My CSS Manassas picture

I took that CSS Manassas drawing that the Wikipedia has and applied photographic elements and did some other graphic editing to see if I could make the picture look photographic. It seems at least somewhat successful to me (of course, I am prejudiced). The Manassas was converted towboat (often called a tug, which has a different connotation) that had curved iron plating for armour. The armour was too thin and the Manassas was sunk during the Union attack on New Orleans in 1862. This picture shows the Manassas with a single funnel, which is what I have grown to expect. An alternative view shows the Manassas with twin funnels aligned so that from the side, they look like one.

The "Spanish Cruisers" page

I was impressed by the Spanish cruisers page at the UK website, www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk. I was particularly interested to see the photograph titled: "Almirante Oquendo after the Battle of Santiago". This was contributed by Rafael Galvan Diaz. The ship had run ashore, heavily damaged and on fire. The Spanish found out that above water torpedo launchers or tubes were hazardous. Sadly, the British had not learned the lesson and that probably caused the loss of the battlecruiser Hood in 1941.

Confederate ironclad Tennessee

The Confederate ironclad Tennessee took part in the defense of Mobile Bay. The Tennessee was captured when the Union forces were able to enter the bay, under fire and with the loss of two ironclad ships mined. The Tennessee was a somewhat larger ship than the Atlanta, as she displaced 1,273 tons. The Tennessee had 5in iron armour, except on the front, the armour was 6in. The Tennessee had a 7.125in Brooke MLR on each end and two 6in MLR on each side.

The Confederate ironclad ram Nashville

When I was very young, I had seen John O'Hara Cosgrave's drawing of the Confederate ironclad Atlanta in Fletcher Pratt's book about the Monitor and Merrimac (CSS Virginia). Cosgrave's illustrations were well done and imaginative, but did not resemble the actual ships very closely. The Atlanta was a conversion of the blockade runner Finlay into an ironclad ram. The armoured superstructure followed the standard pattern used in the later Confederate ironclads, and was very angular. The Atlanta had 4in iron armour and carried 2-6.4in rifles on each side and a 7in rifle firing along the axis. The displacement was about 1006 tons. The Atlanta apparently could make 7 knots, which was adequate in restricted waters. The Atlanta suffered the usual problem of being outgunned by Union monitors armed with large 11 and 15 inch smooth bore guns.

The French ironclad battleship Couronne (1862)

This is apparently a photograph of the French ironclad battleship Couronne, completed in 1862, after the Couronne was altered as a gunnery training ship in 1881 to 1885. The photographs is based on the Wikipedia photograph. The armour was removed and a spar deck and other additions were made to make the Couronne resemble a conventional screw two-decker. The ship was actually constructed of iron and lasted until as late as 1932, although last 22 years were as a hulk.

Italian battleship Dandolo

This is a rather interesting photograph of the Italian ironclad battleship Dandolo. The Dandolo was launched in 1878, but not completed until circa 1882. The Dandolo was a rather small turret ship equipped with four 17.7in (45cm) 100 ton guns. The Dandolo could reach 15 knots and had a 21.5in iron belt and 18in iron armour on the turrets. The dimensions were 340ft-11in x 64ft-9in x 26ft-7in. The nominal displacement was 10,434 tons. The IHP was 7,500.

The impact of aggressive copyright enforcement

In 2003 and 2004, there were many more photographs of old ships on various websites. I hypothesize that vigorous copyright enforcement by the owners of over 100 year old photographs has drastically reduced what can be found. The entire concept of copyrighted photographs over 100 years old is pretty amazing, but perhaps that is one of the "great things" brought to use by the folks in Britain. I am certain that I had seen a photograph of the Chinese armoured cruiser King-Yuan in the past, but there is nothing at all "out there", right now. The King-Yuan was a small, armoured cruiser of 2,850 tons, with dimensions of 270ft x 40ft x 16ft-6in. The King-Yuan had a belt that was 9-1/2 inches thick. The King-Yuan had a top speed of 16-1/2 knots. Her armament consisted of 2-8.2in/35 10 ton guns, 2-5.9in guns, one submerged 18in torpedo tube and 3 18in torpedo launching carriages. The King Yuan was built at Vulkan at Stettin. By digging around in my archives, I found this picture of the King-Yuan.