Spanish Ironclad Arapiles-- Part 2: A Side Incident of the Virginius Affair

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

LENGTH:  280 feet

BEAM:   52 feet 2 inches

DRAFT:    17 feet

COMPLEMENT:    537

ARMAMENT:

Two 9-inch rifled muzzle-loaders

Five 8-inch rifled muzzle-loaders

Ten 68-pounder smoothbore guns

This was a powerful ship which most likely could have taken on most any U.S. ship at the time.

During the Virginius Affair, a lighter was sunk that blocked the drydock gates, just in case.  Of course, by the time of the Spanish-American War, this was not the case.  The American Navy was way better than the Spanish one.

This Was a Wakeup Call for the Government and the U.S. Navy.  --Old B-Runner

The Spanish Ironclad Arapiles-- Part 1: Imagine, the Spanish Ship That Captured New York City

From Wikipedia.

In my last post. I mentioned that at the time of the Virginius Affair in 1873 that the Spanish Navy was actually stronger than the U.S. Navy.   And, that was after all the ships in the Union Navy during the Civil War.  Kind of hard to believe.  This was only eight years after the war ended.

This realization caused the government to start building our Navy up.

What really struck home was that there was a Spanish ironclad frigate in New York Harbor being repaired that the general belief was could have taken any of our naval ships there.

The Spanish  ironclad Arapiles was a wooden-hulled, armored steam frigate bought from England during the 1860s for the Spanish Navy.  Begun as an unarmored steam frigate,  she was converted into an ironclad while under construction.  

Damaged when she ran aground in early 1873,  she was under repair in the United States during the Virginius Affair later that year as tensions arose between the United States and Spain over the incident.

The ship was hulked in 1879 and in such bad condition her reconstruction was cancelled in 1882.  The ship was scrapped a year or two later.

She most closely resembled the USS Ironsides.

--Old B-Runner

Caleb Cushing and the Virginius Affair

From Wikipedia.

The Virginius  Affair was a diplomatic dispute which took place from October 1873 to February 1875 between the United States, United Kingdom and Spain (then in control of Cuba) during the Ten Years' War.

The Virginius was a fast American ship hired by Cuban insurrectionists seeking to break away from Spanish control with the intention of landing men and supplies in Ciba.  It was captured by the Spanish who wanted to try the men on board (many of whom were Americans) as pirates and execute them.

And, that is what they did and 53 met their deaths before the British intervened and stopped the executions.

Throughout the situation, there was talk of the United States declaring war on Spain.  Finally the U.S. consul to Spain, Caleb Cushing  (January 6, 1874 to April 9, 1877), defused the tensions by negotiating  $80,000 in reparations to be paid to the executed Americans' families.

The incident prevented a possible war between the two countries and started a resurgence in the U.S. Navy whose fleet was actually inferior to that of Spain at the time.

--Old B-Runner

So, Who Was This Caleb Cushing the Revenue Cutter Was Named After?-- Part 1

I'd heard of the revenue cutter before, but not the man it was named after.  He also played a role in the Civil War as it turns out.

From Wikipedia.

CALEB CUSHING  (January 17, 1800 to January 2, 1879)

Was an American Democratic politician and diplomat who served in Congress from Massachusetts and was attorney general under President Franklin Pierce.  He was an eager proponent of American territorial and commercial expansion, especially regarding the acquisition of Texas, Oregon and Cuba.

He believed that enlarging the American sphere of influence would would fulfill  "the great destiny reserved for this exemplar American Republic."

He also secured a treaty with China in 1844, which opened  five ports to American trade..  After the Civil War, he secured a treaty with Colombia to give the United States a right-of-way  for a transoceanic across the isthmus of Panama. 

In addition, he also helped obtain a favorable  settlement of the Alabama Claims, and as the ambassador to Spain in the 1870s, helped defuse  the troublesome Virginius Affair.

An Important Man in U.S. History Even If I Didn't Know About Him.  --Old B-Runner

Captain Joseph Fry, Cmdr. of B-R Agnes E, Fry-- Part 4: In 1873 Assumes Command of the Virginius

After the Civil War, Joseph Fry was involved in several business adventures, some meeting with success and others were failures.  In 1873, he was offered command of the Virginius by General Quesada, an agent of the Cuban Revolution going on against Spain.

The Virginius was originally named the Virgin, built in Scotland in 1864 as a blockade-runner.  It made several successful trips between Havana and Mobile before being shut up in Mobile Harbor by the Union fleet after it ran past Fort Morgan.  The Confederates used her as a dispatch and transport ship for the remainder of the war.

After the surrender, it became a Revenue Service cutter, but proved unsatisfactory because of its great consumption of coal so it was sold at auction.

--Old B-R'er

Gustavus H. Scott-- Part 4: Fleet Exercise and Retirement

During the Virginius Affair crisis, the United States had ordered that not only the North Atlantic Squadron sail to Key West, Florida, but also the South Atlantic and European squadrons.  All had arrived by 4 February 1874, but by then the crisis was over.

With all those ships gathered in one point, it was decided to hold the first multi-ship, open-ocean tactical exercise in U.S. Navy history.  To avoid problems with who ranked who, Scott was ordered to take his flagship, the USS Worchester on a special cruise to Cuba and the Winward Islands to assess and report on the conditions after the Virginius Affair.

Scott turned over command of the North Atlantic Squadron to Rear Admiral J.R.M. Mullany on 13 June 1874 and retired the same day, having reached mandatory retirement age of 62.

The admiral lived in Washngton, D.C., after that and died 23 March 1882.  He was first buried at Washington's  Oak Hill Cemetery, but in 1896, his remains were exhumed and reburied at Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old B-R'er

Gustavus H. Scott-- Part 3: Postwar Command

Member of the examining board for the admission of volunteer officers to the regular Navy in 1868.  Promoted to commodore 10 February 1869.  Lighthouse inspector 1869-1871.  Promoted to rear admiral 14 February 1873 and given command of the North Atlantic Squadron in May of that year.

He was in command of the North Atlantic Squadron when the Virginius Affair took place in Cuba in November 1873.  The A Spanish warship captured the American sidewheeler SS Virginius which had been hired by Cuban insurrectionists against Spanish rule to bring men and war material to Cuba during the Ten Years' War.

The ship and crew were brought to Santiago de Cuba where they were found guilty of piracy and sentenced to death by firing squad.  Fifty-three were executed before British and American warships arrived and threatened to bombard unless the executions ceased.  They did.

--Old B-Runner