About the lecture:
When the British-built blockade-runnerFingalcould not escape from Savannah, Georgia, in 1862, the Confederates transformed the iron-hulled vessel into the ironclad CSSAtlanta. TheAtlantawas equipped with four Brooke rifles, a 20-foot ram, and a spar torpedo. Many Southerners believed that this ram could be a match for any Union monitor. When the test came on June 17, 1863, in Wassaw Sound, Georgia,Atlantawas captured by two Passaic-class monitors,WeehawkenandNahant, in a brief encounter. The captured ironclad was repaired and commissioned as USSAtlanta, serving in the James River against its former Confederate owners. The ram was eventually sold to Haiti, but sank en route to the Caribbean Sea.