Civil War Navy Books by William N. Still

From GoodReads site.

Iron Afloat:  The Story of  the Confederate Armorclads

Confederate Shipbuilding

The Confederate Navy:  The Ships, Men and Organization

Ironclad  Captains:  Commanding Officers of the USS Monitor

Raiders and Blockaders

Monitor Builders:  A Historical  Study of the Principal Firms and Individuals Involved inthe Construction of the USS Monitor.

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Books he coauthored:

Two Years on the Alabama

Admiral of the New Empire:    The Life and Career of George Dewey. (Dewey was a navalofficer during the war and at Fort Fisher.

Captain  James Carlin:  Anglo-American Blockade Runner

Quite a Lengthy List.  --Old B-Runner

CSS Mississippi-- Part 2: Enter Nelson and Asa Tift

The CSS Mississippi was the brainchild of Nelson Tift, a man raised in Florida as a child, but had moved to Georgia as a young man where he had become locally prominent.    (The town of Tifton in Tift County, Georgia, is named for him.  His nephew Henry Harding Taft named the city after his uncle, who is regarded as the founder of Albany, Georgia, the state's eighth largest city.)

At the beginning of the war, he realized that the Confederacy would have to build a navy, but faced major problems since there were few major shipyards and a lack of skilled shipwrights to build the ships.  To save time, he he  came up with the idea of constructing shops on the house-building.

His brother Asa  F. Tift agreed to work with him.  He had remained in Florida after Nelson moved to Georgia and had become a successful businessman in Key West and had come to know Stephen Mallory before he became a United States Senator and Confederate Secretary of the Navy.

Asa and Nelson showed his model to Mallory, who passed it on to a review board who declared it a feasible idea and Mallory authorized them to go to New Orleans and build the ironclad which would have18 guns and would be driven by three screw propellers.

--Old B-R'er

USS New York (LPD-21)-- Part 2: Her Sister Ships Also Named for 9/11 Sites

On 9 September 2004, Gordon R. England, then Secretary of Defense,  announced that two of the USS New York's sister ships would be named Arlington and Somerset in commemoration of the places where two other planes used in the attacks came down:  Arlington County, Virginia, and Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

A symbolic amount of steel from the World Trade Center after it was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks, was used in the construction of the New York.

The ship is the first built designed fully from the CAD-screen up to support both  of the Marine primary capabilities, LCAC  landing craft and MV-22B Osprey aircraft.

The contract to build the ship was awarded to Northrop  Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2003 and was under construction when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

The Dram Tree on the Cape Fear River-- Part 2 "A Cup of Conviviality"

As State Representative George L. Morton put it in 1909, the Dram Tree "umpired loving cup conviviality and good fellowship on the Lower Cape Fear."

The Dram Tree was destroyed sometime in the 1940s by the dredging of the Cape Fear in connection with activity at the N.C. Shipbuilding Co. (built over 240 Liberty Ships during WW II) located where the State Port is today.

In 1988, the City of Wilmington opened Dram Tree Park in its memory, on the river front, just north of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge near the intersection of Castle and Front streets, Wilmington.

A young cypress tree was planted as a replica near the park's boat ramp.

And, you just know those old blockade-runners stopped for a dram by that tree.

A Tree of History.  A Drink for Me.  --Old B-R'er

USS Weehawken-- Part 1: An Improved Monitor, But Short Career

From Wikipedia.

A Passaic-class Monitor named for Weehawken, New Jersey.

Launched 5 November 1862 at Jersey City, New Jersey by Zeno Secor  & Company.  Commissioned  18 January 1863, with Captain John Rodgers in command.

200 feet long, beam 46 feet.  Complement: 75 officers and men.  Armament:  One 15-inch smoothbore gun and one 11-inch Dahlgren gun.

The Weehawken was an improved and enlarged Monitor.

Served 11 Months.  --Old B-R'er

Shipbuilding in Delaware During the Civil War-- Part 4: Boom Continued After the War

Pusey & Jones contracted to build seven sidewheel/propeller steamers as Union supply ships.

Several companies sprang up to fulfill contracts:  Kirkman & Co., W & A Thatcher and Jackson & Sharp.  Robert Barr & Co. also contracted for a number of vessels.

The shipbuilding boom continued after the war for the new generation of U.S. naval ships.  This continued for the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th.  Most of the shipyards shut down after World War II and Wilmington's waterfront went into decline.

The new Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. Ltd. absorbed Harlan & Hollingsworth in 1917.  Pusey & Jones went out of business in 1960.

--Old B-R'er

Shipbuilding in Delaware During the Civil War-- Part 2: Need for Ironclad Steamers

In the decade preceding the war, Delaware led the United States in shipbuilding.  During that time it built 35 iron-hulled ships, more than Philadelphia, New Jersey, Baltimore and Boston.

With the coming of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy was still using wooden-huller warships.  And very few of them were steamships.

Once it was learned that the Confederates were building the ironclad CSS Virginia, the U.S. Navy rushed to build its own ironclad steamer, the Monitor.  After the clash between the two ships it became well apparent that a new age of naval architecture was here and the federal government rushed to build more ironclad steamers.

To meet the new demand, they established shipyards at Chester, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey.  And, they began transforming Wilmington-built ships into the many blockaders they were going to need to seal the Confederacy's coast.  They were also converted into troopships and supply vessels.

--Old B-R

Shipbuilding in Delaware During the Civil War: Building the Iron Steamships

From the August 21, 2015, Coastal Point "Civil War Profiles: Shipbuilding in Delaware during the Civil War" by Thomas J. Ryan.

From 1740-1775, Wilmington, Delaware, launched over 300 vessels.  Legend has it that the Wilmington-built ship Nancy was the first to raise a quickly-sewn together American flag in St. Croix, Virgin islands, when it learned of the Declaration of Independence.

In the decades before the Civil War, Delaware led the nation in shipbuilding.

In the 1850s, two firms: Harlan & Hollingsworth and Pusey & Jones, both located along the WEilmington waterfront, began to perform ship repairs and engine installation.  Pusey & Jones also contracted to build the first iron steamship, the Flora McDonald.  Harlan & Hollinsworth soon followed with the iron steamers Ashland and Ocean.  The two shipyards fostered the beginning of many supporting industries in the Wilmington area.

--Old B-Runner