The Civil War Navies Message Board

Re: site of sinking of CSS Atlanta

Philadelphia Inquirer
May 11, 1869

Mysterious
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Supposed Naval Aid for Cuba
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The Rebel Ram "Atlanta"
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Fitting Out of the Historic Ironclad
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Cuban Waters Her Probable Destination
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Secrecy of Movements Connected With The Vessel

A few days ago the Rebel iron-clad steam ram Atlanta was sold by the government and removed from her moorings at Leauge Island. Little was said of the circumstance, but the knowing shook their heads sagely and mysteriously hinted at Cuba. Everything was conducted quietly and a certain Samuel Ward, of New York city, was reported as the buyer of the war vessel. After the sale the vessel was towed up the river and moored near Poplar Street wharf. So far so good. Other vessels had been purchased by private gentlemen and converted into servicable merchantmen, but the fact of a "ram" being bought suggested inquiry. The ship-builders art could scarcely convert her into a commodious passenger steamer, and she was too valuable either for a coal barge or scrap-iron and fire-wood. The ship could be useful but for one purpose: that purpose war, hence the coupling of Cuba with her name and from all that has transpired Cuba will, most likely, be her destination.

Yesterday the ugly, formidable -looking craft was lying at the ship-yard of Neafie&Levy. Everything about her was quiet, and no indications of work were observable. Inquiry, however, brought out the facts that at the ship-yard the owner's name was not known. The ship had been towed to the yard and there left. A Mr. Oakesby, or Oaksmith, had visited Neafie&Levy to acsertain whether the works had the capacity to put the vessel in good order, and this being answered satisfactorily, orders were left and arrangements are now being made to fit her for sea.

Her hull and battery casing being substantial and powerful, and her machinery not very much out of repair, the work upon the ship will not take any great amount of time. The battery deck is clear, the guns having all been removed some time ago; but of anything beneath deck, the presence of a watchman, with orders to exclude visitors, prevents our reporter from saying ought.

The instructions, in fact, are not actually to put her in regular fighting trim, but merely to make her ready for a "short sea trip." Where she was to be taken was not mentioned, but the "short sea trip" was supposed to mean New York, although there is a sort of understanding amongst those cognizant of anything concerning her, that she is to be taken to sea as soon as finished on a "trial of speed," and when at sea there will be no trouble about a transfer. In fact, it is generally understood that once in salt water and outside the marine leauge, she will soon be steaming in Cuban waters, under the Cuban flag, and poking her iron nose through the wooden rib of the Hidalgo's ships.

It has also been said that the purchase of the Atlanta was a private speculation, but a war craft of her weight and style would scarcely be suitable for a gentlemen's pleasure yacht, even though he meditated a cruise amongst Chinese pirates or Cape Cod coast wreckers.

Neither can any definite information be acertained as to whether she is the first venture of the Cuban Committee of this city, or another purchase of the Cuban Junta of New York.

River men, never very talkative, seem to prefer not to say much about the Atlanta, or, if in courtesy bound to open their mouths to the inquisative newspaper man, content themselves with a Napoleonic phrase meaning nothing. From the very quietness about the circumstances connected with her sale and fitting out the only probable inference is that the "Gem of the Antilles" is her destination, the Patriots her owners, and the "Lone Star and Ticolor" her future flag.

Although the Atlanta never did the cause of the rebellion any good, she is, none the less, a staunch vessel.

She was captured in Warsaw Sound, in a fight with the United States monitor Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers, after a battle of only fifteen minutes, owing to her having run aground in the mud.

The ship, first called the Fingal, was built on the river Clyde, Scotland, and sent out in 1862 as a blockade runner, where she succeeded in carrying to the rebels in Savannah a valuable cargo. At Savannah she was razeed and iron-clad, and sent to meet the Weehawken, as above stated.

The following is a description of the vessel:- First and on the outside are wrought iron bars, six inces wide by two inches thick, running perpendicularly with her side, and properly secured, both above and below by rivets and bolts. Across these bars, horizontally, and on the inside, ran bars of like material and pattern, fastened to the outside layer by the strongest rivets. Within this layer and fastened to it, are two thicknesses of live oak, two inch plankalso, running perpendicularly and horoziontally, and again within these were two more simular thicknesses of Georgia pine plank, forming the last series of her armor. Her armor is thus twelve inches thick, and presents all the solidarity which could be given it by four inches of wrought iron, four inches of live oak, and four inches of Georgia pine.

Her port-holes, however, are made especially strong. Extra layers of iron and plank are used so that the embrasure measures from the inside to the outside, forty inches. These port-holes are a foot and a half long by one foot in width and were protected by wrought iron shutters, formed by two transverse layers of iron bars, of the same dimensions as those which compose her armor. These shutters hang upon a pivot, firmly adjusted over the port-hole, and are raised or lowered by a small chain which, being attached to the side of each shutter, runs through a small aperture into the gun deck.

From the gun deck to the roof, the perpendicular height is six feet, and the sides of the roof sloping at an angle of forty-five degrees, the standing height is eight feet. The lower edge of the roof is twenty inches above the water mark, so that she stands above the water about eight feet. From her aft roof edge it is fifty feet to her bow. The distance from her gun-deck to her keel, is sixteen feet and a fraction over. Her steering apparatus is perfect, and her rudder completely submerged in the water, thereby in the safest place imaginable. Her iron plating extends two feet below the water-line.

The forward part of the ram of the Atlanta is solid iron, twenty feet in length, and so overlaid by steel bars, with their ends protruding below the cutwater, that a huge steel saw is formed, which would cut any wooden gun-boat in existence. This ram, at its bow end, comes to a point about two inches square.

From the deck of this iron ram, just ahead of its juncture with the vessel, arises a strong iron bar, with a pivot at its top.to which is attached a massive iron boom which runs just over the ram's prow and then forming an elbow, and then running iut some two feet, it forms at its end a powerful socket or ring. In this socket is firmly inserted another iron boom, which extends beyond the socket twenty eight feet and at its end is hung the torpedo, all capped and ready for explosion. From this cap runs an insulated wire along the boom and ending in the pilot-house, where are the necessary electrical arrangements with which the pilot can explode the torpedo as soon as it is run under the vessel.

She has inside three decks; first the gun deck which is subdivided into the Captain's cabin, aft, the ward-room, the petty officers' quarters, and forward , the mens' quarters and below this deck is the third, the orlop deck, in which are stored all the stores, provisions &c. Immediately fore and aft of this deck are the magazines. The engines and their necessary complements, of course, occupy the center of the vessel. These engines are the same which were in her when she ran the blockade as the old Fingal. They were built on the Clyde, and are models for their beauty and action.

Should this vessel ever get to sea under the Cuban flag she will undoubtedly play sad havoc with the Spanish ships about the island.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
December 12, 1869

Disabled
The Haytien ram Triumph (formely Atlanta), while proceeding down the bay on Sunday afternoon, broke the bed plate of her condenser and was towed back to Chester for repairs by the tug W.F. Parks, Capt. Fowler.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer
Monday, December 20, 1869

--The ram Triumph, late Atlanta, sailed from Lewes, Del., yesterday afternoon.

She's not off Hatteras, this I know as a fact.

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