What happened to Lissa. Part of 2. Battleships of Mobile Bay
After the battle of armored ships at the Hampton Raid, the southerners decided to begin the construction of several armadillos at once to act against them fleet northerners and defend their strategic supply ports from them.
Breakthrough fleet northerners in Mobile Bay. Picture by X. Smith (1890)
One of these was the port of Mobile in Alabama. After the Southerners lost Florida and New Orleans in the summer of 1862, it was Mobil who became their only port in the Gulf of Mexico through which their high-speed vessels (“blockade breakers”) could deliver military equipment and ... laces for ladies' dresses. The capture of the port of Mobile by northerners would be a real disaster for the whole South.
That is why the approaches to the port of Mobile were mined, and the coastal batteries were set in such a way as to prevent the ships of the northerners from breaking through. In addition, in 1862 — 1863. its defenses were strengthened with the help of two small armored ram ships "Huntsville" and "Tuscoulus". Of course, in their combat value they were insignificant. One cannon, a ram on the nose and ... a very quiet course - what special benefit could such a ship bring in a battle? And the Southerners, realizing this, already in the autumn of 1862, at the shipyard in Selma, another much more powerful and high-speed battleship was laid, which was called “Tennessee”. They just built it slowly, because the Confederation had a severe shortage of everything that had anything to do with technology, starting from metal and machine tools and ending with experienced personnel and ... files. There were few workers, and even those who went on strike because of low wages, so the command of the Southerners fleet had to recruit them!
Having created the Virginia battleship, the Southerners decided that they weren’t looking for good and Tennessee received the same construction: a low port, which was very difficult to get from the gun, and a smooth deck, on which stood a rectangular armored casemate for guns. The displacement of the battleship was 1293 tons. The length of 63,7 m, width of 14,6 m and draft of 4,6 m, which was relatively little and helped him act in shallow water.
Compared to other southern ships, this battleship had a strong artillery Armament: two 178 mm Brooks muzzle-loading rifled guns firing forward and backward, and four 163 mm similar guns mounted in pairs on the sides. There were so many gun ports that the bow and stern guns could be turned to the side so that they could also participate in broadside salvos.
Scheme of the battleship southerners "Tennessee".
The rifled guns of the Brooks system had a greater range compared to the smooth-bore guns of the northerners, but their shells were lighter than the cores of the Rodman guns-columbiad. Therefore, at short distances the battlefield they were significantly inferior in the muzzle energy of the guns of the monitors of the northerners. There was another important issue. The gun ports in the dungeon were located in such a way that the guns that fired through them had limited sectors of fire, because of which the battleship had to turn to the enemy with a full board for a volley.
"Tennessee" also continued the tradition of the Southerners to equip their battleships with iron ram on the nose. But again, much depended on the speed, but she and the “Tennessee” was not too great. “Tennessee”, by the way, did not have a pole mine on its nose. But the battleships that were built in Charleston, it had.
There is also evidence that special pipes were installed at Tennessee in order to supply boiling water from the boilers to the casemate roof in case of boarding. But how it was supposed to be applied and how it was arranged is unknown.
"Tennessee". History US Civil War in photos in 10 volumes. Tom 6. Fleet. Review from the Seaway Co.New York York. 1911.
As for the armor, the "Tennessee" was different from all other armored ships of the Confederation in that it had not even two, but three layers of "armor" of wrought iron plates superimposed on each other. And it was not a surrogate armor of rolled rails! Three layers of armor plates gave a total thickness in 150 mm, which, due to the inclination of the armor in 45 degrees, was equal to 212 millimeters of armor mounted vertically. It seems to be great, but in fact it would be better if there were homogeneous armor on the battleship. She was stronger!
Roof casemate to improve ventilation made lattice. Gun ports could be closed with iron armor shutters. Each such shutter was suspended above the recess on the pin: it was lifted before the shot, opening the port, and after the shot it was lowered due to its own weight.
Model "Tennessee" from the company "Cottage Industries" M1: 192. Front view.
