"What is in the hole "Little rebel"" Topic

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Along the side of little rebel there are gun-ports. After number 3 there is a big rectangular hole.
Could it be a pair of doors or an open access area/ corridor ???
I do not think it is a gun port.

martin

I would say it's probably a cargo/access door leading to the interior. However relying on artwork and not actual designs or photographs to verify it could pretty much be anything.

When I enlarged that photo, there appeared to be a human in it. Probably some type of access, like you said.

It is not a gun-port. My guess is also that it is an access point. Like Brian, I think I see a person standing in the "hole."

The reliability of the accuracy of newspaper and periodical wood block carvings has always been uncertain. It is hoped they were rendered from "at that moment" drawings, but the possibility that some craftsman sitting at a desk in Pittsburgh extrapolated from his experience is very real. Edward McCaul, in his "To Retain Command of the Mississippi," believes the images were drawn by an eyewitness, and accurate.

Even this image

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is likely inaccurate. Even if a valid image, it appears to reflect a late war, "tinclad," configuration.

My best guess is that the OP image is pretty accurate, tho none of the openings were being used as gunports. This would follow after being taken into Union service.

As completed as a ram, Little Rebel was armed with a single 24pdr smooth bore at her stern. (McCaul) the other rams had 32odr smooth bores at their sterns, and 4 of the were fitted with 8" smoothbores, from the arms at Fort Pillow at their prows.

So, to address the OP question, windows and doors.

Thank you chaps
That helps.

martin

The old Yaquinto Ironclad boardgame has the 2x 12pdr Smoothbores coming out of the front sides of the Little Rebel (shown in the picture). Then a 12pdr on the back (not shown in the picture – perhaps altered when converted USS?), and a 32pdr Smoothbore on the front.