Hello all,

I hope y'all don't mind, but I have another question: Have any of y'all heard of or read of netting being hung or mounted on inside casemate bulkheads to protect the men from flying shards and splinters?

The reason I am asking this is because last night I read on some website a description of some crewmember telling of the effects of the 15" guns of one of Farragut's monitor type ships. He said that one of the monitors, I forget which one, eased up to the port side and from like 30 yards away fired a shot with its 15" guns. When he had seen it creeping up with its turret slowly turning to bring its guns to bear, he hollered, "Clear the port side!!" The concussion of the discharge and subsequent impact shook them all. The guy said it was the only shot from one of the big guns that hit them squarely. He said that it caused daylight to be seen where a moment before had been two feet of wood and five inches of iron. He said it did not come all the way through but just broke some of the iron plating and caved in the bulkhead. He also said that their inside netting protected the men from splinters. I suppose the "daylight" they spoke of came through a crack or something caused by this.

Here is Farragut's engineer's description of the bulkheads of the CSS Tennessee's casemate:

"The framing consists of heavy yellow pine beams 13 inches thick and placed close together vertically. Outside planking of yellow pine 5½
inches thick, laid on horizontally, and outside of this horizontal planking there is a layer of oak timber 4 inches thick, bolted on vertically, upon which the iron plating is secured. The plating or armor of the casemate forward is 6 inches thick, consisting of three 2-inch
iron plates of about 6 inches wide, each, and abaft and on the sides 5 inches thick, consisting of two 2-inch and one 1-inch iron plates of the same width. The yellow-pine framing of the casemate is planked over inside with
2½-inch oak timber, laid on diagonally. The whole of the armor plating is fastened with through-bolts 1¼-inch diameter, with washers and nuts."

Now, I assume the 2 1/2" oak planking that was laid diagonally forming the inside covering were 2 1/2" square oak boards (being laid diagonally is sort of rare or odd isn' it?). So I would imagine that when the bulkhead caved and busted in a bit with the impact of that massive 15" shell or bolt, it would have indeed cracked and splintered those 2 1/2" oak boards covering the inside bulkhead diagonally, sending splinters and shards flying.

So my question is this, do any of y'all know of or have heard of mounting netting inside of a casemate ironclad to guard agains flying splinters and shards of wood? I would imagine it was a net with small openings instead of a wide mesh type fishing net. Do you reckon it was tacked tightly over and along the inside of the casemate's bulkhead or just some how hung loosly along it? Just curious.
Thanks y'all and sorry for my long questions and posts sometimes,
Dave