The Tennessee board was protected by armor made of two layers of iron plates with a total thickness of 100 millimeters. The deck had armor protection from a single 53 layer of millimeter iron plate slabs. Ideally, it was possible to assume that the southerners had the most protected ship of their time, but it is not clear why the steering chains went straight along the stern deck, being nothing covered. And it turned out that it was this feature of his design that played a crucial role in his fate.
Model "Tennessee" from the company "Cottage Industries" M1: 192. Back view.
The ship had one propeller, which was rotated by two steam engines operating from four boilers. The speed at full load did not exceed 5 nodes, in addition, the ship was very sluggish and difficult to manage.
Model "Tennessee" from paper and cardboard firm "Henkel".
The ship was taken to the 16 fleet on February 1864 of the year, and immediately ran into a problem. There was neither a trained crew of seamen, nor a sufficient number of technicians-engineers for his service. Even to lead the ship to Mobile Bay because of the sandbanks and then immediately failed. It was necessary to build wooden pontoons, so that they lifted the ship above the ground. But ... as soon as they were finished, the fire destroyed them and the pontoons had to be redone! As a result of all these delays, only Tennessee 18 in May tried to get out at night into the bay at night, and in the morning unexpectedly attacked the ships of the northerners who were blockading the port. And everything was fine, but the ship commander, Admiral Buchanan (at one time commanded by the ill-fated Virginia) did not take into account the fact that there would be a tide. And as soon as “Tennessee” got rid of the pontoons, it immediately ran aground. In the morning, the northerners, of course, saw him, and the effect of surprise was lost. True, the tide began here and the battleship was able to break off, after which he went under the protection of one of the forts and prepared for battle.
“Arkansas battleship model of Cottage Industries M1: 96.
And already 5 August 1864 of the year began the famous breakthrough of the ships of the northerners under the command of Admiral David Farragut to Mobile Bay. Moreover, his squadron consisted of 19 sailing-steam frigates, corvettes and gunboats, and four more monitors he had requested specifically for the battle with Tennessee, the presence of which among southerners of northerners was very well known.
At the entrance to the strait were three forts - Powell, Gaines and Morgan, and the only deep-water channel going past them was mined using anchor mines, which at that time were called torpedoes. Confederate ships: three wheeled gunboats and the battleship Tennessee were waiting for the northerners behind the line of obstacles.
Layout mines - "torpedoes."
Farragut knew that the Southerners had set their “torpedoes” in the middle of the fairway, so he ordered the squadron to break through as close as possible to the coast, literally under the very guns of Fort Morgan. The ships went for a breakthrough, guns crashed, forts and ships enveloped in powder smoke, and then the Tequamse monitor, which was heading pretty close to the shore, suddenly blew up on an underwater mine. The ship immediately overturned aboard and in a few moments went to the bottom. Seeing this, the commanders of the other ships were horrified and stopped the car. There was a danger that southerners from the forts would take advantage of this situation and inflict irreparable losses on fire to their northerners.
Rescuing sailors from the Tecumseh drowned monitor.
It was then that Admiral Farragut shouted his famous order, which was included in the textbooks on American history and the monograph on the Civil War: “To hell with torpedoes! Full speed ahead! ”And the squadron ships again set in motion and soon broke through into the bay, having lost only one ship.
Despite the enormous inequality of forces, the ships of the southerners, however, attacked the enemy. However, the northerners are not afraid. So, the parakhodofregat of the northerners "Metacomet" rammed the gunboat of the southerners "Selma", after which she surrendered. The gunboat “Heinz” suffered so much from the artillery fire of the Farragut ships that it preferred to be thrown ashore, and the gun “Morgan” left the battlefield.
Now the "Tennessee" was left in proud loneliness and, in order to inflict maximum losses on the northerners, tried to ram the ships of the northerners. The first target was chosen screw sloop "Brooklyn", but failed to do so. Moving along the ranks of the northerners, the Tennessee attempted to ram the corvette Richmond, and again failed. Then his commander decided to attack the flagship frigate of northerners "Hartford".
Monongahela is rammed by Tennessee.
