Foreward: This month three American Civil War ships are spotlighted. They were Union mississippi river casemate ironclads of the City Class. The City Class was unofficially classified into four types. The first and most famous were the "Pook turtles" (7 ships). The second were the Eads Ironclads (2 ships). Third, the Porter Ironclads (2 large ships), and last, the Cincinnati Ironclads, Chillicothe, Indianola and the Tuscumbia.
The Cincinnati ironclads were three ships of different size but similar construction, built by Joseph Brown to the design of Samuel Hartt. They had a casemate forward containing 11 inch guns working on pivots so they could fire through ports over the bow and abeam. A second casemate aft between the paddle-wheels armed with 9 inch guns for stern fire (except the Chillicothe). They had relatively flat decks and armor 3 inches thick over 10 to 12 inches of wood. The armor was held to the woodwork by bolts or spikes about 4 inches long. The engines took up so much space that there were no quarters for the crew and were generally very poorly built vessels. The service history of these ships make for some fascinating reading.
Chillicothe: The smallest of the three, displaced 395 tons and measured 162 feet by 56 feet, draft of 4 feet. Two engines propelled her two 22 foot diameter sidewheels to a speed of 7 knots. She had an armored casemate (turret) forward of her stacks which housed two 11-inch guns. Late in the war, she had deck cabins, an aft casemate (with one 12 pound smoothbore) and an armored pilot house added. Armor was 2 inches on the sides, 1 inch on the deck and 3 inches on the turret and pilot house, backed with 10 inches of wood. She cost $92,960.
The hull was too unsteady to hold the massive decks and when the boilers were installed, the bottom sank ten inches. With eighteen tons of iron 'hanging' on it, the bow pulled away from the deck. The accommodations were terrible; no ventilation, no space, and no light. Because of the excessive heat in the engine room, the crew could not remain below decks longer then twenty minutes. Her gun ports had been cut five inches to high and her sides were patched to fit. The ship could not be piloted and the guns run out and fired because the ships wheel was on the gun deck between the guns and the pilot needed to look out the gun ports to con the ship. In action he would be blind as the ports would be closed when the guns were being reloaded.
Joseph Brown installed iron rods running fore and aft under the deck to bring the bow and deck together, secured hog chains, added to the depth of hold to give more head room, lengthened the barge-like hull to make room for the machinery and 'poured heated cement to run under the iron plates to seal the leaks.' On her trial run she, now entirely iron plated and furnished with steam capstan to haul her over mud bars, performed admirably, allowing Brown to boast that the ship was 'so water tight that the bilge water smelled.' But when Lt, Commander John Walker took command of the vessel in Oct. 1862, pronounced her 'a cumbersome scow.'
Tuscumbia: She was the largest of the three. She displaced 915 tons, measured 178 feet by 75 feet and drew 7 feet of water. Her four engines drove two sidewheels and two screw propellers at 9 knots. She mounted two 11-inch guns mounted on pivots and one 9-inch gun in the forward armorede casemate and two 9-inch smoothbores firing aft from a second armored casemate between her wheels. She cost the government $227,670.
The Tuscumbia was so badly put together that the deck fell down six inches the first time she fired her guns. Her armor was held to the woodwork by bolts less than four inches long. As in all of these ships the central engines took up so much space that there were no quarters for the crew, so cabins were added between the fore and aft casemates.
Indianola: She cost some what less than the Tuscumbia, $182,663. She displaced 511 tons and measured 175 feet by 52 feet, with a draft of 5 feet. Also powered by four engines turning two sidewheels and two screw propellers, she made 6 knots. Her single armored casemate housed two 11-inch guns and her unarmored stern casemate two 9-inch.As on the Tuscumbia the mechanics bungled the armor, so Brown dismantled the iron plates on the bow and refitted them so they fit more snugly.
The Indianola look much like a smaller version of the Tuscumbia. she had a flat deck, amidships rose very tall twin stacks with a tower-like pilot house between them and the forward casemate. Down the centerline ran a high wall like deckhouse which was so narrow that there was a great wide open space on the deck on each side of it. Her oak hull sides were 32 inches thick and covered with 3 inch thick iron plates. Her casemate stood at an angle of 26.5 degrees. The coal bunkers were seven feet thick along side of her boilers. She had three more smaller engines in addition to the four for propulsion. Two for her capstans and one for supplying water and working the bilge and five other pumps. She also had a hose for throwing scalding water from the boilers that could reach from stem to stern.
The original plans show a ship quite different from the one described above. The plans show a casemate not unlike that of a 'Pook Turtle', with plenty of cabin space. Also showing three 11-inch guns firing forward (none on pivots)
In Conclusion: Designers should you like more info on these three ships (i.e. photos, drawings or other data), contact me at borg.richard@ssd.loral.com.
