Building a War Ship in the Southern Confederacy
By Rear Admiral W. M. Parks, U. S. Navy, Retired
The following particulars have been gathered from "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion" recently published by the Navy Department.
A few months after the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Nelson Tift, a resident of Georgia, reflecting on the scarcity in the South of the materials of ship building as carried on at that time, and on the lack of skilled workmen in that trade, conceived the idea of utilizing for ships such material and such labor as were abundant in that part of the country. For material he would use pine wood from the vast pine forests of the South, and his design of ship was such that house carpenters and common laborers could do the greater part of the work.
Mr. Tift's novel design for a ship provided for the use of straight timbers throughout; there were to be no curves and no framing. Starting from the bottom each course of timbers was to be laid, calked and painted, before the next course was laid on. The bottom or floor and the decks were to be flat. One part of the hull was to be rectangular in shape, and the two ends, forming the bow and the stern, were alike, and triangular in horizontal section. For a war ship which was the main purpose of the design, the hull was to be topped by an iron-plated superstructure with sloping sides, thirty-six degrees, changed later to thirty degrees, and pierced for guns, such as was at about that very time being built upon the razed hull of the frigate Merrimac at the Norfolk Navy Yard. It will be seen that in several particulars this design was similar to Mr. Ford's Eagle Boat design of many years later.
Mr. Tift was neither a shipbuilder nor an engineer; he had been merchant, railroad man, legislator and man of affairs. He was a native of Connecticut which may account for his inventive genius, but which was to count heavily against him later on, notwithstanding the fact that he had been a resident of Georgia for thirty years. Associated with him in presenting his design to the authorities, was his brother, Mr. Asa Tift, likewise without shipbuilding or engineering experience, but like his brother for many years a resident of the South.
The two brothers provided themselves with letters of introduction to leading men in the Government of the Southern Confederacy, just then recently established at Richmond, Va. They took their model to the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. S. R. Mallory. They were kindly received by the Secretary, and a board of naval officers was called together to examine and pass judgment upon the novel design.
Strange as it may seem the Georgia merchant's design of a warship was enthusiastically approved by the naval board. Contrast this with Ericsson's experience, at about that time, when he laid the Monitor's design before the naval board on the other side of the Potomac River. And Ericsson was an engineer and a shipbuilder of note. Apparently it was not entirely the conservative element of the old Navy that threw in its lot with the seceded states.
Acting upon the advice of his naval board, Mr. Mallory immediately authorized the Tift brothers to build the most powerful warship possible, according to their design, and designated New Orleans as the place where the vessel was to be built. This was done in order that the new ship might first be used to break the blockade of the Mississippi River which was already making its deadly power felt in the Southern Confederacy. After that, if dreams were to come true, the new ship was to go up the Atlantic coast and drive the enemy from before every port of the Confederacy.
The plans approved by the Naval Secretary and by the naval board called for a vessel about 260 feet long, fifty-eight feet beam and fifteen feet deep. The designed draft was to be fourteen feet. The vertical sides of the rectangular shaped part of the hull were to be two feet thick; same thickness for the stern section. The bow section was to have sides three feet thick, in order to strengthen that part of the hull for ramming. The speed decided upon, 14 knots, was remarkable for that time. Another innovation, thought by some to be original with our own modern Navy, was the division of the motive power among three engines, driving three screw propellers. The engines were single cylinder, vertical inverted, non-condensing, diameter of cylinders thirty-six inches, and stroke of all thirty inches. Steam of high pressure was to be supplied by sixteen horizontal, cylindrical, two-flue boilers, arranged in two sets, each set having a double furnace built of brick work. Boilers were forty-two inches diameter and thirty feet long. Apparently there was to be one smoke pipe. There was of course a "Doctor" as the independent boiler feed pump was called but apparently no other auxiliaries. Simplicity prevailed in the engine rooms of those days.
This ship must have had a displacement in the neighborhood of 4,000 tons, and the indicated horsepower for the designed speed of 14 knots would have been not far from 2,000. These figures of displacement, speed, and indicated horsepower were probably not exceeded at that time by any warship afloat. About 1,000 tons of iron plates were to be used on the sloping sides and the top of the superstructures, an unusually large part of the displacement to be allotted to armor protection. The battery was to be twenty of the heaviest guns that could be found. Undoubtedly this vessel would have been invulnerable to any gunsthat could have been brought against her, and no vessel afloat at that time could have withstood the impact of her formidable ram. No wonder enthusiastic naval officers of the Confederacy spoke of this ship as the most wonderful warship in the world! And she probably would have been that, at any rate for use in home waters, had she been completed,
The Tift brothers desired no money compensation for their design, It appears that glory was all that they were after. They asked for no contract and none was made with them. The Secretary of the Navy designated them "Agents of the Navy Department"; and as such they agreed to superintend the building of the vessel on the approved plans, without compensation, except for very modest traveling expenses incurred by them in connection with the work. The pay rolls and the bills of the subcontractors were certified, for payment by the Tifts, whereupon a naval paymaster, detailed for the purpose, paid out the money. It is a pleasure to record that the Secretary's confidence in the honesty and patriotism of the brothers was not misplaced. They seem to have done everything humanly possible to make the undertaking a success.
