Shipbucket

Hello everyone,

Today I have for you another ironclad, the CSS Missouri from 1863. You likely are not familiar with this ship, which is for good reason as she essentially did absolutely nothing during her career with the Confederate Navy.

She was laid down in December of 1862 using an amalgamation of random parts, including machinery from a steamboat, armour from railroad rails and armed with captured cannons. An interesting part about the ship is that her main propulsion is a large paddlewheel, which is situated inside the ship and mostly protected by the main ironclad armour.

Missouri found itself with trouble from the start of her existence, especially when she was launched and sent for sea trials - where she was only able to make at most 5 knots upstream. Another strange part of the ship was the armour itself, where it was made of T-rails that were laid diagonally on the sides of the casemate, but not the fore and aft faces. Under the armour was her construction made of green timber caulked with cotton, which personally sounds like an incredibly strange choice. Because of this construction, she was riddled with leaks. She also had 3 rudders, but not even this large amount helped with steering due to the paddle wheel.

After commissioning, she was riddled with issues that caused even her crew to hate the ship. Her original appointed captain had been recorded as saying that "he hoped the damned boat would sink" and that he "never intended to serve on her if he could help it." On top of this, much of her crew were transferred from a cutter and the Confederate Army. As would be expected on a ship such as this, crew comforts did not exist and the ship itself was stuck in its launch location due to low water levels - preventing any action during most of the war.

In March of 1865, she finally was able to leave due to higher water levels and made way for Alexandria, LA, using requisitioned fuel and supplies from plantations passed on the way. The ship was surrendered in June, and sold for scrap in November.

While having an uneventful career, Missouri can at least have a spot on SB to be remembered by!

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Nice work.