But to get to it was not easy. While the Tennessee was walking towards the Hartford, he was himself rammed by two wooden steam sloops of the northerners, the Monongahela and the Laykevanna. They did not cause any harm, but they knocked the battleship off course. Therefore, he will hit the side of the frigate, not at a right angle, but in passing. The frigate launched a side volley through it, but shells, even fired at close range, did not pierce its armor. For a new attack, it was necessary to turn around, but such a maneuver required both space and time.
Meanwhile, monitors of the northerners “Chikasso”, “Winnebago” and “Manhattan”, armed with Dalgren’s 15-inch guns, finally came to the aid of the wooden ships. Their rate of fire was low, but the cores weighing 200 kg at close range could break through Tennessee armor. The large Manhattan monitor took up a position in front of the Tennessee and opened fire on it from its heavy cannons, while the Chikasso river double-headed monitor, got close to it from the stern, and began shooting the battleship at close range. And it was here that the flaw in the creators of the ship affected. One of the Chikasso projectiles interrupted the Tennessee helm drives that ran along the deck, and deprived it of control. One of the cores blew a pipe on it, the casemate’s armor was broken in several places, though not through. From the terrible blows of 200-kilogram cores, even the armored shutters of the gun ports were jammed.
"Tennessee" surrounded by ships of the northerners. J.O. Davidson.
Seeing what was happening, the captain of the ship Johnson realized that a little more, and the matter would end with the fact that he would repeat the fate of Tecumseh. Therefore, he ordered to raise the white flag. But since there was not a single flagpole on the ship, I had to stick it out through one of the embrasures a piece of white cloth on a stick.
The battle ended with a complete victory for the northerners, in whose hands was the whole bay and the entire Alabama coast. Fort Morgan stayed thereafter for three weeks and gave up when the provisions were over. In the course of the battle, 12 southerners and more 150 northerners died, most of whom were on the deceased Tecumse monitor.
Fort Morgan after surrender.
The northerners, being practical people, repaired the captured ship and incorporated it into the fleet of the United States. He took part in battles against the remaining forts of southerners forts of Mobile Bay at the end of August 1864, and when they surrendered, he was transferred to New Orleans to patrol Mississippi and defend its coast from southerner raids.
In 1867, Tennessee was dropped from the fleet and sold for scrap. Two 178-mm and two 163-mm guns of the ship today are on display in American museums.
Breakthrough fleet northerners in Mobile Bay. Picture by X. Smith (1890)
One of these was the port of Mobile in Alabama. After the Southerners lost Florida and New Orleans in the summer of 1862, it was Mobil who became their only port in the Gulf of Mexico through which their high-speed vessels (“blockade breakers”) could deliver military equipment and ... laces for ladies' dresses. The capture of the port of Mobile by northerners would be a real disaster for the whole South.
That is why the approaches to the port of Mobile were mined, and the coastal batteries were set in such a way as to prevent the ships of the northerners from breaking through. In addition, in 1862 — 1863. its defenses were strengthened with the help of two small armored ram ships "Huntsville" and "Tuscoulus". Of course, in their combat value they were insignificant. One cannon, a ram on the nose and ... a very quiet course - what special benefit could such a ship bring in a battle? And the Southerners, realizing this, already in the autumn of 1862, at the shipyard in Selma, another much more powerful and high-speed battleship was laid, which was called “Tennessee”. They just built it slowly, because the Confederation had a severe shortage of everything that had anything to do with technology, starting from metal and machine tools and ending with experienced personnel and ... files. There were few workers, and even those who went on strike because of low wages, so the command of the Southerners fleet had to recruit them!
Having created the Virginia battleship, the Southerners decided that they weren’t looking for good and Tennessee received the same construction: a low port, which was very difficult to get from the gun, and a smooth deck, on which stood a rectangular armored casemate for guns. The displacement of the battleship was 1293 tons. The length of 63,7 m, width of 14,6 m and draft of 4,6 m, which was relatively little and helped him act in shallow water.
Compared to other southern ships, this battleship had a strong artillery Armament: two 178 mm Brooks muzzle-loading rifled guns firing forward and backward, and four 163 mm similar guns mounted in pairs on the sides. There were so many gun ports that the bow and stern guns could be turned to the side so that they could also participate in broadside salvos.
Scheme of the battleship southerners "Tennessee".
