City class ironclad
USS Baron DeKalb in 1862.
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | City class gunboat |
| Builders: | James B. Eads, St. Louis, Missouri |
| Operators: |
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| Cost: | $191,000, approximate average |
| Lost: | 2 |
| Retired: |
5 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Gunboat |
| Displacement: | 512 tons |
| Length: | 175 ft (53 m) |
| Beam: | 51 ft 2 in (15.60 m) |
| Draft: | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
| Installed power: | two non-condensing reciprocating steam engines |
| Propulsion: | 22 ft (6.7 m) diameter paddle wheel |
| Speed: | 8 knots (15 km/h) |
| Complement: | 251 |
| Armament: | 3 8-in (203 mm), 4 43-pounder (19 kg), 6 32-pounder (14.5 kg) (January 1862) |
| Armor: |
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5
The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from the keel up in Carondelet, Missouri shipyards owned by James Buchanan Eads. Eads was a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union.
The City-class gunboats were the United States' first ironclad warships.
The gunboats produced by Eads formed the core of the US Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, which later was transferred to the US Navy and became the Mississippi River Squadron. Eads gunboats took part in almost every significant action on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries from their first offensive use at the Battle of Fort Henry until the end of the war.
In the early days of the Civil War, before it was certain that the secession movement had been thwarted in St. Louis, Missouri and before it was known that Kentucky would remain in the Union, James B. Eads offered one of his salvage vessels, Submarine No. 7, to the Federal government for conversion to a warship for service on the western rivers. In a letter he wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, he pointed out that the catamaran-type hull of his boat was already divided into several watertight compartments, and therefore could sustain numerous hits by enemy artillery without danger of sinking. As the interior of the country was the responsibility of the Army and not the Navy, Welles passed the letter on to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, who in turn referred it to Major General of Volunteers George B. McClellan for consideration. McClellan was commander of the Department of the Ohio, with responsibilities that included defense of the Ohio River and the parts of the Mississippi that were not in Confederate control.
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Wikipedia