Civil War

Battle of Wassaw Sound and CSS Atlanta

Posted on
Sketch of CSS Atlanta. Robert G. Skerrett, artist.
Date unknown. The Mariners’ Museum # PNc0001.

The CSSAtlantawas an ironclad transformation effort which used the iron-hull and Scottish-built engines of SSFingal to fashion one of the Confederacy’s most powerful warships. The ironclad; however, had a deep draft which limited its operational area below Savannah. This coupled with a very rash and impetuous captain, Commander William Webb, resulted inAtlanta’s capture in a brief engagement with the monitors USSWeehawkenand USSNahant. The ironclad soon became the USSAtlantaand served until 1865 in the James River. It was later sold to Haiti and floundered en route without a trace.

SSFingal

TheAtlantahad its genesis from the merchant ship SSFingal. This merchant ship was constructed at the J & G Thomson’s Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard at Govan in Glasgow, Scotland. TheFingal’s dimensions were:Read more

USS Monitor Center

Brushing off a little history

Posted on
The brush was removed from the starboard gun carriage, covered in mud and hard concretion.

Although myblogsto date give a veryDahlgren-centricview of what I do, there is far more to USSMonitorthan just its guns. And I love having such a huge variety of objects to work on! In addition to big metal objects, we find a wide variety of organic objects, ranging from the wooden sides of thegun carriagesto ropepacking sealsto awool coat. We also have a number of brushes from on board the ship, including a nearly complete bench brush that I’ve been working on!

This brush was originally found stuck to one of the gun carriages, covered in mud and concretion – the hard, rocky material that forms around corroding iron. Although the brush itself is entirely organic – wood and fiber – it was so close to the iron of the gun carriage that it was caught inside concretion formed by that object. As a result, it didn’t look like much to begin with.Read more