The Navy Department had agreed to detail a naval constructor and a naval engineer to superintend the work in their respective departments. This was done in the case of the naval constructor; but although the names of several naval engineers appear as connected with the work for longer or shorter periods no one of them seems to have been detailed to devote his entire time to the work throughout its continuance, and this was a serious error, because it was in the engineering department that the delays occurred that brought failure to the enterprise. The Navy Department was to furnish the battery; and also the necessary anchors and chains, etc.
In September, 1861, two weeks after receiving final instructions from the Navy Department, the brothers Tift arrived in New Orleans and at once began preparations to build their ship. They selected a site for the work on the river bank just above New Orleans. There they built a saw mill and a blacksmith shop and the foundation for the ship to rest upon. With this modest outfit completed the first timber, not the keel, was laid on October 14, 1861. Three months was the time set in which to finish the ship; and in spite of unlooked-for delays in getting timber the hull came very near to being finished in that time. And this was certainly a remarkable feat, since on the date when the first timber was laid much of the lumber afterwards worked into the vessel was standing in the forest.
Of course the design of the ship, without curves and with no framing, helped greatly in making this record, and there were also constant reminders from the Navy Department of the urgent need for the vessel, and telegrams came thick and fast to spare no money and no effort to complete the task. It is apparent that the authorities at Richmond were aware of the danger to the city of New Orleans from the Federal fleets, one above the city and another below, and they also recognized the fact that the only hope for the city was in having a force afloat more powerful than any the enemy could bring into action. This new and powerful vessel would have supplied that force, had she been completed and armed as designed.
But from the first the Tifts do not seem ever to have received the cordial co-operation of the local machinists and shipbuilders that the importance of their undertaking merited. The machine shop people particularly were not eager to give priority to the newcomer's work over work they themselves already had in hand for the Government; and there was no one present with authority to enforce that priority. Not being bound by a fixed price contract the Tifts could pay whatever was demanded for anything they needed; and while it does not appear that they abused this power it nevertheless did not add to their popularity in the local field. The brothers were also unfortunate in their first choice of a civilian engineer, and there was delay in getting out detail plans for the machinery. Lumber for the hull became scarce and difficult to find. There were strikes for higher pay. Although these demands of labor were quickly met, precious time was lost. Service in the army, it seems, took some of the best workmen and time was consumed in getting these men released. But all the time work was pressed day and night, and the brothers certainly did not spare themselves.
The great difficulty was the machinery. No second-hand engines suitable for the purpose could be found in the Confederacy; and there was no plant outside the Norfolk Navy Yard-soon lost to the South and busy just then with the ironclad Virginia -that could build both the engines and the necessary shafting. Finally, and by the promise of a bonus, a New Orleans firm finished the main engines, without the shafting, and also the boilers; and these were installed in the ship.
But the propeller shafts nine inches in diameter, presented the most serious difficulty, as had been foreseen from the first. The Tifts literally combed the country to find three used shafts that might be made to do, but in vain. Wrought iron was the material it had been decided to use; it was before 'the day of steel. The river steamboats of that day used cast iron for their relatively short shafts, but that material would not do for these long propeller shafts, although its use was at one time seriously considered. After some delay a New Orleans firm that had a contract to make some wrought iron guns for the Government consented to change their furnaces, cranes, etc., to handle the longer pieces forming these shafts. When all was ready a competent hammer man could not be found and there was delay until a competent man could be sent by the Navy Department from the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. One shaft was forged - a wing one – in two sections; one section eight feet long, the other thirty-two feet long. These pieces were sent to another shop to be machined; then the second wing shaft was finished in the same way.
In the meantime, and to hurry on the work, the Navy Department offered to furnish the center shaft from the Tredegar Iron Works. But even there, in a plant that was the best equipped in the South for heavy work, it was not possible at that time to forge this shaft. By great good luck a used shaft was found that could be added to and drawn down, and so made to do. But even so it took weeks, working day and night, to complete the shaft, and it arrived at New Orleans too late to be put in place before launching. It was hurried on board and went down with the ship.
Then came the question of the screw propell.ers, three of them, each eleven feet in diameter; no other dimensions given. No moulder in New Orleans knew how to make a mould for a screw propeller, and apparently there was no engineer there to show the moulders how to do it. A screw propeller was something of a rarity on the western rivers in those days. As was done in the case of a hammer man appeal was made to Richmond and a loam moulder was sent who did the work. Apparently this loam moulder did not strike for higher wages. I am glad to record his name, McPherson, no initials given. A Scotchman probably, as there were a number of them working at various places in the Confederacy, attracted by the comparatively high wages paid there for skilled mechanics.
