Confederate Navy Vessels Operating in South Carolina Waters-- Part 4: Torpedo Boats and Submersibles

TORPEDO BOATS AND SUBMERSIBLES IN SOUTH CAROLINA WATERS

DAVID--  steam-powered torpedo boat, 50 feet long.  Captured at the fall of Charleston..

MIDGET DAVID--  Same as above.

H.L. HUNLEY--  Hand-cranked submarine which sank the USS Housatonic and then sank itself.

LARGE DAVID--  160 feet long and under construction and captured at the fall of Charleston.

--Old B-Runner

Confederate Navy Vessels Operating In South Carolina Waters-- Part 3: Privateers

I see that three cannons from the CSS Pee Dee, from yesterday's post, will be raised from the Pee Dee River.

STONO--  Burned on evacuation of Charleston.   Captured from US Navy, formerly the USS Isaac Smith.

THEODORA--  Sidewheel iron privateer, 500 tons.  Formerly the Carolina, name changed to Gordon and then to Theodora.


CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS OPERATING FROM SOUTH CAROLINA

BEAUREGARD--  schooner, 61 tons.  Captured November 12, 1861 by USS W.G. Anderson.

DIXIE--  schooner 111 tons.  Captured April 15, 1862, by USS Keystone State off Georgetown, S.C..  Name changed to Kate Hale when it became a blockade-runner then later to Success.  (Captured by Union, sold and became a blockade-runner.)

JEFFERSON DAVIS--  full-rigged brig, 187 tons.  Formerly the slaver Echo.

SALLIE--  170 tons

SAVANNAH--  schooner, sails, 53 tons.  Captured by USS Perry June 3, 1861.  Formerly Pilot Boat No. 7 at Charleston, S.C..

--Old B-Runner

Confederate Naval Vessels Operating in South Carolina Waters-- Part 2

INDIAN CHIEF--  Receiving ship, burned when Charleston was evacuated.

LADY DAVIS--  Steamer, tug, iron, Its machinery was put on the Palmetto State and the vessel sold.

NASHVILLE--  Sidewheel cruiser merchant ship, 1,221 tons.  Sold to private parties and became the blockade-runner Thomas L. Wragg and then the privateer Rattlesnake.  Destroyed by the Union in the Ogeechee River in 1863.

PALMETTO STATE--  ironclad.  Burned at Charleston evacuation.

PEEDEE--  wooden screw gunboat sunk in the PeeDee River.  Its machinery was brought over from England.  It was to have four 32-pounder cannons and two pivots.

--Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago: Maury Has Opposition to Immigration Plans

SEPTEMBER 26TH, 1865:  Several of Maximilian's ministers objected to Maury's immigration plans and effectively stalled them.  Maury, unaccustomed to having his pans derailed, took shortcuts through the imperial household.  Empress Carlotta handled many of these plans.

This date she agreed to Maury's request to have former Major General Bankhead Magruder appointed to head a land office at a salary of $3,000  a year, with a large number of surveyors under him who were needed to assist in the classification of land titles.

Magruder, a native of Virginia, had graduated from West Point, and served in the United States Army with distinction until 1861, then serving ably in the Confederate Army.  He had announced that he would bring his family to Mexico to live.

--Old B-Runner

Confederate Naval Vessels Operating in South Carolina Waters-- Part 1: Ironclads

From the 16th South Carolina Volunteers Camp, SCV.

CSS AIKEN--  Revenue Cutter, 82 tons.  Sunk July 28, 1861, by frigate USS St. Lawrence.  The name had been changed to Petrel when it became a privateer.

CSS CHARLESTON--  ironclad,  Destroyed by Confederates during evacuation of Charleston.

CSS CHICORA--  ironclad,  Destroyed by Confederates during evacuation of Charleston.

CSS COLUMBIA--  ironclad.  Hit submerged wreck and broke in two.

CSS GRAY--Steamer.  name changed to Lady Davis when became a privateer.

CSS HUNTRESS--  Sidewheel steamer, 500 tons, became a blockade-runner.  Burned off Charleston on Jan. 18, 1863.

--Old B-Runner

3D Drawing of the CSS Georgia Now Available

From www.3ders.org "Free printable of the week: Dan Foley's 3D printed CSS Georgia steamship."

Dan Foley did this himself and it is not based on any illustration of the ship.  "Back in the day, ironclad craft were high-tech."

The CSS Georgia was a "make-do" type of ironclad with its sides made of interlaced railroad rail sections.  Only a few drawings of the ship exist and there are no plans.  "Almost" one photograph exists, but it was found to be a fake.

Photos of Mr. Foley's CSS Georgia accompanies the article and it goes into great detail about how he made it.

--Old b-Runner

Hunley's Hull Now Restored: "No Smoking Gun"

From the September 17, 2015, Fox News, AP "Hull of Confederate sub, first in history to sink enemy warship, revealed."

The H.L. Hunley's hull has now been completely cleaned and revealed in its entirety for the first time in over 150 years.  The encrusted sand, sediments and rust have been cleared off and it looks much like it did when it went out on that mission that changed the history of naval warfare.

The cleaning revealed some dents on the hull, but it is not known when or where they occurred.    It sank twice before its famous 1864 mission.  Of course, they might have come from when it sank the USS Housatonic.

However, the hull revealed no "smoking gun."  This being the answer to how the submarine came to sink.

The hull does reveal that the wooden boon that held the explosive device attached to the front of it ship was damaged as it appears that it was pushed back into it by the force of the explosion.  Possibly this sank the Hunley.

