The American Civil War brought about a new type of fighting vessel not previously seen in the Americas, commonly referred to as ironclads. The French were the first to actually use iron covered vessels during a conflict during the Crimean War. As the Civil War began members of the Navy Department held various opinions as to the advantages or usefulness of not only armoring their ships with iron but also in adopting steam power for their oceangoing vessels. Steam power had been in use some sixty years at this time, but doubt remained within the Navy Department 1 The impetus which pushed the Navy Department to accept the armoring of ships came from the Army. General Winfield Scott developed a strategy for choking off the Confederacy’s supply lines by blockading the Mississippi river and its tributaries. This plan became known as “Anaconda”. The first seven ironclad warships built for the North were expressly built to support the “Anaconda” policy. The USS Cairo was one of these seven gunboats. 2 1 Elizabeth Joyner, Robber Smith, USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum, (Eastern National, 2004) 2 John D. Mulligan, “From Theory to Application: The Emergence of the American Ironclad War Vessel,” Military Affairs 48, No. 3 (1984): 126. 1
The army and the navy both agreed to call in civilians who had expertise with the design of river boats which were powered by steam engines and had very shallow drafts. Even though there were several men with the expertise necessary, the name most associated with the Cairo is James Buchanan Eads. Eads became of age during a time of unlimited expansion and opportunity in the United States. He seemed to have had an inborn ability for acquiring engineering and mechanical skills. As a teenager, he was a passenger on the riverboat Carrolton when it caught fire and he was forced to swim to shore. Eight passengers were killed as a result of the accident. Shortly after, Eads started educating himself in the field of engineering. After a few years of land based jobs and apprentice level jobs on riverboats, Eads became an authority on the Mississippi River. He developed and owned a salvage business to recover cargo from the continual sinking of riverboats and barges on the river. He retired at the age of 37 years old in 1857 a very wealthy man. His leisurely life in St. Louis was to be interrupted four years later with the beginning of the Civil War. 3 After a decision was made as to the design of the new ironclads had been made, the War Department accepted bids from western boat builders. “The one it accepted came from the well-known civil engineer, James B. Eads of St. Louis. On 7 August, 1861, Eads signed with the Department an agreement to build seven ironclad gunboats at $89,600 the boat, or over four times the sum anticipated” 4 The engine and drive mechanism of the Cairo were unique as a system, but not necessarily of individual components. One of the original designers, Samuel Pook originally tried to place all of the Cairo’s propulsion machinery below the main deck. This became impossible due to the shallow draft of the vessel. The distribution of the parts of the drive mechanism attributed the ship’s uniqueness for it’s time. 5 The Cairo is the only surviving example of the original seven gunboats. As such, it became a mechanical object of study almost immediately after it was recovered. “The Cairo’s engine and boilers are among the oldest and best surviving examples of typical engines designed for boats plying the western rivers.” 6 “The ironclad was equipped with five fire-tube boilers, each 36 inches in diameter and 25-feet long, with five 7 ½ inch flues inside each boiler….the cast iron fire fronts fit to the front of the boiler with a five-foot- long firebox. It consumed 18 to 20 bushels-approximately 1,980 pounds-of coal per hour.” 7 3 Elizabeth Joyner, Robber Smith, USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum, (Eastern National, 2004) 4 ? John D. Mulligan, “From Theory to Application: The Emergence of the American Ironclad War Vessel,” Military Affairs 48, No. 3 (1984): 127. 5 Ibid., 127-128. 6 ? . American Society of Mechanical Engineers: USS Cairo Engine and Boilers, The U.S.S. Cairo and Museum, (Vicksburg, Mississippi 1990) 7 ? . Ibid. 2
Figure 1 Cairo’s five fire-tube boilers, 36 inches in diameter and 25 feet long each. “The Cairo was equipped with a two-cylinder non-condensing, reciprocating main steam engine. The cylinders, mounted at a 15-degree angle, were made of cast-iron with a 22-inch bore and were of a length to accommodate a 72-inch stroke. A one-cylinder auxiliary engine, also called the doctor because it cured the ills of the steam boat, was used to drive two cold-water pumps and two main force pumps to supply the boiler with water, drawing it from the river”. 8 The photo on the next page is looking forward to aft, from the boiler end toward the connecting rods to the paddlewheel cranks. The original plans for the gunboats required them to have 20 guns. Because the finished product proved to be substantially heavier than the originally estimated 436 tons, Eads reduced the number of guns to 13. The final product displaced almost 900 tons including 122 tons of armor plate. This was fifty percent more weight than originally projected by Samuel Pook in the early planning stages. 9
Figure 2 Cairo’s main two cylinder steam engine. Prior to the Cairo and her sister ships being built and engaging in battles, the first ironclad battle in the Americas took place in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The U.S.S Monitor and the C.S.S Virginia fought a four hour battle. Neither of the ironclads received significant damage. Each side was able to see the advantages and potential destructive power of the ironclads as a result of this battle. As the months passed, ships were designed and money allocated for the necessary construction, the Cairo and her sister ships were all commissioned between December, 1861 and December, 1862. The two sister ships that were involved in the most battles were the Carondelet and the Pittsburg. 10 There are many sources that refer to the seven vessels as a group engaging in naval battles immediately after commissioning, especially at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Tennessee. This author has not been able to document a single source identifying the Cairo as engaging any targets at these Tennessee River forts, nor being engaged from these forts. Four of the vessels were engaged in rather long, close in battles at these forts, but the Cairo was not one of them. The sinking of the Cairo and the method by which it sank is apparently the subject which most historians are interested and not it’s apparent -ly very minor battle history. 