on their regular  voyages from Panama  to San Francisco from 1849 to 1853.  He was in command of the PMSSC Oregon when it brought news that California had been admitted to the Union.

Patterson remained in the West until 1861 with his family.  Returning east when the Civil War started he rejoined the Coast Survey and in 1874, became its Superintendent, a post he held until his death.

--Old B-Runner

Many Notable Officers Assigned to Coast Survey-- Part 2: Porter, Lee, Rodgers, Maffitt and Ammen

Some of the the U.S. officers who served on the Coast Survey ships who went on to achieve greater fame in the Civil War were David Dixon Porter, John Rodgers, Samuel Philips Lee, C.R.P. Rodgers, Thornton Jenkins, Daniel Ammen, C.H. McBlair and Alban Stimers.

Also, John N. Maffitt, who would later gain fame for commanding the CSS Florida and several blockade runners, was ordered to the Coast Survey in 1842, where he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1843 and went on to serve fourteen years   in the hydrographic survey.  He surveyed Nantucket, Massachusetts; Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia.  A channel in Charleston Harbor still bears his name.

These and others served on the Coast Survey's steamships.

These ships became an intrinsic part  of great national  endeavors driven by  remarkable changes in transportation  technology, new insights in science of the United States coastline in the first half of the 19th century.

--Old B-Runner

Many Notable Naval Officers Assigned to the USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 1: It's the Experience

From the NOAA  National Marine Sanctuaries "Rediscovering the Robert J. Walker: Some notable officers assigned to the  Robert J. Walker."

In a mutually  beneficial arrangement, naval officers were assigned  to the Coast Survey before the Civil War.  This afforded early  command opportunities  for these officers  as well as training them in aspects of navigation, carting, inshore piloting and other naval skills.

With the addition of steam vessels, the Coast Survey became even more desirable as a training ground.

For many naval officers attached to the Coast Survey at this time, this was  their first experience on steam vessels, preparing them for the upcoming conflict.

The commanding officers of these vessels (and the Walker as well)  reads like a "Who's Who" of Civil War fame.

--Old B-R'er

USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 4: Some More Facts and Loss

TYPE OF SHIP:  Survey ship

LENGTH:  133 feet

BEAM:  31 feet

DRAFT:  9 feet 3 inches

PROPULSION:   steam engine, sidewheel

**************************************

LOSS

Early on the morning of  21 June 1860, the Robert J. Walker had completed her most recent  hydrographic survey work and was bound from Norfolk, Virginia, to New York City in rough seas and a crew of 72 and the wife of the executive officer aboard.  At 02:20, a commercial schooner , identified as the  Fanny by the Robert J. walker's crew, collided with her.

The Walker sank  in less than 30 minutes off the coast of New Jersey about 12 nautical miles southeast of the Absecon  Inlet Light, with a loss of 20 men.

--Old B-Runner

USCSS Robert J. Walker (1844)-- Part 1: Coast Survey Ship

From Wikipedia

John Julius Guthrie also served on this ship before the Civil War according to one source I found.  But, in addition, it was amazing how many naval officers who gained fame during the Civil War also were on this ship.

The USCS  Robert J. Walker was a survey ship that served  in the United States  Coast Survey, a predecessor of  the United States Coast and Geodetic  Survey, from  1848 until its sinking in 1860 after a collision at sea.  Her loss resulted in the loss of twenty men, the greatest loss of life in a single incident to ever befall the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or any of its ancestor agencies.

The Robert J. Walker was a sidewheel steamer built in 1844 by Joseph Tomlinson at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as one of the U.S. government's  first iron-hulled  steamers.  She was among   eight steamers originally intended for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, but the Revenue Service decided that steamers were too expensive to maintain and operate, and she instead entered Coast Survey service in 1848.

--Old B-Runner

W.H.C. Whiting Announces Completion of C. Lookout Lighthouse-- Part 3

The color of the tower is red, and the focal plane is 156 feet above the level of the sea.

The keeper's dwelling, which is part of the old tower, is painted red with  white horizontal stripes.

The illuminating apparatus  is a catadioptric Frensel lens of the first order, showing a fixed light of the natural color, which should be visible in ordinary weather a distance of 22 nautical miles.

The position of the light-house, as given by the Coast Survey, is:

Latitude 34 degrees 30 minutes 29 seconds north
Longitude  76 degrees 30 minutes 41 seconds west of Greenwich

The new light-house will be lighted for he first time at sunset  on Tuesday, the first day of November next, and it will be kept burning  during that and every night thereafter until further orders.

By  order of the Light-house Board:

W.R. FRANKLIN, Secretary

Treasury Department
Office Light-house Board, Sept. 19, 1859
Sep 24-3t

Of course, it was turned off less than two years later.  So, the original color was red, instead of the diamonds associated with it today.

--Old B-Runner

Ralph Chandler, USN-- Part 3: Civil War and Post-War Service

From 1855 to 1859, he was involved in coast survey and the survey of the Parana River and was serving on the sloop Vandalia when the Civil War began.  He was on her at the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861.  The next year he was assigned to the steam-sloop San Jacinto of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

Chandler was present at the engagement of the Sewell's Point batteries and the capture of Norfolk.  On 25 July 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander and commanded the screw steamer USS Huntsville in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.  Later he was transferred to command the USS Maumee in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and fought at Fort Fisher  and the capture of Wilmington.

