alternatehistory.com

15 August

Matters in South Carolina move towards a diminuendo. Small skirmishes continue, but no further clash of arms takes place.
The underwater damage to Royal Oak is patched (including by the paid labour of some few hundred slaves formerly used to work in the dockyards) and Stopfort feels he could take her up to Halifax for a proper repair job at any time.


19 August
Debate in the Confederate Congress over whether to declare war on Great Britain and deploy the full might of the Confederate Army. The South Carolinans are in favour, others are largely (though not entirely) against.
The debate breaks down into shouting over what some see as the South Carolinan desire to get the Confederacy to fix their problems.

General McClellan brings up the topic of a presidential run with his acquaintance Grant. Grant is broadly supportive, knowing McClellan to be popular with his men in the late war, though he is a little surprised when he is reminded that McClellan is in fact a Democrat. (Grant is a Republican man, though not currently a particularly passionate one.)


21 August

Maximism is becoming increasingly popular in the northern sections of the Confederacy. Indeed, it is becoming sufficiently notable - and reported on in London - that Charles Darwin has already begun writing a statement to the effect that there is "...no evidence... that the varied appearances of man bespeak a variation in talent in any of the skills of civilization that could result in one being rationally favoured over the other..."
Nevertheless, Darwin is troubled by Maximism - in particular, in the argument that miscegenation must be avoided for it will dilute the superiority of the White race. He does not agree with the sentiment, but "dilution" points out a problem in how superior traits are to be passed down and how they arise in the first place.


22 August
The hull of the Puritan is laid down in New York City.
Puritan's design is essentially to be an improved and even more heavily armoured Dictator (herself not launched yet) and is built to take the 20" Dahlgren gun. The idea is essentially that if British armour is too thick to pierce then the 20" gun (firing a cannonball estimated to weigh half a ton) will simply crush entire plates into the ship.
Seaworthiness is considered a secondary concern.
Notably, this is not precisely a ship order from the Ordnance department - instead the O.D. has set conditions for acceptance of the ship and has agreed to loan Ericsson the money to build the ship, with the price for non-completion of contract varying on a sliding scale depending on how far below specification Puritan is. The extreme end of the scale would lead to Ericsson losing all his patents, though this would only take place if the ship was a slow, poorly armed vessel which sank on launching. (Ericsson has had the load calculations checked by three different people, wanting to avoid the 'Casco situation', but feels his modification of his earlier 'Calvinist' sketches will impress well enough to meet contract).