CDR TUNIS CRAVEN, HERO OF MOBILE BAY

To a boy from Portsmouth, NH, the life of the sea seemed natural, thus, when Tunis Augustus MacDonough Craven was appointed a Midshipman on 2 February 1829, no one was surprised.  He distinguished himself during the Mexican War as a Lieutenant under CDR Thomas O. Selfridge aboard DALE, 16, leading shore parties that routed Mexican troops and captured cannon at Muleje, Loreta, and Cochori in Baja and Sonora.  The Civil War found Craven skippering TECUMSEH, a single-turret ironclad monitor, a class of warship well respected by both Civil War navies.  She carried two 15″ Dahlgren smooth-bores, capable of hurling a 440-pound steel bolt that could rip enemy armor.  Her iron hull befitted her advanced construction; she was designed to engage the best the enemy could produce.  RADM David G. Farragut appreciated the value of monitors and placed four in the van of his attack on the Confederate port of Mobile, Alabama.  These could resist shot from Forts Morgan and Gaines guarding the bay’s entrance channel, while simultaneously engaging the ironclad ram CSS TENNESSEE, a clear threat to Farragut’s wooden-hulled steam frigates.

In the mist this morning, TECUMSEH led the 18-ship Union squadron into Mobile Bay.  At 0700, she opened with two rounds at Fort Morgan, after which she noticed TENNESSEE sliding toward the oncoming Union line.  CDR Craven ordered the helm to port, bringing his monitor onto a ramming course for TENNESSEE.  This carried the monitor inboard of the buoy marking a Confederate torpedo (mine) field.  Closer and closer Craven glided, until just 100 yards from the Confederate, a tremendous explosion suddenly bashed TECUMSEH’s keel.  Catastrophic flooding plunged her bows immediately, lifting her screw completely out of the water.  Inside, panicked men scrambled for daylight.

Craven dove for the only escape, a small hatch behind the pilothouse.  He and the pilot, John Collins, reached the ladder simultaneously, at which point Craven graciously stepped back, stating, “After you, pilot.”  His civility allowed Collins to escape, but sealed Craven’s fate with that of 92 other crewmen, for in only 25 seconds TECUMSEH rolled completely.

Only 21 escaped.  So terrifying was the spectacle of her demise that BROOKLYN, leading the main squadron, backed down in the channel fearing the same fate.  With his line now breaking and exposed to fire from the shore, a frustrated Farragut yelled to CAPT Percival Drayton of the flagship HARTFORD, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”  HARTFORD passed to port of BROOKLYN, leading the squadron through the rest of the mines that Farragut correctly gambled were waterlogged from lengthy immersion.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  11 AUG 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  GPO, Washington, DC, p. 78, 1981.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War.  Avon Books, New York, NY, p. 240-41, 1990.

Hoehling, A.A.  Damn the Torpedoes!  Naval Incidents of the Civil War.  John F. Blair Pub., Winston-Salem, NC, p. 113, 1989.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

As is usually the case with famous quotes, there is today some argument about the actual content of the exchange between Craven and Collins.  According to A.A. Hoehling, Craven was already partway up the ladder when Collins grabbed his leg and said, “Let me get out first, captain, for God’s sake; I have five little children!”, to which Craven stepped back saying “Go on, sir.”  Indeed, the monitors of those days were floating coffins in an emergency.  The sole egress route was a one-at-a-time hatch near the pilothouse.  (Miraculously, two or three additional sailors were able to squeeze through TECUMSEH’s tiny gun ports).  As TECUMSEH rolled there was stone silence aboard the Confederate TENNESSEE.  These sailors recognized they might very well suffer an identical fate, in fact, they were at that moment over the same torpedo field.

Some have commented that the Civil War was our last major conflict in which the opposing sides openly shared a measure of compassion for each other.  Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding ashore, observed TECUMSEH’s demise with the comment, “The event was the most startling and tragic loss of the day.”

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                                          THE LOSS OF MONITOR

Our Navy first entertained the new technology of armor plating in 1842 when Congress authorized inventor Robert L. Stevens to construct an ironclad steamship for coastal defense.  However, delays in construction, funding, and the death of Mr. Stevens squelched the project.  It was left to the Europeans to develop the first workable ironclads.  During the Crimean War, in 1855, the French deployed three iron-plated floating batteries, LAVE, TONNANT, and DEVASTATION.  Standing only 800 yards off Russian Fort Kilburn, these batteries impressively withstood over 200 hits while reducing the fort to rubble.  The French launched GLOIRE in 1860, a wooden steamer plated over with iron.  Shortly the English followed with WARRIOR, an armored, iron-hulled steamer.

In response to rumors of Confederate plans in 1861, the Union Navy seriously revisited the ironclad concept.  Indeed, John Ericsson’s MONITOR’s successful operational debut against CSS VIRGINIA in Hampton Roads in March 1862 engendered a Navy-wide obsession with these craft.  Inflated perceptions of MONITOR’s invincibility led to calls for her use in recapturing Charleston, the symbolic birthplace of the Rebellion.  Accordingly, in December 1862, MONITOR was ordered from Hampton Roads to Beaufort, SC, the embarkation point for the planned assault on Charleston.  Had the skipper of the side-wheeler USS RHODE ISLAND had the benefit of weather forecasts, he might not have taken MONITOR under tow that December day.  Top heavy, with minimal freeboard, MONITOR was clearly built only for calmer inshore waters.

