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CSS Atlanta (USS Atlanta)

CSS Atlanta (USS Atlanta) History

CSS Atlanta was born in 1861 at the Clyde Bank steel shipyard in Scotland and launched in May 'Fingal'. Like other warships that served the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Fingal was originally built as a merchant ship, purchased by Confederate agent James Bullock in England, and eventually transformed into an iron-fisted role.

As Fingal, she crossed the Atlantic in 1861 and arrived in Bermuda on October 15 loaded with medical supplies, guns, cannons and related ammunition. She crossed the Union blockade of Savannah on November 22 to deliver much-needed shipments to the armed forces.

When the Union's noose around Savannah was tightened to the point where it was impossible to return to Fingal from Savannah, the authorities decided to convert the ship to a more useful purpose. By completely removing her top, she was made into an iron armor. Her bow was fitted with torpedo spars, and her armament was fitted with 2 x 7" Brooke and 2 x 6.4" Brooke rifled guns. 145 men (21 officers, 124 soldiers) made up her complement, while her propulsion scheme focused on a boiler/steam engine arrangement driving power to a single shaft. The top speed was reduced from 13 to 10 knots due to armor and other changes that completely changed her performance specs.

Her length increased from 189 feet to 204 feet, and her displacement increased from 700 tons to just over 1,000 tons. Her beam is 41 feet long and has a draft of 15.8 feet. Armor protection reaches 4 inches at the turret, 2 inches at the hull, and 4 inches at the wheelhouse.

Her side profile is dominated by a sloping superstructure and a single funnel above the midship.

This work was done by Asa and Nelson Tift of Savannah and funded largely by Savannah women - like several other ships of the Confederate cause.

Of course, the Iron Armor modification had its problems too - the new ship was heavy, which made her maneuvers slow and awkward, as her trials along the Savannah River proved. The fighting conditions of the interior crew were also considered to be quite poor, with little obstruction of air circulation - a major disadvantage considering the heat and humidity of the Georgian summers.

The leak also proved problematic, and engineers were only able to do limited remediation.

The battleship was commissioned by CSS Atlanta on November 22, 1862, and sailed from the Wilmington River on June 17, 1863, to engage Confederate ironclads ??USS Nahant and USS Weehawken. However, she has only completed 7 engagements, and hit a sandbar on a whim - stranded.

The tide was going against the ship, and she had missed all the shots as the Union ships approached. Unable to release the ship, CSS Atlanta's captain ordered her surrender, bringing her tenure under the Confederate Navy flag to a swift end.

After her capture, the Union Navy liberated the ironclad and took her to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. When recommissioned on February 2, 1864, she was renamed the aircraft carrier USS Atlanta and is now operating under the Union Navy flag.

Her armament was also modified to include 2 x 8" rifled Parrott guns (both bow and stern) and 6.4" rifled Parrott guns (middle ship).

From there, she ended her battle with her original owner, served in the blockade, and supported Fort Powhatan (Virginia, 1864). Much of the remainder of her term was centered on the James River, which gave her a good traverse through central Virginia.

After the war, she was decommissioned on June 21, 1865, and remained in reserve until sold in 1869. Ready to surrender (as "the victor") to the Haitian government, she sank somewhere along the way in late December, with no survivors.