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The Development, Design, and Construction of the CSS Virginia
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Stephen
Mallory, Secretary of the Navy, CSA.
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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The Confederate Naval Department was
created by the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States
on February 20, 1861. Two and a half months later, on May 5,
the former United States Senator from Florida Stephen R. Mallory
was confirmed as the Confederate Secretary of the Navy. Mallory
faced a daunting task. His new navy, which only existed in a
theoretical sense, was responsible for defending 3,500 miles
of Southern coastline. Mallory also had to devise a means of
breaking the Union blockade of Southern ports, and create a
fleet of ships capable of threatening United States maritime
commerce on the high seas. To accomplish this mission, Mallory
had a fleet of ten vessels made up of captured or abandoned
United States naval vessels, Revenue cutters, and other miscellaneous
ships.
The creation of the Confederate Navy
came at a high point in the development of naval architecture
and gunnery. The 1850s had seen the rapid development of steam-powered,
screw-propelled iron ships — developments that gave the
Confederacy the technological potential to build the most modern
naval fleet in the world. Stephen Mallory was well aware of
the recent advances in warship design. After his election to
the Senate in 1851, he had served as a member of the Committee
on Naval Affairs, and since 1855, he had been its chairman.
Mallory had overseen much of the work that had expanded and
modernized the United States Navy and had monitored the advances
made by European navies. Unfortunately, Mallory realized that
the new Confederate nation lacked the materials, money, facilities,
and time to build such a navy from scratch.
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Hampton
Roads, Virginia.
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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Mallory recommended to the congress
that agents be sent to Europe to purchase ships and supplies
for the new Confederate Navy. He also recommended that the navy
develop a fleet of ironclad vessels to break the Union blockade.
On May 10, 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $2 million
to purchase ironclads in Europe. With considerable confidence,
Mallory dispatched Lieutenant James North to France with orders
to buy the French ironclad Gloire, or, if that proved
impossible, to contract for the construction of similar ships.
Though Lieutenant North did travel to France, he failed to purchase
any ships. Mallory then realized that if the South was to have
an ironclad, she would have to build one herself.
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John
L. Porter, designer of the CSS Virginia.
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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In the summer of 1861, Mallory met with
Lieutenant John Brooke in Richmond, Virginia. A career naval
officer in the United States Navy prior to the secession of
Virginia, Brooke was now in the Confederate service. Mallory
asked Brooke to begin working on a plan outlining the feasibility
of constructing an ironclad warship. Brooke quickly drafted
a design for a seagoing ironclad battery featuring a raised,
armored casemate mounting guns in conventional broadside configuration.
The casemate was to be mounted upon a ship's hull with an extended
deck on the bow and stern. Mallory quickly approved Brooke's
design and appointed a naval constructor to oversee its construction.
John L. Porter, the naval constructor assigned to the newly
captured Gosport Navy Yard, was assigned to the job, and was
summoned to Richmond finalize the design. When Porter arrived
in Richmond to confer with Brooke and Mallory, he brought with
him his own plans for an ironclad battery. Porter's design was
similar to Brooke's in that it also consisted of an armored
casemate mounting guns in broadsides, but the casemate was mounted
on a simple hull without extended bow or stern. While Brooke's
ironclad design was for a seagoing ship, Porter's design was
for a harbor defense boat. Mallory considered Porter's design,
but elected to continue with Brooke's concept of a seaworthy
ship that could not only defend Southern ports, but also engage
and destroy Union blockade ships. Whereas Brooke and Porter
were to oversee the construction of the ironclad, William P.
Williamson was assigned as the chief engineer and was tasked
with providing the ship's machinery.
In late June of 1861, Williamson and
Brooke went to the Gosport Yard to search for engines that would
be adequate to drive the ironclad. Finding no engines available,
Brooke suggested salvaging the machinery from the wreck of the
USS Merrimack. Though the former U.S. frigate had been
partially burned and sunk by the U.S. Navy, her lower hull and
power plant had been salvaged by the Confederates. After conferring
further with Porter, Williamson suggested that it might be possible
to use both the hull and engines of the Merrimack in
building the new ship. Porter agreed that converting the wrecked
Union frigate to an ironclad was feasible, and brought the suggestion
to Mallory, who approved the conversion. In July 1861, the Confederate
Congress appropriated the expenditure of $170,000 to begin the
conversion.
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Early Development of Confederate Naval Technology:
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