The rifled guns of the Brooks system had a greater range compared to the smooth-bore guns of the northerners, but their shells were lighter than the cores of the Rodman guns-columbiad. Therefore, at short distances the battlefield they were significantly inferior in the muzzle energy of the guns of the monitors of the northerners. There was another important issue. The gun ports in the dungeon were located in such a way that the guns that fired through them had limited sectors of fire, because of which the battleship had to turn to the enemy with a full board for a volley.
"Tennessee" also continued the tradition of the Southerners to equip their battleships with iron ram on the nose. But again, much depended on the speed, but she and the “Tennessee” was not too great. “Tennessee”, by the way, did not have a pole mine on its nose. But the battleships that were built in Charleston, it had.
There is also evidence that special pipes were installed at Tennessee in order to supply boiling water from the boilers to the casemate roof in case of boarding. But how it was supposed to be applied and how it was arranged is unknown.
"Tennessee". History US Civil War in photos in 10 volumes. Tom 6. Fleet. Review from the Seaway Co.New York York. 1911.
As for the armor, the "Tennessee" was different from all other armored ships of the Confederation in that it had not even two, but three layers of "armor" of wrought iron plates superimposed on each other. And it was not a surrogate armor of rolled rails! Three layers of armor plates gave a total thickness in 150 mm, which, due to the inclination of the armor in 45 degrees, was equal to 212 millimeters of armor mounted vertically. It seems to be great, but in fact it would be better if there were homogeneous armor on the battleship. She was stronger!
Roof casemate to improve ventilation made lattice. Gun ports could be closed with iron armor shutters. Each such shutter was suspended above the recess on the pin: it was lifted before the shot, opening the port, and after the shot it was lowered due to its own weight.
Model "Tennessee" from the company "Cottage Industries" M1: 192. Front view.
The Tennessee board was protected by armor made of two layers of iron plates with a total thickness of 100 millimeters. The deck had armor protection from a single 53 layer of millimeter iron plate slabs. Ideally, it was possible to assume that the southerners had the most protected ship of their time, but it is not clear why the steering chains went straight along the stern deck, being nothing covered. And it turned out that it was this feature of his design that played a crucial role in his fate.
Model "Tennessee" from the company "Cottage Industries" M1: 192. Back view.
The ship had one propeller, which was rotated by two steam engines operating from four boilers. The speed at full load did not exceed 5 nodes, in addition, the ship was very sluggish and difficult to manage.
Model "Tennessee" from paper and cardboard firm "Henkel".
The ship was taken to the 16 fleet on February 1864 of the year, and immediately ran into a problem. There was neither a trained crew of seamen, nor a sufficient number of technicians-engineers for his service. Even to lead the ship to Mobile Bay because of the sandbanks and then immediately failed. It was necessary to build wooden pontoons, so that they lifted the ship above the ground. But ... as soon as they were finished, the fire destroyed them and the pontoons had to be redone! As a result of all these delays, only Tennessee 18 in May tried to get out at night into the bay at night, and in the morning unexpectedly attacked the ships of the northerners who were blockading the port. And everything was fine, but the ship commander, Admiral Buchanan (at one time commanded by the ill-fated Virginia) did not take into account the fact that there would be a tide. And as soon as “Tennessee” got rid of the pontoons, it immediately ran aground. In the morning, the northerners, of course, saw him, and the effect of surprise was lost. True, the tide began here and the battleship was able to break off, after which he went under the protection of one of the forts and prepared for battle.
“Arkansas battleship model of Cottage Industries M1: 96.
And already 5 August 1864 of the year began the famous breakthrough of the ships of the northerners under the command of Admiral David Farragut to Mobile Bay. Moreover, his squadron consisted of 19 sailing-steam frigates, corvettes and gunboats, and four more monitors he had requested specifically for the battle with Tennessee, the presence of which among southerners of northerners was very well known.
At the entrance to the strait were three forts - Powell, Gaines and Morgan, and the only deep-water channel going past them was mined using anchor mines, which at that time were called torpedoes. Confederate ships: three wheeled gunboats and the battleship Tennessee were waiting for the northerners behind the line of obstacles.