By now it was early spring, five months after the first timber had been laid, and the ship was not yet ready for launching. The feeling of security that had prevailed in the city began to give way to a feeling of nervous apprehension. A citizens' committee of safety was formed; this committee was of some help to the Tifts because they were able to commandeer workmen from the various shops in the city and send them to work on the new warship. But it was too late; and so the question of launching the vessel and towing her to a place of safety came up. The Tifts protested against launching at that time claiming that the vessel could be more quickly finished where she was, which was probably true. But they sadly underestimated the time to finish, naming two weeks, when the best expert opinion obtainable was six weeks. The matter was put up to the commandant of the naval station, but he declined at first, to interfere. In a short time this decision of the commandant was reversed, and immediate launching was urged by him. There was much hesitation on the part of the naval officers present to take decisive action. The commandant was new to his duties; in fact there had been several commandants in command within a few months, and no one of them seems to have been certain of the extent of his authority over the Tifts or over the ship.
The prospective commanding officer of the vessel, Captain Sinclair, had recently been ordered by the Navy Department; but apparently he was not to have authority over the vessel until she was finished and turned over to the Government. There is no doubt, however, that he helped materially to hasten work on the vessel, advising the Tifts in all matters where his experience as a seagoing officer was of use. He seems to have had with him some of the officers detailed to the ship, and these were busy drilling the crew on shore and in other ways getting things ready for speedily commissioning the ship when she should be pronounced ready.
The Tifts in the meantime pressed the work with energy but still delayed the launching, trusting too much, it now appears, to their own inaccurate estimate of time required to finish; that estimate always being contingent upon holding the ship where she was. At last, however, urged by the committee of safety, and by the naval officers present they agreed to launch. The Navy Department telegraphed permission and at the same time announced the name of the ship, Mississippi.
The first attempt at launching was a failure, due it was said to a locust-wood pin driven through the ship's bottom and into the foundation upon which the vessel rested. When this had been removed three powerful steamboats pulled the ship into the waters of the great river so soon to be her grave. Apparently there were no ceremonies, no cheering crowds, no whistles blowing and no speech making. The date was April 19, 1862, and six days later the enemy's fleet was before the city, and the Mississippi was still a helpless hulk, without battery and without motive power, and with but little of her armor plating in place.
Then at last decisive action was taken. The commandant ordered Captain Sinclair and his officers to board the ship and try to have her towed to a place of safety. Apparently no particular place was named; it was merely get her away from the vicinity of New Orleans. Failing in that the orders were to destroy her. Two river steamboats took the vessel in tow but they were not able to stem the swift current of the river. Frantic efforts were made to get additional steamers, but by that time many of these had escaped up the river, and those that remained had been deserted by their crews. In the meantime the Mississippi, despite the efforts of the two towing steamboats, was slowly drifting toward Farragut's approaching fleet. Seeing that nothing more could be done Captain Sinclair gave the order to apply the torch. And so passed forever the one chance the Confederacy had to regain control of the Mississippi River.
The two towing steamboats fled up the river, carrying with them the naval officers who had been on duty in New Orleans, and such stores and archives as could be hastily gathered together. From the deck of one of these boats the Tift brothers saw the last of their cherished design. Both were heart-broken, and one of them wept bitterly. Upon arrival at Vicksburg what must have been their surprise to find that they had been denounced from New Orleans as traitors? An angry crowd met the boat and there was talk of hanging traitors. The provost marshal put them under arrest. Fortunately for the Tifts the Paymaster, Mr. Senac, who had been detailed by the Navy Department to pay their bills for work on the Mississippi was on board, and that officer strongly protested against the arrest, calling it an outrage, and demanding to know upon what authority the provost marshal was acting. Then it came out that the Tifts were accused from New Orleans of burning the Mississippi. A scape-goat was demanded, and here undoubtedly the fact of their Northern birth counted against them; such is the usual logic of an angry mob.
The military governor at Vicksburg was appealed to by Paymaster Senac and that official consented to hear what the naval officers who knew the Tifts had to say in the matter. These soon made it clear that the brothers had nothing to do with the burning of the Mississippi. And so they were released from arrest, but it seems rather reluctantly, for it was argued that further accusations might come from New Orleans; but apparently none did. This unfortunate experience with the Mississippi did not alienate their friend the Naval Secretary nor discourage the Tifts from their chosen work, for they were soon afterwards given a contract to convert the blockade runner Fingal at Savannah, into an ironclad, the Atlanta, captured later in the war by the monitors Weehawken and Nahant.