For two years after the war, he commanded the steamer USS Don and was on ordnance duty at  the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1868.  The next year he commanded the USS Tallapoosa.  Promoted to captain in  1874 and commodore in 1884 and served as commandant of Brooklyn Navy Yard.

On 6 October 1886, he was commissioned as read admiral and ordered to relieve Rear Admiral John L. Davis (also at Fort Fisher) in command of the Asiatic Squadron.  He died of apoplexy in Hong Kong February 9, 1889, and is buried there.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Casey, Florida-- Part 1: Built and Abandoned in 1850

The USS Gem of the Sea went to Useppa Island on the west coast of Florida to aid Florida Rangers

From the Useppa Island Historical Society."

1850   A supply depot on Calusa Ridge is established called Fort Casey is established January 3, 1850.    It was garrisoned by 180 soldiers and abandoned in November of the same year.

1848-1855   U.S. Coast Survey of Charlotte Harbor produces "Sketch F" map showing Fort Casey" on Useppa Island. (Bache 1855).

--Old B-Runner

April 13, 1862: Recon of Mississippi River Below the Forts

APRIL 13TH, 1862:  Coast Survey party under Ferdinand H. Gerdes, begins surveying the Mississippi River below Forts Jackson and St. Philip.  Harassed by fire from the forts and riflemen on the river banks, Gerdes' party worked for five days to provide Flag Officer Farragut with a reliable map of the river, forts, water batteries and obstructions across the river.

In Preparation for the Attack.  --Old B-Runner

February 22, 1862: Fort Pulaski Isolated and Farragut Takes Soundings

FEBRUARY 22ND, 1862:  Union naval vessels entered the Savannah River through Wall's Cut, isolating Fort Pulaski.

**  Flag officer Farragut ordered Coast Survey team to sound the Mississippi River passes and to mark the safest channel.

--Old B-Runner

Benjamin F. Sands, USN-- Part 1: Much Survey Work

From Wikipedia.

February 11, 1811 to June 30, 1883.  Rear Admiral.  Born in Baltimore, appointed midshipman in April 1828.  By 1834 had served in the Mediterranean and West Indies squadrons.

In 1834 to 1841, he was involved with the coastal survey of the United States.

During the Mexican War he was with the Home squadron and served off Tabasco and Tuxpan on the brig USS Washington.  In 1850 he commanded the steamship Walker in the Gulf of Mexico.  He also invented a sounding apparatus and other hydrographic instruments.

In 1861 he was serving on the West Coast doing survey work and commanding the Active.

USS Arctic-- Part 2: Service Before the Civil War

Continued from Jan. 8, 2016.  This is continuing with the story of the CSS Arctic, located at Wilmington, N.C., during the war.

In July 1856, the USS Arctic put to sea to make depth soundings in preparation for the laying of the first transatlantic cable.  Late in the month the Arctic was at St. John's, Newfoundland and 23 August 1856, was at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland.

After completion of this, it was commissioned into the Coast Survey and in 1857 and early 1858 made further cable soundings in the Atlantic Ocean.

Recommissioned into the U.S. navy, from May to July 1858 was part of the American squadron off Cuba protecting American ships from British ships using their "right of search and seizure."

In early 1859, the Arctic's propulsion machinery was removed and the ship was turned over to the U.S. Lighthouse Board as a lightship.  It was placed off the coast of North Carolina where it was captured by Confederate forces and turned into a warship.

After the war, it was raised and repaired and served another career as a lightship before being sold at public auction 16 April 1879.

--Old B-R'er

USS Arctic-- Part 1: Looking for Kane

From Wikipedia.

Not much in Wiki about the CSS Arctic, but a lot about the USS Arctic.

Steamer 125 tons, 172 feet long, 24 foot beam and mounted one 12-pdr. cannon.In the U.S. Navy 1855-1856 and 1858-1859.  Also a U.S. Coast Survey ship and lightship for the U.S. Lighthouse Board from 1859-1879.

Constructed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1855 and commissioned for the purpose of rescuing the Arctic Expedition of Elisha K. Kane.  It put to sea with the USS Release on 4 June 1855 and found Kane and his men at Diska Island in Baffin Bay on the west coast of Greenland.  They had survived and 84-day journey across pack ice and open water in open boats.

The two ships returned to the U.S. in Autumn 1855.

--Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago Today-- November 9, 1863: We Need Maps and Charts

NOVEMBER 9TH:

Rear Admiral Porter wrote Secretary Welles suggesting that the U.S. Coast Survey make maps of the areas adjacent to the Mississippi River "where navigation is made up of innumerable lakes and bayous not known to any but the most experienced pilots." These were not on modern charts of the time.

Welles recommended to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase that a survey similar to the one made of the North Carolina coast be made saying it would greatly facilitate operations there and pledged naval assistance.

NOVEMBER 9TH:

Admiral Buchanan ordered Acting Midshipman Edward A. swain to Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, and to take command of the CSS Gunnison and to destroy the USS Colorado or any other blockader they could find. The Gunnison was a torpedo boat.

Maps and Torpedoes. --Old B-Runner

Porter Praises the Work of Coast Survey

AUGUST 5, 1863, 150 years ago.

REAR ADMIRAL PORTER praised the work of the U.S. Coast Survey men assigned to him in a letter to A.D. Bache, Superintendent of the Coast Survey. 

He especialy cited the quality of the charts made for him. Because of them "gunboats have steamed through where the keel of a canoe never passed, and have succeeded in reaching points in the enemy's country" where they never expected attack.


The work of the Coast Survey during the war is another often overlooked aspect.

--Old B-Runner