Layout mines - "torpedoes."
Farragut knew that the Southerners had set their “torpedoes” in the middle of the fairway, so he ordered the squadron to break through as close as possible to the coast, literally under the very guns of Fort Morgan. The ships went for a breakthrough, guns crashed, forts and ships enveloped in powder smoke, and then the Tequamse monitor, which was heading pretty close to the shore, suddenly blew up on an underwater mine. The ship immediately overturned aboard and in a few moments went to the bottom. Seeing this, the commanders of the other ships were horrified and stopped the car. There was a danger that southerners from the forts would take advantage of this situation and inflict irreparable losses on fire to their northerners.
Rescuing sailors from the Tecumseh drowned monitor.
It was then that Admiral Farragut shouted his famous order, which was included in the textbooks on American history and the monograph on the Civil War: “To hell with torpedoes! Full speed ahead! ”And the squadron ships again set in motion and soon broke through into the bay, having lost only one ship.
Despite the enormous inequality of forces, the ships of the southerners, however, attacked the enemy. However, the northerners are not afraid. So, the parakhodofregat of the northerners "Metacomet" rammed the gunboat of the southerners "Selma", after which she surrendered. The gunboat “Heinz” suffered so much from the artillery fire of the Farragut ships that it preferred to be thrown ashore, and the gun “Morgan” left the battlefield.
Now the "Tennessee" was left in proud loneliness and, in order to inflict maximum losses on the northerners, tried to ram the ships of the northerners. The first target was chosen screw sloop "Brooklyn", but failed to do so. Moving along the ranks of the northerners, the Tennessee attempted to ram the corvette Richmond, and again failed. Then his commander decided to attack the flagship frigate of northerners "Hartford".
Monongahela is rammed by Tennessee.
But to get to it was not easy. While the Tennessee was walking towards the Hartford, he was himself rammed by two wooden steam sloops of the northerners, the Monongahela and the Laykevanna. They did not cause any harm, but they knocked the battleship off course. Therefore, he will hit the side of the frigate, not at a right angle, but in passing. The frigate launched a side volley through it, but shells, even fired at close range, did not pierce its armor. For a new attack, it was necessary to turn around, but such a maneuver required both space and time.
Meanwhile, monitors of the northerners “Chikasso”, “Winnebago” and “Manhattan”, armed with Dalgren’s 15-inch guns, finally came to the aid of the wooden ships. Their rate of fire was low, but the cores weighing 200 kg at close range could break through Tennessee armor. The large Manhattan monitor took up a position in front of the Tennessee and opened fire on it from its heavy cannons, while the Chikasso river double-headed monitor, got close to it from the stern, and began shooting the battleship at close range. And it was here that the flaw in the creators of the ship affected. One of the Chikasso projectiles interrupted the Tennessee helm drives that ran along the deck, and deprived it of control. One of the cores blew a pipe on it, the casemate’s armor was broken in several places, though not through. From the terrible blows of 200-kilogram cores, even the armored shutters of the gun ports were jammed.
"Tennessee" surrounded by ships of the northerners. J.O. Davidson.
Seeing what was happening, the captain of the ship Johnson realized that a little more, and the matter would end with the fact that he would repeat the fate of Tecumseh. Therefore, he ordered to raise the white flag. But since there was not a single flagpole on the ship, I had to stick it out through one of the embrasures a piece of white cloth on a stick.
The battle ended with a complete victory for the northerners, in whose hands was the whole bay and the entire Alabama coast. Fort Morgan stayed thereafter for three weeks and gave up when the provisions were over. In the course of the battle, 12 southerners and more 150 northerners died, most of whom were on the deceased Tecumse monitor.
Fort Morgan after surrender.
The northerners, being practical people, repaired the captured ship and incorporated it into the fleet of the United States. He took part in battles against the remaining forts of southerners forts of Mobile Bay at the end of August 1864, and when they surrendered, he was transferred to New Orleans to patrol Mississippi and defend its coast from southerner raids.
In 1867, Tennessee was dropped from the fleet and sold for scrap. Two 178-mm and two 163-mm guns of the ship today are on display in American museums.
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