"What we don't know is whether they used a slanted wood casement forward of the wheels or a vertical one"

In the enquiry into the loss of Island Number 10 Commodore Hollins said of the gunboats under his command "these boats were shielded with iron to protect the machinery only, and which looked very much like a cow-catcher, but offered no protection to the hull of the boats", a bit like the River Defence Fleet rams at Memphis . I doubt if the casemates were angled along the sides as there wouldn't have been much room. Undoubtedly judging by the number of guns carried, some must have been located in the stern but at least two , probably the heaviest were likely to have been mounted on the forward deck . The upperdeck cabins were possibly left intact on both Ponchartrain and Maurepas but its likely that the upper deck passenger cabins on the Polk were totally stripped away leaving only one deck for the machinery and guns and I speculate that her pilot house was re-located forward in front of her chimneys .