CSA Without Blockade

TFSmith121

Banned
Roanoke at least could sail from Brooklyn NY to

Roanoke was never an effective unit either after her conversion, and relegated to harbour defence.

Roanoke at least could sail from Brooklyn NY to the Chesapeake, and under her own power; Virginia could barely make way against the tide.

The point on Colorado and her sisters is that if the USN had needed sea-going ironclads, they could have been easily and minimally converted in any of the Navy yards by removing the masts and spars and rigging and the upper deck as a razee; sheath the razee and the result is an ironclad, wooden hulled steam sloop of war, both sooner and much more effectively than the abomination that was Virginia.

And, of course, the USN already had six steam frigates, as large or larger than Merrimac, while the two ironclad frigates built for Italy were also underway at the same time; this is in response to Sap's suggestion that somehow Virginia was a) a juggernaut the US could not cope with; and b) seaworthy.

She was neither.

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TFSmith121

Banned
You going to tow Virginia?

I see that Norfolk was captured in May, OTL. That seems to be late enough in the year that a low-freeboard ship is not certain to be sunk. Monitor sank on December 31, and the Union Navy tried to tow her around at that time of year - I think it not beyond the bounds of possibility that the attempt could be made in early May and that Virginia would not necessarily sink.

You going to tow Virginia from Hampton Roads to Charleston? With what, Patrick Henry and Jamestown? They're both 1300 tons; Virginia was at least 4,000 tons...

More importantly, if the US is ready to capture Norfolk (which is a port on the south side of Chesapeake Bay, after all) one presumes that means they have ships; one also presumes that means any attempt to tow Virginia is going to face an obvious problem, is it not?

May also want to check when the Atlantic hurricane season begins.:rolleyes:

Amazingly enough, no one who was actually in the rebel navy and had served aboard or even seen Virginia ever thought of her as "seaworthy."

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