11 In September, 1862, the Cairo received a new commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Thomas Oliver Selfridge Jr. At the same time she received orders to steam up the Yazoo River near Vicksburg, Mississippi, her mission was to find enemy torpedoes and destroy them. What was referred to as torpedoes in the 1860s are now called mines, ordnance designed to damage or sink enemy ships. These early torpedoes (mines), consisted of a five-gallon glass container filled with black powder. A copper wire which had been waterproofed ran from the underwater mine to the near bank of the river to hidden Confederate soldiers which would command detonate the mine by send an 10 ? Ibid., 129-130. 11 ? Ibid., 128-131. Bass, George F., ed. 1996 Ships and Shipwrecks Of The Americas , London: Thames and Hudson LTD. 207-209, 214-216. The author could not find a single reference where the Cairo was involved in significant combat until the day she was sunk by two torpedoes (mines). 4
electrical current through the wire to the black powder when an enemy ship came close enough. 12 “Simple and deadly, torpedoes damaged or destroyed as many as forty Federal vessels during the war. Indeed, more Union warships were lost to mining than to any other manner of combat.” 13 “For the first time in history a powerful ironclad warship had been destroyed by an electrically-detonated torpedo, in this case made from a five-gallon demijohn.” 14 Actually two torpedoes struck her at once. All of the ship’s 175 crew were picked up by other boats in the flotilla, the war continued on and the Cairo was forgotten. The Cairo lay on the bottom of the Yazoo River for nearly one hundred years before discovery. Edwin Bearss, (Vicksburg National Military Park historian), Don Jacks and Warren Grabau discovered the wreck. “The three men had conducted research utilizing maps and charts of the area and had also talked with residents who told them that at time, when the river level was low, the pilot house could be seen just above the river’s surface. In 1952, armed with a compass and a small boat, the three men began to search for the sunken ironclad.” 15 Instead of using the compass to provide direction of travel, the men used it as a magnetometer. They laid the compass on the bottom of their boat. When they would pass over any concentration of metal; the needle would fluctuate and be unstable. After finally finding such a large concentration and achieving further evidence by the use of metal probes, the Cairo was found in 36 feet of water. 16 The wreck was raised by a private group of citizens who called their organization Operation Cairo. The members of this group donated their time, money, and equipment to raise and preserve the ironclad and and its artifacts.” 17 Through the nearly 100 years the Cairo had rested on the bottom, a large accumulation of logs had gathers on top of the wreck. This became the first problem associated in raising the Cairo. Even though the local organization had the best of intentions and gave their best efforts, there were no professional archaeologists working the site. Another major point to be made involving this “excavation”, Dr. George Bass had not made his mark in history as yet. It was the very early 1960’s before Bass started bringing academic and scientific standards to the work of underwater archaeology with his work conducted of the coast of Bodrum, Turkey during several seasons. The work of bringing Cairo off of the bottom of the Yazoo River was conducted more along the lines of a construction project rather than a maritime archaeological excavation. Considering that the excavators had no professional help or standards to guide them, the final results 25 years later have proven to be a great asset to American maritime archaeology. For students and tourists the Cairo Museum in Vicksburg, Mississippi is an outstanding place to visit. The private citizens that were actually raising the Cairo broke the ship in half with the crane during the lifting. Divers had blown the mud and silt out of the ship before the raising but their efforts failed. A decision was then made to cut the ship into three pieces and place them on a barge. The raising was completed on December 12, 1964, 102 years 15 . Joyner, Elizabeth Hoxie, The USS CAIRO, London: McFarland and Company INC. 2006. 9-11. 16 ? Ibid., 9. 17 ? . Ibid., 11. 5
to the date of her sinking. 18 The planning of the preservation of the Cairo was unprofessional at best. She incurred problems almost immediately and throughout the process: The vessel was taken to Pascagoula, Mississippi, to the Ingalls Shipyard, where she remained for 13 years. While in Pascagoula, the Cairo was pieced back together. In an effort to preserve the wooden hull, a system of hoses was placed throughout the vessel. It was thought at the time that the best method of preserving the vessel was to periodically wet the wooden timbers of the hull. Actually, this did more harm than good, and as a result about 50 percent of the Cairo’s wood was lost. 19 The Cairo was carrying 13 guns when it sank. All of the guns were salvaged before the raising of the vessel itself to lighten the load. The guns raised were as follows: three 8-inch Navy guns, one 30-pounder Naval Parrott Rifle, six 32-pounder smoothbores and Figure 3 No.1 Port Cannon, 32 pounder recovered from the original wreck site. three 42-pounder rifles. 20 Thousands of artifacts were collected as a result of the excavation. Although many of the items are obviously directly related to military service and war, many thousand of the items were personal items of the men serving aboard the ship at the time of its demise. Although numerous rifles and pistols were recovered from the wreck, one stood out to me. A Colt Model 1860 Army Revolver in .44 caliber. Even though the pistol is missing a couple of small parts, it is in good condition after being submerged for 100 years. 21 It is worth a small monetary fortune to a Colt collector. In 2008 a pristine copy of this pistol sold for more than $400,000.00 in an auction in Maine. The Cairo Colt is proudly displayed in the Cairo Museum. Some of the more intriguing personal artifacts recovered were ambrotypes of presumed family or girlfriends and children. An ambrotype is a small rectangular piece of glass with an image on it which can be turned into a picture. 22 A large assortment of jewelry was found during the excavation. One of the most 6