"Waterline Damage/Leaking Ships" Topic
6 Posts
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GreyONE | 26 Sep 2013 1:35 p.m. PST |
I have read several accounts of ships in combat during the American Civil War taking waterline damage, either from being rammed or receiving a hit from artillery. In the descriptions it will often say something like, "The ship limped off leaking badly
" or ""The ship was taking on water so it broke off combat and steamed off". Often it shows reports of the ship having returned to combat status the next day, but nowhere does it mention how the ship was repaired or how long this procedure took. Was this done easily and quickly with ad hock repairs, or was there a better system in place to handle such situations? How long would such a procedure take? In most cases, the ship was returned to combat fairly quickly without having to return to a naval repair yard. Despite reading a number of cases where a ship was listed as "leaking severely", it returned to combat within 48 hours. One ship, the USS Richmond, which was rammed and took severe damage, it was stated that she was repaired hastily but after a few months it finally returned to New York Harbor for proper repair. But no mention was given how it was repaired while in operational waters. |
GildasFacit | 26 Sep 2013 2:24 p.m. PST |
Most of these vessels had wooden hulls and some inventive carpentry plus a good blacksmith would usually fix a leak in a day or so. I'd guess that a 'severe leak' was not as bad as some sea-going ships could have taken and stayed in action but these vessels were low freeboard mostly and not that stable – any singificant leak could have put the ship in danger if it couldn't be kept in check by her pumps. |
Dn Jackson | 27 Sep 2013 7:30 a.m. PST |
I assume you're talking about the Richmond at New Orleans. In which case she was not penetrated by the Manassass's ram, but her seams were sprung. I believe some oakum properly placed in the seams would serve to fix that. Unless a large piece of the hull is destroyed, wooden vessels are generally easy to repair. There are many accounts of repairing rammed ships. The Confederates were working on raising the Indianola, (I believe) and planned on using her until Federal forces showed up and forced them away. |
Master Caster | 30 Sep 2013 4:38 p.m. PST |
The Confederates weren't forced away from their work on Indianola, they were scared away with a harmless ironclad decoy
a facinating story. |
GreyONE | 03 Oct 2013 11:39 p.m. PST |
Thank you for the info. I spoke with a sailor who was in the US navy at some point in his life and he explained that repairing waterline damage was often "ad hock", but that ships had carpenters on board along with wooden beams, mallets, etc. to hammer braces in place to brace against the damaged hull. However, he couldn't suggest a place to look (museum) to ask -- I suspect a maritime museum may hold the actual answer, but it appears that it was a number of measures and temporary measures. There may be answers rather than a single answer. Wooden ships do seem to be repairable to an easier degree than metal ships. In the Osprey book on Mississippi Gunboats, it pointed out that repairs were limited to above the waterline, but since I have read where a number of ships took waterline damage and were repaired in the field, this cannot be a true statement. I suspect the systems employed were probably similar to the systems in place since cannon were placed onto ships, and even perhaps earlier. |
GreyONE | 05 Oct 2013 1:15 p.m. PST |
One note I came across during my readings was that the USS Blackhawk had special pumping equipment onboard to deal with sunken ships/salvage. Not sure what that would entail, but found it interesting. |
Mac1638 | 10 Oct 2013 5:44 a.m. PST |
Remember all wooden constructed ships/boats leak it can not be stopped,the only variable is how much. All ship and boats will have a carpenter on board, big sea going will probably good at there job and work at the head of a good size team. Sea going wooden warship have carpenters walks just below the water line where the carpenter and his team patrol when the ship goes into action, being on hand if dose receive damage on or below the waterline. |
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