Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: slimm50 on June 29, 2005, 01:42:34 PM
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Click on link below for a fascinating account of naval action.
http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/digital/cssala/kell2.htm
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Cool, thanks for sharing. I have a print on the wall in my office of the CSS Alabama chasing another ship. First time I ever read an account by one of her crew though.
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Kearsarge and Alabama was very notable action, several reasons.
Steam!! Both ships were ship-rigged, yet were powered by steam. Alabama's guns were carriage guns.. run out and fired by matchlock. Kearsarge had rifled breech loaders, piviot mounted and accurate. It's also reported that Kearsarge also had chain armor, as well as plate where Alabama had none.
The battle was furious, both sides pounded each other.. Alabama with little effect, her shells; having poor powder, often not exploding on imact. Kearsarge's slower rolling aimed fire into Alabama's unarmored wood hull was devastating.. and telling. In most fights of this kind the battle is over in a few minutes.. Alabama and Kearsarge pounded each other at very close range for over an hour.
This was the last battle where wood ships of similar size, design and armament faced each other broadside to broadside and slugged it out; in less than 20 years the Navy's of the world would be Iron ones.. and single ship actions all but unknown.
Semmes was a heck of a guy.. very much a Confederate hero. His crew was exceptional, his officers very competent. No rag-tag band of 'privateer's' these.. superb seamen; all.
to the memory of Captain Semmes & CSS Alabama.. pride of the South!
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Other interesting facts that should be noted: the two most successful Confederate raiders were the CSS Alabama with 64 victims either captured or destroyed, and the CSS Florida, with 38 destroyed. Both were built in Liverpool, in direct defiance of Britain's Foreign Enlistment Act, which forbade the construction AND arming of warships in British territory for a belligerent power. While Liverpool did produce several blockade runners for the Confederacy, the US blocked any further efforts to build raiders after the Alabama. Good thing too. Between them, in the course of 2 years of operations, the Florida and the Alabama diverted numerous Union ships from blockade duties to chase them, drove insurance rates for Union shipments to astronomical heights, forced shipping vessels to either remain in port or convert to foreign registry, and are almost totally to blame for toppling the US Merchant Marine from its former position of power, which it would never regain. They sank or captured over 100 Union vessels.
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Came across this on another BBS today, thought I'd share.
Divers recover main cannon from wreck of CSS Alabama
The Associated Press
The cannon from the Confederate sea raider CSS Alabama rests on a dock in France after being recovered from the bottom of the English Channel.
The 7,000-pound main battery pivot gun of the Confederate sea raider CSS Alabama has been recovered from the bottom of the English Channel, where the vessel was sunk 141 years ago by a Union warship, a project spokesman said.
The cannon was brought to the surface by the French naval vessel Elan, which had a special A-frame winch on the stern able to bring up such a heavy object, said Gordon Watts, an underwater archaeologist from North Carolina who is overseeing the project.
Watts said French divers and American archaeologists recovered the cannon Saturday about seven miles off the coast of Cherbourg, France in some 200 feet of water.
He said the cannon will be placed in a specially constructed container and shipped back to the United States for conservation. A project supporter in Mobile said it will be taken to the underwater archaeology lab at Texas A&M University.
The divers were faced with dangerous currents while working with the Elan crew to attach a lifting cable to nylon straps on the Alabama's biggest cannon, Watts said.
It took two weeks for divers to remove enough sediment to excavate the old weapon. Project officials said it is the heaviest artifact recovered from the CSS Alabama wreck site. A French mine hunter discovered the ship's site on Oct. 31, 1984.
Robert Edington, a Mobile attorney who is president of the CSS Alabama Association, reported earlier that the French recovered about 200 artifacts from the CSS Alabama in the 1990s. About 200 more were recovered after the Americans took over the project about five years ago with French cooperation.
Edington said most of the artifacts have been turned over to the U.S. Department of the Navy and restored.
A number of them, including the ship's bell, are on display at the Museum of Mobile. The Alabama port city was home to Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes, who was the commanding officer of the CSS Alabama when it attacked Union merchant ships around the world during the Civil War.
Semmes and others were rescued when it was sunk in a battle with the USS Kearsarge off the French coast. About a dozen crew members drowned.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Neat:D Thanks for sharing.
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One thing about the article bugged me though. I read it a few times, couldnt figure out what it was.
Then it hit me.
