CSS Mississippi-- Part 3: Problems, Problems and More Problems

Among the first problems facing the Tift brothers was finding a shipyard capable of handling their project.  None in or near New Orleans  was suitable, so they  established their own near Jefferson City on the river just north of the New Orleans city line.  The builders of the CSS Louisiana faced the same problem and also ended up at Jefferson City and the two massive ironclads were built next to each other. (There apparently is not a Jefferson City, Mississippi anymore.)

The first plank of the CSS Mississippi-- it would not be correct to refer to it as a keel--  was laid down October  14, 1861, and it was found the first design would not have sufficient room to provide extra boilers so the ship was lengthened to an eventual 252 feet.  That also allowed for two more guns to be added, for a total of 20.

Construction delays plagued the Mississippi right from the beginning.  Getting the parts and materials was the worst of them.  On top of that, there were labor troubles.

Iron for the armor  was in short supply throughout the Confederacy and was not to be found near New Orleans.  Eventually the Tifts found a foundry in Atlanta that could produce iron plate of the required thickness, but then that led, of course, to the logistics problem of getting the needed iron plate to Jefferson City.)

--Old B-Runner

About Wilmington's Eagles Island-- Part 2: Civil War Story, the CSS North Carolina

In 1848, Samuel Beery and his two sons bought  property on Eagles Island from Henry Savage for $12,000.  Here they constructed  the Commercial  Mill and Ship Yard, which was turning out 250 ton vessels by 1850.  By the time Thomas Beery bought out his father in 1852, the site held a saw mill, a shipyard, a marine railway (a kind of drydock) along with a blacksmith shop and rigging loft.

In 1861, the Benjamin and William Beery began building warships and other support ships for the Confederacy.  The most famous one they completed was the ironclad CSS North Carolina, 150 feet long and mounting six 8-inch guns.

She proved to be a very ineffectual ship and was so underpowered that all that could be done with her was to anchor the ship  off Smithville (today's Southport) near the Cape Fear River's old entrance and use as a floating battery.  She remained there until developing a leak and sinking.  So much for her Confederate career.

--Old B-Runner

Blockade Runner Lelia-- Part 1: Built Specifically to Run the Blockade

From the August 29, 2019, London Daily Mail  "Wreck of the 19th century ship in Liverpool Bay built secretly to help slave -owning Confederate  forces in the US Civil War is granted special protection" by Jack Newman.

I am not sure why the English press made such a big deal about the Confederacy having slaves in their articles about the ship.

**  Was a purposefully-built ship to run the Union blockade.

**  Sank in a ferocious storm on its maiden voyage, January 14, 1865 with loss of 47 on board.  Now at bottom of Liverpool Bay.

**  Another seven lives lost when Liverpool No. 1 Lifeboat  sank while trying to  pick up Lelia survivors.

**  Built at Millers Shipyard in Toxteth, one of a small number of ships built in England in complicity with the Confederacy.  (Again, complicity as if that was a bad thing?)

**  Wreck discovered and identified in the 1990s when a bell marked "Lelia 1864" found.

**  Partially buried remains are 50 feet deep , 10 miles north west of Hilbre Point on the Wirral.

--Old B-Runner

Sunken Blockade Runner Lelia Gets Protected Status-- Part 3: Building Confederate Ships in Britain

The Confederacy had no navy to defeat the Union blockade.  They looked to Liverpool to build the blockade runners and cruisers they needed.

James Dunwoody Bullock (uncle of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt) a Confederate naval officer, was sent to Liverpool  in June 1861 with orders to  to obtain six  steam vessels suitable for use a commerce  destroyers and to purchase and transport arms.

Liverpool based  merchants and the foreign bankers of the Confederacy,  Fraser, Trenholm and Co., helped provide funds for the construction of the CSS Florida, the first foreign built  commerce raider.  This ship was built by William C. Miller  and Sons of Toxteth, who also built the Lelia.

Bulloch's second contract was with Laird's in Birkenhead who built the CSS Alabama, launched in 1862.

Another Liverpool shipyard, Jones, Quiggin and Co. built many ships for the Confederacy including five blockade runners, the first one being the Banshee, which became the first steel ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. in 1863.

--Old B-Runner

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

Cassidey's Shipyard-- Part 2

Work on the CSS Raleigh, a four-gun steam sloop sometimes classified as a ram. began in mid-1862, about the same time that work on the CSS North Carolina began at Beery's Shipyard did across the river.

The Raleigh's construction was frequently stalled.  Crews and workers fled yellow fever epidemics of 1862 and 1863.  Then, workers went on strike when pay was delayed by the Confederate Navy department.

It wasn't until April 30, 1863, that the Raleigh was commissioned.

After the war, Cassidey's Shipyard merged with Benjamin W. Beery's adjoining works at the foot of Nun Street and was renamed Cassidey & Beery.  In 1881 S.W. Skinner took over the facility, and by 1911 the Cape Fear  Machine Works had moved onto the site.

--Old B-Runner

Cassidey's Shipyard-- Part 1

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

This was the smaller of the two Confederate shipyards in Wilmington, North Carolina during the war and the construction site for the ironclad ram CSS Raleigh.

The yard  was founded when James Cassidey (1792-1866), a ship's carpenter, bought a waterfront lot at the foot of Church Street on the east bank of the Cape Fear River and by the late 1830s he was operating a shipyard at the site.  By 1846, he was advertising a maritime railway.

By 1850, he was repairing and copper-bottoming sailing ships on the west Indies trade.

More to Come.  --Old B-Runner

Confederate Shipyards in North Carolina

From the ConfederateNavy.com site.

EDWARDS FERRY SHIPYARD--  1862 near Scotland Neck on Roanoke River (where CSS Albemarle was built).
WASHINGTON SHIPYARD  either a Confederate shipyard or private used under contract 1861-1862.
WHITEHALL CSA SHIPYARD-  Seven Springs n the Neuse River (where the CSS Neuse was built).-
WILMINGTON--  Either CSN or private, 1862-1865.
FAYETTEVILLE CSA NAVAL ORDNANCE DEPOT--  1865, short-lived after being moved from Augusta, Georgia.
CHARLOTTE CSA NAVAL ORDNANCE DEPOT AND NAVAL WORKS--  1862-1865.  Confederate Marine Engineering Works at Mecklenburg Iron Works used some of the machinery formerly at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia.

Building Them Boats in the Tarheel State.  --Old B-R'er