The casemate was built of 24 inches (61 cm) of oak and pine in several layers, topped with two 2-inch (51 mm) layers of iron plating oriented perpendicular to each other, and angled at 36 degrees from horizontal to deflect fired enemy shells. Virginia measured 262 feet in length with the casemate being 178 feet long at a sloping angle of 36 degrees. . Gun Deck for the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac), RG 19, DASH 76-2-45. Everything could change! “What about our friends?” Williamson played on. Virginia's battery consisted of four muzzle-loading single-banded Brooke rifles and six smoothbore 9-inch (229 mm) Dahlgren guns salvaged from the old Merrimack. Empty it into a beaker and heat up the stove. Neither ship wins the battle, but both prove the power of iron over wood.Read more. “Not your fault.” Williamson flew to the liquor rack, grabbed a bottle, then another. In a minute he would read his tiny writing on the labels and see if they could summon a blockade runner bound from Bermuda or Cuba, or a Confederate privateer, or even a sidewheel steamer. He wondered if, by then, even a sorcerer could make much of a difference. Against the far bulkhead was a high-backed chair, and in it sat a weathered old Negro, lanky as Lincoln, snowy hair crowned with a top hat. Be the first to review “Flagship Models CSS Virginia (ex USS Merrimack)” Cancel reply. Williamson selected a Bach concerto from the sheet music littering his desk, played, and waited. “If Columbus had seen all females he might have called them sirena, and we’d all be thinking now that they sang out to the Virginia’s crew and lured them to their doom.”. If this all pans out, I’ll make you a free man. He counted the lifeboats scattered around him, and the crewmen. A patch of white water appeared there, as if stirred up from below. To this he added another few shreds from a wool undershirt worn by (so his widow had said) Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, the Virginia’s commander. https://www.thoughtco.com/images-of-uss-monitor-civil-war-ironclad-4122920 The hull's burned timbers were cut down past the vessel's original waterline, leaving just enough clearance to accommodate her large, twin-bladed screw propeller. . They looked at Williamson with patient eyes. Williamson, eyes fixed on the intruders, pointed backward. Both gunboats saw a puff of smoke, followed by the boom of one of Virginia’s cannons. But the ironclad developed mechanical problems when a errant chain from the nearby CSS Richmondbecame entangled in her propeller, and she could no longer participate in the battle. While the surviving crewmen of Congress were being ferried off the ship, a Union battery on the north shore opened fire on Virginia. One of the intruders let out a shriek and rendered a precise swipe of its arm-fin. Even so, the now injured Buchanan ordered an attack on USS Minnesota, which had run aground on a sandbar trying to escape Virginia. [1], The wreck was surveyed and her lower hull and machinery were discovered to be undamaged. Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed, however. 2:00 AM The Virginia steams across the mouth of the Elizabeth River from Sewell’s Point to Craney Island and is grounded. instead, he sees where our eyes can’t go. How far was Williamson seeing? Williamson picked up his violin and bow. But Daniel saw things. Elevation, horizontal section and gun deck plan drawings of Confederate ironclad gunboat USS Merrimac/CSS Virginia, by John L. Porter (June 1861 - 1862). Raise it up? The CSS Virginia: once the fifty-eight-gun frigate Merrimack, burned and scuttled in a panic by the Federals at Norfolk Navy Yard when Virginia seceded. CSS Virginia pilots realize that reducing the weight has made the Virginia, “no longer an ironclad” and that the ship has to be scuttled. A golden opportunity for the South, for the abolition-obsessed North, for the house divided that our country has finally become. Water swirled around Williamson’s ankles. March 29 Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall arrives at Gosport Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, to assume command … Since Virginia was now a steam-powered heavy battery and no longer an ocean-going cruiser, her pilots judged her not seaworthy enough to enter the Atlantic, even if she were able to pass the Union blockade. Water boiled all around the ironclad, as if suddenly heated, and creatures like albino swimmers swarmed up over the casemate. Additional information. Perhaps, at the cost of its ironclad, the South could transform like the Merrimack itself. Since Columbus’ time, merpeople had been sighted off Bermuda, the Azores, and at various points in the deep Atlantic. The slave sat with his usual stillness, undisturbed by the pitching of the vessel, hands in his lap. He crinkled his brow, aware of the stirring in his head, the thoughts not his own. And I think your great-grandchildren will find America much improved.”. Williamson replaced the cap on the telescope. The wreck is supported by an artificial concrete foundatio… And then chasing, putting out vast nets . I know why they wanted that ship.”. CSS Virginia’s wreck was largely removed between 1866 and 1876. Smash the wooden blockade! The salty Elizabeth River water and the addition of tons of iron armor and pig iron ballast, added to the hull's unused spaces for needed stability after her initial refloat, and to submerge her unarmored lower eves, only added to her engines' propulsion issues. The knights of old wore between forty and sixty pounds of plate metal and had to stay out of water more than head deep, yet these creatures, they can swim right to the surface with seemingly no effort . Maybe. On the rack is a bottle marked 1792, with a picture of a smiling sun. Preliminary sketch designs were submitted by Lieutenants John Mercer Brooke and John L. Porter, each of whom envisaged the ship as a casemate ironclad. They had chiseled through the hull like sappers, and now, besides boarders, the Copernicus was taking on water. “Mr. Placed in commission as CSS Virginia in mid-February 1862, the ship's iron armor made her virtually invulnerable to contemporary gunfire. Most had gotten away safely, at least. As completed, Virginia had a turning radius of about 1 mile (1.6 km) and required 45 minutes to complete a full circle, which would later prove to be a major handicap in battle with the far more nimble Monitor.[5]. air-breathing. He almost, but did not quite see, the eyes—enormous, bigger and whiter than any merman’s, below the surface where the sunlight did not penetrate. This immense RELIC WEIGHS 1,340 POUNDS, wrought iron, and as a sovereign of the war, and an object of interest as a revolution in naval warefare, would suit a Museum, State Institute, or some great public resort. However, the previous night secessionists had sunk light boats between Craney Island and Sewell's Point, blocking the channel. . The smaller, nimbler, and faster Monitor was able to outmaneuver the larger, slower Virginia, but neither ship proved able to do any severe damage to the other, despite numerous shell hits by both combatants, many fired at virtually point-blank range. The slave did so. ... Around 1875, a diver had a government contract to blow up parts of the wreck and salvage what could be saved. Lieutenant Jones wanted to continue the fight, but the pilots emphasized that the Virginia had "nearly three miles to run to the bar" and that she could not remain and "take the ground on a falling tide." Christopher Columbus had called them that—”sea people”—when he sighted them in 1496 some forty leagues off Gilbraltar. Those desiring to purchase will please address D. A. UNDERDOWN, Wrecker, care of Virginian Office, Norfolk, Va. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}36°54′25″N 76°20′37″W / 36.90694°N 76.34361°W / 36.90694; -76.34361, For similarly named ships, the southern U.S. commonwealth of Virginia, and other uses, see. Elevation, horizontal section and gun deck plan drawings of Confederate ironclad gunboat USS Merrimac/CSS Virginia, by John L. Porter (June 1861 - 1862). Captain of USS Congress ordered his frigate into shallower water, where she soon.. Battle, but now nature showed them their error News, Virginia inflicted severe losses on naval. 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