FRANCE HAS A NAVY??
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Deleted.
4- Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users and HTC. Flaming or abusing users is not tolerated.
5- Flamebaiting, trolling, or posting to incite or annoy is not allowed.
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Guess after thinkin about it you could call my comment above "not right". Since I cant edit it just let me balance it by saying I did not mean it in a derogatory way, just poking fun. Some folks could take that wrong, and I just wanted to make a note of it to avoid any hurt feelings.
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France has a NAVY?
Afloat?
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Ah hell I'm no good at being PC.
That was my reaction too. :)
Next thing I wondered about, do they actually put like, guns and stuff on their ships? Or are they trying to harvest milk from "sea cows" for some new cheese?
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(https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/images/uss-kearsarge.gif)
The CSS Alabama probably never stood a chance.
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Originally posted by Hangtime
France has a NAVY?
Afloat?
buddy, the French Navy has scored many simulated hits on US capital ships, including carriers, and shot to simulated pieces a sizable number of US Navy fighters.
you just don't hear about it on Fox News, but I had friends there and they had a lot of fun believe you me...
Just one example
Autumn 1998 : Exercise Pean
French attack sub CASABIANCA scored torps and SM39 exocet hits on USS Eisenhower and USS Anzio (tico class)
and escaped undetected...
so yeah the French Navy is afloat thank you very much.
:p
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isnt it the only navy other than the USN to operate nuclear powered CV's?
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Originally posted by Spooky
buddy, the French Navy has scored many simulated hits on US capital ships, including carriers, and shot to simulated pieces a sizable number of US Navy fighters.
you just don't hear about it on Fox News, but I had friends there and they had a lot of fun believe you me...
Just one example
Autumn 1998 : Exercise Pean
French attack sub CASABIANCA scored torps and SM39 exocet hits on USS Eisenhower and USS Anzio (tico class)
and escaped undetected...
so yeah the French Navy is afloat thank you very much.
:p
yup the french have a very professional and competent navy and acquitted themselves very well in all joint excercises I participated in during my service with the US Navy in the mid to late 1970s. The french army is another matter. :D
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Hehe, I stand corrected. :D
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Originally posted by Hangtime
France has a NAVY?
Afloat?
And at sea?
How NOT to Build an Aircraft Carrier
by James Dunnigan
December 7, 2003
France is considering joining with Britain to buy a new carrier of British design. Actually, the French had planned to built a second nuclear powered carrier, but they are having so many problems with the first one that they are quite reluctant about building a second like the troubled "Charles de Gaulle". Britain is building two 50,000 ton conventionally powered carriers, at a cost of $2.5 billion each. Under the proposed plan, France would order a third of this class, and bring down the cost of all three a bit. This project might not come off, because France wants a lot of the work to be done in French shipyards.
The new French nuclear carrier "Charles de Gaulle" has suffered from a seemingly endless string of problems since it was first conceived in 1986. The 40,000 ton ship has cost over four billion dollars so far and is slower than the steam powered carrier it replaced. Flaws in the "de Gaulle" have led it to using the propellers from it predecessor, the "Foch," because the ones built for "de Gaulle" never worked right and the propeller manufacturer went out of business in 1999. Worse, the nuclear reactor installation was done poorly, exposing the engine crew to five times the allowable annual dose of radiation. There were also problems with the design of the deck, making it impossible to operate the E-2 radar aircraft that are essential to defending the ship and controlling offensive operations. Many other key components of the ship did not work correctly, including several key electronic systems. The carrier has been under constant repair and modification. The "de Gaulle" took eleven years to build (1988-99) and was not ready for service until late 2000. It's been downhill ever since. The de Gaulle is undergoing still more repairs and modifications. The government is being sued for exposing crew members to dangerous levels of radiation.
The cause of the problems can be traced to the decision to install nuclear reactors designed for French submarines, instead of spending more money and designing reactors specifically for the carrier. Construction started and stopped several times because to cuts to the defense budget and when construction did resume, there was enormous pressure on the builders to get on with it quickly, and cheaply, before the project was killed. The result was a carrier with a lot of expensive problems.
So the plan is to buy into the new British carrier building program and keep the "de Gaulle" in port and out of trouble as much as possible. The British have a lot more experience building carriers, and if there are any problems with the British designed ship, the French can blame the British.
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Be kinda easy to spot at night.. even without infared. The crew glows in the dark.
;)