Ship Modelers Association

CSS Albemarle under Construction: From Battles and Leade s of the Civil War, 1888 The CSS ALBEMARLE was ordered by the Confederate Navy on 16 April, 1862 and laid down on January 1863. She displaced 376 tons. Her dimensions were: Length, 158 feet; Beam, 35 feet; Depth, 9 feet with a speed of 4 knots, a compliment of 150 officers and men, and an armament of two (2) eight-inch rifles. She was designed as an ironclad ram which was named for General George Monck, the Duke of Albemarle and one of the original Carolina Lords Proprietors. The spark that resulted in the order for the ALBEMARLE was the recent victory of the ironclad CSS VIRGINIA over the wooden-hulled Union blockaders in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Confederate Navy wanted another such ship to destroy the Union warships in the North Carolina sounds, since President Lincoln’s troops then held the strategic positions that controlled eastern North Carolina using his men-of-war.

A contract was signed with Gilbert Elliot of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to build the ship. The terms of the agreement enabled Elliot to establish a primitive shipyard in a cornfield up the Roanoke River at a place called Edward’s Ferry, North Carolina. This location was chosen since the water was too shallow to permit the approach of Union gunboats which otherwise would have destroyed the ironclad before she was completed. The Chief Constructor, John L. Porter, designed the ironclad ram armed with two eight-inch rifles, one forward, the other aft, behind iron shutters, propelled by two engines of 200hp each. After construction had begun in January 1863, the Union naval officers in the region soon heard about what was a-building. They appealed to the army to dispatch troops to the region to destroy the ram, but the Union Army never felt it could spare the troops needed to carry out the destruction.

In April 1864 the ALBEMARLE, under the command of Captain James W. Cooke, got underway down-river toward Plymouth, North Carolina, to clear the river of federal vessels so that General Robert F. Hoke’s troops could storm the forts. She anchored about three miles above the town and the pilot, John Lock, set off with two seamen in a small boat to take soundings. The river was high and they discovered ten feet of water over the obstructions that the Federal forces had placed in the Thoroughfare Gap. Captain Cooke immediately ordered steam and, by keeping in the middle of the stream, they passed safely over the obstructions. Their armor protected them from the guns of the forts at Warren’s Neck and Boyle’s Mill. There was another hurdle to overcome, however, as two Union steamers, USS MIAMI and USS SOUTHFIELD, lashed together with spars and chains, were approaching up river, attempting to pass on either side of ALBEMARLE and so trap her. Captain Cooke turned to starboard, running dangerously close to the southern shore, but got outboard of SOUTHFIELD. Turning back into the river, he rammed the Union ship, driving her under.

ALBEMARLE’S ram stuck in SOUTHFIELD’S hull and her bow was pulled under, but SOUTHFIED rolled over when she hit the riverbed and released the Confederate ship. Meanwhile, MIAMI fired a shell into ALBEMARLE at point-blank range while she was trapped by the wreck of the SOUTHFIED, but the shell rebounded off ALBEMARLE’S armor and exploded on MIAMI, killing her commanding officer, Captain Charles W. Flusser. MIAMI’S crew tried to board ALBEMARLE but were driven back by musket fire. MIAMI then avoided the Confederate ram and escaped into Albemarle Sound. The Confederate forces then proceeded to attack Plymouth and the nearby forts and successfully capture them with the assistance of ALBEMARLE’S guns, since the river had been cleared of Union ships.

On May 5th ALBEMARLE and CSS BOMBSHELL, a captured steamer, were escorting the troop-laden CSS COTTON PLANT down the Roanoke River. While performing this escorting duty, they encountered four Union Warships, USS MIAMI, USS MATTABESETT, USS SASSUCUS, and USS WYALUSING. ALBEMARLE fired first, wounding six men working one of MATTABESETT’S two 100-pound Parrott rifles, and then attempted to ram. The sidewheeler managed to round the ram’s bow, closely followed by SASSUCUS, which opened up a broadside of solid nine-inch and 100-pound shot, all of which bounced off ALBEMARLE’S sloping armor. However, the CSS BOMBSHELL, a softer target, was hulled by each shot from SASSUCUS’S broadside and quickly surrendered and was captured. Lieutenant Commander Francis Asbury Roe of SASSUCUS, seeing ALBEMARLE broadside-on at a range of about 400 yards, decided to ram. The Union ship struck the Confederate ironclad full and square, shattering the timbers of her own bow, twisting off her own bronze ram, and jamming the ships together. With SASSUCUS’S hull almost touching the end of the gun barrel, ALBEMARLE quickly fired two shells, one of which punctured SASSUCUS’S boilers. Though live steam was roaring through the ship, she was able to break free and drift out of range. MIAMI then tried first to use her torpedo, then to tangle the Confederate ram’s propeller with a seine net, but neither ploy succeeded, and ALBEMARLE steamed back up the Roanoke and moored at Plymouth.

ALBEMARLE proceeded to dominate the approaches to Plymouth through the summer of 1864. The Union forces knew something had to be done, and finally authorized Commander William B. Cushing to locate and purchase two small steam launches that might be fitted with torpedoes. Two 30-foot picket boats were purchased in New York, a 12- pounder howitzer and a 14-foot spar projecting into the water from its bow were installed, and the two left for Norfolk, Virginia. One was lost on route, but the other arrived with its crew of seven officers and men, at the mouth of the Roanoke. Once their, the 14-foot spar projection over the bow was fitted with a lanyard-detonated torpedo.

On the night of 27 October 1864 Cushing and his team began working their way upriver. A small cutter accompanied them, the crew of which had the task of preventing the Confederate sentries stationed on a schooner anchored to the wreck of SOUTHFIELD from sounding the alarm. Both boats, however, slipped past the schooner undetected, and Commander Cushing decided to use all 22 men to try and capture ALBEMARLE. As they approached the Confederate dock area their luck turned, they were spotted and immediately taken under heavy fire from both the shore and ALBEMARLE. They closed with the ALBEMARLE and found that she was defended against just such an approach by booms of floating logs. The logs, however, had been in the water for many months and were covered with slime, which enabled the small craft to ride over them without much difficulty.

When the small steam launch was against the hull of the ALBEMARLE, Cushing stood up in the bow and detonated the explosive charge. The resultant explosion threw everyone into the water. Cushing stripped off his uniform and swam to shore where he hid until daylight. That afternoon, he stole a small skiff and paddled down-river to rejoin the Union forces at the river’s mouth. Cushing’s attack blew a hole in ALBEMARLE at the waterline “big enough to drive a wagon in.” She sank in eight feet of water, which left her upper works still dry. ALBEMARLE’S commander, Captain Alexander F. Worley, salvaged her guns and shells and used them to defend Plymouth against subsequent Union attack. This effort failed and the Union forces entered Plymouth.

After the fall of Plymouth, the US Navy then raised the ram. Following the conquest of the Confederate States of America, the Union gunboat USS CERES towed ALBEMARLE to the Norfolk Navy Yard where she arrived on 27 April 1865. Her hull was ordered to be repaired, which work was completed on 14 August 1865. The Washington, D.C. prize court, then condemned her. The US Navy purchased her but ALBEMARLE saw little if any active service before being placed in ordinary where she remained until sold at public auction there on 15 October 1867 to J.N. Leonard and Company. Her fate after that date is unknown.