Ron van Maanen
Designed by Samuel Hartt Pook was her building at the yard of H.L.&C.S. Bushnell, Mystic, Connecticut ordered on 16 September 1861 and her keel was laid down in the same year. Launched on 14 February of the next year was she all ready commissioned on 21 April, on 21 May 1863 she was temporarily decommissioned to be repaired at Philadelphia and where her during a fight on 15 May with a Confederate battery at Drewry’s Bluff heavily damaged armour was permanently removed, again commissioned on 15 February 1864 was she decommissioned on 2 June 1869, was she condemned a year later after being surveyed and in two years later broken up at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
With a displacement of 738 long tons/750 tons were her dimensions 210’ x 36’ x 11’ or 64 x 11 x 3,4 metres. Her crew numbered 164 men and she was armed with 4-9” or 23cm Dahlgren guns and 2-100 pdr Parrott rifled guns. Her speed was just 8 knots.
The original picture is available via the link http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h59000/h59541c.htm and is described as a water color made by the royal navy surgeon Oscar Parkes (1885-1958) in 1936
The magazine Harper’s Weekly dated 5 April 1862 published an topic dealing with this ship and published the beautiful drawings below. At that moment she was fitted out with her armour at the Continental Works, Green Point, Long Island manufactured by the Rensselaer and Albany Iron Works. The bomb-proof deck and pilothouse were made by J.T. Rowland of the plant Continental Works. She was described as a heavily armed gunboat of around 1,000 tons and she was to be the strongest of her kind and it was expected that she was of special use for the US navy. Were in ordinary build vessels “spaces left between the timbers which constitute the frame” was in the Galena the frame solid ‘being composed of timbers of oak and walnut at least 18 inches square; over this is laid the external planking, and inside another planking, bringing her solid thickness up to nearly two feet. Outside of all is the iron armor. This is composed of plate 12 feet long, five inches broad, of rolled iron, varying in thickness from 1¼ to 2 inches. These plates are rolled into such a shape as to present a flange upon the upper edge, through which the bolts are driven.”…. “The peculiarity of the model is that the hull presents every where a rounded surface. Looking directly at the stern, the shape is very like the larger end of an egg.” According to the contract were her building costs estimated on 235,000 US dollars.
The Nautical magazine, volume 31, may 1862, page 276 reported that she was at that moment being completed at Greenpoint and was expected to depart for sea within a fortnight. The newspaper New York Times described her as ‘a plated egg-shell’.
Designed by Samuel Hartt Pook was her building at the yard of H.L.&C.S. Bushnell, Mystic, Connecticut ordered on 16 September 1861 and her keel was laid down in the same year. Launched on 14 February of the next year was she all ready commissioned on 21 April, on 21 May 1863 she was temporarily decommissioned to be repaired at Philadelphia and where her during a fight on 15 May with a Confederate battery at Drewry’s Bluff heavily damaged armour was permanently removed, again commissioned on 15 February 1864 was she decommissioned on 2 June 1869, was she condemned a year later after being surveyed and in two years later broken up at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
With a displacement of 738 long tons/750 tons were her dimensions 210’ x 36’ x 11’ or 64 x 11 x 3,4 metres. Her crew numbered 164 men and she was armed with 4-9” or 23cm Dahlgren guns and 2-100 pdr Parrott rifled guns. Her speed was just 8 knots.
The original picture is available via the link http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h59000/h59541c.htm and is described as a water color made by the royal navy surgeon Oscar Parkes (1885-1958) in 1936
The magazine Harper’s Weekly dated 5 April 1862 published an topic dealing with this ship and published the beautiful drawings below. At that moment she was fitted out with her armour at the Continental Works, Green Point, Long Island manufactured by the Rensselaer and Albany Iron Works. The bomb-proof deck and pilothouse were made by J.T. Rowland of the plant Continental Works. She was described as a heavily armed gunboat of around 1,000 tons and she was to be the strongest of her kind and it was expected that she was of special use for the US navy. Were in ordinary build vessels “spaces left between the timbers which constitute the frame” was in the Galena the frame solid ‘being composed of timbers of oak and walnut at least 18 inches square; over this is laid the external planking, and inside another planking, bringing her solid thickness up to nearly two feet. Outside of all is the iron armor. This is composed of plate 12 feet long, five inches broad, of rolled iron, varying in thickness from 1¼ to 2 inches. These plates are rolled into such a shape as to present a flange upon the upper edge, through which the bolts are driven.”…. “The peculiarity of the model is that the hull presents every where a rounded surface. Looking directly at the stern, the shape is very like the larger end of an egg.” According to the contract were her building costs estimated on 235,000 US dollars.
The Nautical magazine, volume 31, may 1862, page 276 reported that she was at that moment being completed at Greenpoint and was expected to depart for sea within a fortnight. The newspaper New York Times described her as ‘a plated egg-shell’.
