alternatehistory.com

21 June

The Falchion sails down the Thames River in Connecticut. She is a heavily armoured ship built not with iron armour, in the main, but timber - the brainchild of an inventor from Ohio and built by the Connecticut state government, she has a total thickness of six feet of wood forming her sides - split into four 18" layers with 1/2 inch boilerplate between each.
This weighs about as much as a foot solid of iron would, but is certainly easier to produce - and gives important bouyancy to the craft, which is unfortunately not very mobile (using two locomotive engines, she can make about six knots). Fitted with a 9" Dahlgren sleeved rifle in front and smaller weapons on the side, the intent is to be able to harm or destroy ironclads while being largely immune to the dreadful effect of a Martin's Shell - the theory being, a single layer being set alight would only burn this layer.

In the event the Falchion first encounters the local blockading squadron - quickly reinforced from components of other blockading sections spread over the area, as it is the entrance to Long Island Sound. Within an hour or so, she is engaging the Aboukir, frigate Amphion and the gunboats Sparrow and Victor.

The timberclad takes several hits from shell (the contact-fuzed shells penetrating into the first layer of timber and blowing large chunks away, but not doing damage to the fighting value of Falchion) and shot (which in some cases bounces and in other cases penetrates to no further effect). One of the 32-lbers on the side is knocked out by a direct hit, but the main problem Falchion is having is simple speed - the Aboukir has four knots of speed on her and can often get out of her arcs, though Amphion is only as fast as the timberclad and takes several hits from 32-lber shell (some of them causing internal damage and knocking out a few guns.)

After a full salvo by Aboukir at close range (forty-six guns at two hundred yards, over half of which hit and which cause the Falchion's fire to slacken) , the steam liner closes to board. This somewhat unexpected tactic causes confusion on Falchion, then belated shock as the captain realizes he does not have the crew to fend off the boarders should they get under the armour.
As such, he turns about and sails for the Thames - there are batteries armed with hot shot on Eastern Point, with 32-lbers at an unusually high angle, and if the Aboukir is caught by three or four of them while grappled to Falchion she will be in serious trouble. This does not occur, but the threat makes Aboukir abandon the chase when she comes under long-range fire.


22 June


Jackson's corps crosses the Potomac at Williamsport, brushing aside a light Union screen, and begins an advance on Hagerstown.

The Falchion's damaged wooden armour has been replaced, but she finds herself confronted by an additional foe - the ironclad Virgo, which begins engaging the Eastern Point batteries at about 10 AM.
Arguments take place as to the best way to employ Falchion, and it is pointed out that the channel's depth (25 feet even at the lowest of low tide, as far as Norwich) means that, once the Eastern Point batteries are disabled, it will be possible for Aboukir to ascend the channel and assist the British ironclad. Thus, delaying the confrontation would garner no meaningful advantage.

As such, Falchion sails out to fight Virgo. The British ironclad shifts her fire to Falchion, and the Eastern Point batteries go silent as the two armoured ships approach one another - they cannot fire accurately enough to target one ship over the other, a side effect of their modifications.

Virgo's first major move is to fire a Martin's Shell from her fore port Armstrong 110-lber, and the munition strikes home - setting a fire on the Falchion's wooden glacis, but while the result is spectacular it does not disable Falchion. (The confidence of the British crew in their weapon is such that it takes a while for them to realize the burning warship in front of them is still capable of fighting!) Temperatures inside the American timberclad are uncomfortably high, but they have a system to reduce the impact (via piping in cold river water) and continue engaging Virgo.

Once most of the top 18" of wood have been reduced to charred remains, the Virgo manages to penetrate the thin iron armour on Falchion with several rounds of solid shot (even the Armstrongs can pierce such thin iron). Another Martin's Shell is fired once the second layer of wood is seen, but this one does not hit the penetrated areas - it instead simply smashes, splattering hot iron over the side of Falchion and producing a cloud of steam when the iron runs into the water.

At this point, shell is used by Virgo - less successfully than before as two of her guns have been disabled via grape blasts - but the results are critical, as two Armstrong shells penetrate the iron and then burst. This causes several of the half-inch iron plates to fall off, exposing the second layer of wooden backing.

Once this is done, the Falchion's fate is effectively sealed - the Virgo sets her second layer afire, then blasts the second iron separator off with 68-lber and Armstrong shells. Falchion attempts to retreat, but the fire damage to her chimney means she cannot draw enough steam to get to safety in good time, and her captain abandons ship.

The verdict on the Falchion is ultimately that it is an ingenious solution to the problem of Martin's Shell, but that it was not sufficient to win alone. (One opinion is that a half-dozen Falchions could swam an ironclad under for roughly the same cost as the ironclad - taking a minimum of half an hour to burn down each is not a bad thing for this purpose!)