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CSS Albemarle

CSS Albemarle History

Ironclad Ram CSS Albemarle was certainly neither the first nor the greatest Ironclad of its time. She's also not the person with the most guns in the class, nor is she made up of the largest crew. However, her war record made her the most successful strongman of the American Civil War.

CSS Albemarle was commissioned on April 17, 1864, and was named after a city or sound in North Carolina, or possibly a county in Virginia. Albemarle is built as a ram, which is her primary weapon. Its underlying structure consists of oak beams covered with iron plates. A hammer protrudes from her bow in the shape of an axe. Simply put, it's designed to pierce the sides of wooden ships, dealing damage that is expected to sink enemy ships.

The Commonwealth is very pleased with the previous success of their CSS Virginia Ironclad.

In 1863, as the war reduced the resources available to the South, finding iron ore proved difficult. For the war, tins and farm implements were donated and collected by loyal Southerners in Elizabeth, North Carolina. Some locals are reluctant to donate, so the theft of iron is common, and sometimes iron is stolen at gunpoint to help the war effort. The main area of ??iron is the rail yard, where the rails are rolled into slabs 2 inches thick and 7 inches wide.

Peter Evans Smith owned the plantation to build iron boats in a small shipyard in cornfields along the Roanoke River near Edward Ferry.

The contract to build the spacecraft was awarded to 19-year-old Gilbert Elliot of Elizabeth, North Carolina, a Southern lieutenant. Strategically, the water level in the upper Roanoke River proved too shallow for the Union gunboats to approach, which would otherwise have been dispatched to destroy while the Albemarle was still under construction. Elliott prepared the necessary basic drawings for the new battleship, which he then sent to Union Commander John Potter, who advanced the design with the addition of battering rams and armored sloping turrets.

The battery is nothing but an armored shelter for the crew, propulsion system and weapons. Porter opted for a pair of 6.4" (160 mm) Brooke Rifle Cannons as post-impact secondary weapons. So the systems were shipped to Elliott with an engineer to properly install the weapons in the sashes - one at the front and one at the back. There will be three fixed muzzles, and both guns are protected by removable shutters. It is powered by 2 three-bladed propellers, each propelled by two steam engines.

Rated at 200 hp (150 kW). These engines are built by Elliott himself and can reach a top speed of 5 knots under ideal conditions. The new ships are also equipped with galleys, mess halls and crew quarters, while officers even have small quarters for the total crew of 150.

A "battle bridge" was built near one of the guns, the most important boiler room was located in the rear together with the necessary brazier.

The oak needed to build the ship came from the surrounding forest, and the work of attaching the necessary iron plates to the oak frame proved difficult. The panels must be drilled to allow iron screws to attach the panels to the oak spars. With the arch drilling method of the time, this was of course a time-consuming task, taking about 20 minutes per panel. Peter E. Smith, also a blacksmith and observer of the construction process, recognized the need for a more efficient drill and invented a "twist" drill system similar to the modern drills and hand drills we use today.

With this new tool, the drilling process has now been reduced to 4 minutes per iron plate. Albemarle completed in about 12 months. She measures 158 feet from bow to stern with a beam of 35 feet 3 inches and a draft of 9 feet. The iron turret is 60 feet long and covered with two 2-inch layers of iron plating.

The ramps of the turrets are built at 35 degree angles to deflect enemy rifle and artillery fire.

Despite their efforts to keep secrets and disguise, the Alliance's position was eventually discovered. The Confederates opened fire with small arms, forcing the attacking ships to make a quick decision. Cushing's ship slid through the gooey tank protecting the Albemarle, bringing the torpedo mines close to the enemy ship.

The torpedo was then detonated.

The resulting explosion killed many aboard the Albemarle. Cushing himself and several crew members were ejected from their own ship by an explosion. The Albemarle was badly damaged, leaving a huge smoking hole in the waterline, before she sank to a depth of just two meters.

Cushing and the surviving crew were able to swim ashore - some captured. Cushing managed to hide under the overhanging river bank until dawn, eluding enemy search parties all night.

The next morning he found a small boat and pushed it through the water with its own hands to escape to the mouth of the river. At least two crew members were killed in the explosion.

Albemarle is now sitting on the muddy bottom with only her upper battery above the waterline. The Confederates ordered their surviving guns to be used to defend Plymouth from an expected Confederate attack.

The Union Navy now moved its river barges onto the Roanoke River, shelled Confederate forts, and eventually captured Plymouth.

After the war, the Union gunboat USS Ceres towed the now-erected HMS Albemarle to Norfolk, finally arriving in Norfolk in April 1865. She underwent repairs in August of the same year, but the Admiralty decided to auction it off in October 1867.

Its only parts that survived the war were a cannon and its chimney, now on display at the Albemarle Museum in Elizabeth, North Carolina.

Lieutenant. On October 27, 1864, U.S. Navy William Barker Cushing, who planned and executed the commando attack that sank CSS Albemarle, became a national hero of the North. Even CSS Albemarle's Confederate Captain A.F. Warley said his exploit was a heroic one.

Admiral Farragut said the young Cushing was a "war hero," and even President Abraham Lincoln added: "My heartfelt tribute to the importance, bravery and danger of Lieutenant William B. Cushing of the United States Navy, who received Congress Thanks." The destruction of the steel rebel steamship Albemarle Gaining Power on the night of October 17, 1864 in Plymouth, North Carolina, will mark our future involvement in naval and military operations and will do homework for any officer and this young officer. . .