Laid down in August 1861 (1) at the yard of James Buchanan Eads&Co.(2) at St. Louis, Mississippi was she already two months later launched and commissioned at Cairo, Illinois on 15 January 1862. Decommissioned on 20 June 1865 at Mound City, Illinois and sold on 29 November of the same year. She sunk in the Ohio in 1873. With a displacement of 512 tons were her dimensions 53 x 15,60 x 1,8 metres or 175’ x 51’2” x 6’. Her speed was just 4 knots. Her crew numbered 251 men. The casemate was protected by a 6,4cm (2.5”) thick armour and the pilothouse by 3,2cm (1.25”). The armament was regularly changed. In 1863 consisted she of 3-9” smoothbore guns, 4-8” smoothbore guns, 2-100pdr rifles, 1-50pdr rifle, 1-30pdr rifle and 1-12pdr rifle.
The photo was taken around 1862. Source http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-c/carndt.htm
Notes
1. See for more details dealing with this ship the book written by Myron J. Smith jr. The USS Carondelet A civil war ironclad on western waters.
2.
Author of System of Naval Defences. Report to the honourable Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy, February 22, 1868, published by D. van Nostrand, New York, 1868. Lawrenceburg, Indiana 23 May 1820-8 March 1887 Nassau, Bahamas. An engineer responsible for the triple-arch steel build bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis of 1867 and during the Civil war responsible for designing and building 7 river ironclads of the so-called City class.