The Hunley was discovered in Charleston Harbor in 1995 and raised and brought to the conservation laboratory in North Charleston in 2010.  The crew's bodies were found at their stations.  The next step is the cleaning of the Hunley's interior.  This is expected to take another year.  This will be even harder that the hull cleaning as conservators will be working in the cramped 4-foot diameter interior.

Looking Forward to Seeing It.  --Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago: Maury to Direct Mexico's National Observatory

SEPTEMBER 22, 1865:  Planning to build a National Observatory and wanting to have the right man on hand to direct it, Emperor Maximilian appointed ex-Commander Maury, CSN, one time world famous head of the U.S. Naval Observatory while a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, as "Director of the National Observatory."

The Right Man for the Right Job.  --Old B-Runner

Captain William T. Muse, CSN-- Part 1

From the April 16, 2014, Civilian War Time: N.C.'s Civilian Civil War Wartime Experience.

I only found mention of a "Captain W.T. Muse, commanding the CSS North Carolina died in this town of typhoid fever."  #CW150.

This brief statement just caused me to spend three hours doing research on this man.  Just another in the many reasons it takes me so long to do these doggone blogs.  One things leads to another, leads to another and leads to another.

I knew the CSS North Carolina was an ironclad steamer at Wilmington, North Carolina, hence a Wilmington, Fort Fisher connection.

--Old B-Runner

Second Dahlgren Rifled Cannon Surprises CSS Georgia Archaeologists

From the Sept. 17, 2015, DVIDS by Jeremy Buddemeter.

It was a huge surprise when the "five finger" grapple brought up a 9,000 pound Dahlgren rifled cannon that had not been previously discovered by several high tech, multi-beam sonar surveys.  This took place on Tuesday, September 15th.

There is a conflict on two manifest lists of the CSS Georgia while it was in the Confederate Navy.  The first one lists two Dahlgren cannons on board the ship.  the second one, dated October 1864, two months before the ship sank, did not list any.

But archaeologists surveying the ship earlier had discovered shells that would have been fired by Dahlgrens.

This makes seven cannons recovered from the ship.  the cannons are among the big-ticket items from the ship, but other smaller objects like leather shoes, wrenches, ceramic bottles and an anvil have also been recovered.

Jim Jobling, project manager at Texas A&M University's Conservation Research Laboratory said, "The range of artifacts that is coming up is staggering.  Researchers include students working on their master's degrees and Ph.D's.  They often work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. handling 25-30 grapple loads daily.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Fisher Going to the Dogs: Corgis "Attack"

From the September 16, 2015, Port City Daily (Wilmington, N.C.) "Corgis converge at Fort Fisher" by Hannah Leyra.

First it was the Yankees 150 years ago and then the political-correct anti-Confederate Flaggers.  Now, a bunch of four-legged, tail-wagging mutts took their shot at the big sand fort this past weekend.

Rain and choppy water didn't stop them as between 30 and 40 people and their assorted Corgi dogs had an informal get-together by the old fort.  It was a semi-organized event by Corgi lovers from the North Carolina Triangle area (by Raleigh) and was based on a much larger Corgi get-together that takes place yearly in California.

Some 100 owners RSVP'd that they'd be coming, but bad weather kept a lot of them away.

No Doubt About It, the Fort's Going to the Dogs.  --Old B-R'er

150 Years Ago: Maury Appointed Honorary Counselor of Mexico

SEPTEMBER 18TH, 1865:  Emperor Maximilian of mexico issued an imperial decree appointing Matthew Fontaine Maury as "Honorary Counselor of the State."

Maury was becoming more and more the trusted confidant of both the Emperor and Empress, which did not help him with the rest of the administration.

--Old B-Runer

150 Years Ago: CSS Shenandoah Encounters a Gale-- Part 2: On the Friendless Sea and Without a Country

The struggles of the Shenandoah accorded with the struggles that  "filled our minds."  Alone on the friendless sea, "we were without a home or country, our little crew all that were left of the thousands who had sworn to defend that country or die with her, and there were moments when we would have deemed that a friendly gale which would have buried our sorrowful hearts and the beautiful Shenandoah in those dark waters.

"What a contrast to those gay hopes and proud aspirations with which we had entered upon the cruise.  How eager we had been to court danger.  Now gloomily and cautiously we avoided recognition.  The very ship seemed to have partaken our feelings and no longer moved with her accustomed swiftness."

--Old B-R'er

150 Years Ago: CSS Shenandoah Encounters a Gale-- Part 1

SEPTEMBER 17-30TH, 1865:  After rounding Cape Horn, the CSS Shenandoah ran into a northeast gale which forced her, according to Lt. Waddell, "to west longitude of 24 degrees 40' before she reached the parallel of 40 degrees S..."

Day after day icebergs and savage blocks of ice came near.  "We were without a moon to shed her cheerful light over our desolate path, and the wind blow so fiercely that the ship's speed could not be reduced below five knots.  It was more prudent to go ahead  than to heave to, for I was without observations for several days and in an easterly current.  Some of the icebergs were castellated...."

--Old B-Runner

150 Years Ago: The CSS Shenandoah Enters the Atlantic Ocean

SEPTEMBER 16TH, 1865:  The CSS Shenandoah, Lt. Waddell, rounded Cape Horn and entered theAtlantic Ocean enroute to Liverpool, England.  In the Pacific, the Shenandoah had struck the New England whaling industry a blow as that administered to the English whaling industry in 1813 by the USS Essex, commanded by Captain David Porter, the father of Civil War Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter.

There was a lot of truth in the boast made by Waddell in later years when he said, "I made New England suffer."

--Old B-R'er