By the evening of December 29^th, mounting seas off Cape Hatteras began overwashing MONITOR’s deck.  Oakum packing around the turret loosened.  Conditions worsened through the next day.  By the evening of the 30^th, MONITOR was crashing through heavy seas that admitted water down her blower pipes.  And with each broach, more seams loosened.  Her bilge pumps strained.  Unable to find a good riding position, skipper J. L. Bankhead in MONITOR began to fear capsizing.  At 2230 he ordered her abandoned.

Careful to stay clear of MONITOR’s pitching, iron-plated hull, RHODE ISLAND lowered two boats.  But halfway through the rescue MONITOR lost all power and fell into the trough.  Bankhead loosed the anchor, which brought the craft to a more stable position into the seas.  In spite of this some of the remaining sailors, fearful of being washed off the deck, refused all pleadings to leave.  After midnight Bankhead, himself, departed only minutes before MONITOR disappeared, taking sixteen with her.

She remained lost until 1973 when scientists on the research ship Eastward located MONITOR’s 111 year grave off Cape Hatteras.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  4 JAM 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Davis, William C.  Duel Between the First Ironclads.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1975, pp. 156-64, 169-70.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 415.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 91.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War.  New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 92-93.

Keeler, William F. and Robert W. Daly.  Aboard the USS MONITOR: 1862.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1964, pp. 252-60.

Lyons, Justin.  “Raising the Turret.”  Naval History, Vol 16 (6), December 2002, pp. 20-26.

Stick, David.  Graveyard of the Atlantic:  Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast.  Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1952, pp. 52-57.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Years on the sea floor (and pilfering by sport divers) deteriorated the wreck of MONITOR substantially over the decades since its discovery, inspiring a joint effort by NOAA, the Newport News Mariner’s Museum and the US Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 to salvage the historic wreck.  In 5 August 2002 the MONITOR Expedition 2002 succeeded in raising significant portions of the wreck, notably MONITOR’s revolving turret.  It is currently preserved at the Mariner’s Museum above.

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                                 THE PLOT TO CAPTURE MONITOR

The historic battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862 between CSS VIRGINIA (the ex-USS MERRIMACK) and USS MONITOR ended in a draw.  Plate iron had proven its value.  In fact, MONITOR had been little more than dented in the fight; VIRGINIA’s explosive shells, effective against wooden ships, had proven worthless against an ironclad.  VIRGINIA had been more gravely injured, but her damage had come in her efforts against the Union blockading ships the previous day–not against MONITOR. 

VIRGINIA’s skipper, CAPT Josiah Tattnall, had spent her yard period planning his next attack.  Correctly recognizing he would have difficulty pummeling MONITOR, he concocted an elaborate plan to capture his rival instead.  He would occupy MONITOR’s attention forward while additional Confederate ships converged from her blind side.  Three groups of boarders would then swarm across MONITOR’s deck.  One group would secure her from escape with a hawser, then drive wooden wedges into the track of her rotating turret.  A second group would throw canvas across her smokestack and obstruct the pilot’s viewport.  The last section would pitch flaming bottles of turpentine through her ventilation ducts, forcing her crew to the weather deck.

The opportunity to try Tattnall’s plan came just after dawn this day, when VIRGINIA and the wooden rebel gunboats PATRICK HENRY, JAMESTOWN, TEASER, BEAUFORT, and RALEIGH cleared the Elizabeth River.  Upon seeing this formidable squadron sally forth, the plentiful commercial ships in the Roads scattered like so many frightened seabirds.  MONITOR and her supporting Union flotilla maintained their station at the mouth of Hampton Roads and watched.  Back and forth VIRGINIA steamed, tempting MONITOR to engage, but the rebel’s 23-foot draft confined her to the channel.  MONITOR, for her part, lay in shoal water under the protection of Fort Monroe’s heavy guns.

Unable to entice MONITOR, JAMESTOWN’s skipper, CDR Joseph N. Barney, incited matters further by capturing two brigs and a schooner under Union contract that had been slow to flee the rebel’s advance.  These he tauntingly towed around the Roads with their American ensigns turned upside down or dragging in the water.  For the rest of the morning, however, the ironclads simply huffed and puffed from a distance, each parading in vain.  MONITOR never engaged, nor did she have to.  VIRGINIA’s deep draft kept the two at arm’s length, and any attempt by her to break past Fort Monroe into the Chesapeake would have been suicidal.  After several frustrating hours Tattnall fired three shots to leeward in disgust and chugged back to the dock.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 APR 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Davis, William C.  Duel Between the First Ironclads.  Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, pp. 138-55, 1975.

Scharf, J. Thomas.  History of the Confederate States Navy.  Gramercy Books, New York, NY, pp. 212-16, 1996.

Sears, Stephen W.  “Surrender to Caution.”  Naval History, Vol 8 (1), pp. 32-39, January/February 1994.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Tattnall used his yard period in March to address some additional shortcomings of VIRGINIA’s design and construction.  Extra armor was added at the knee where her casemate rose from the deck and movable iron shutters were added to protect her previously open gunports.  Her percussion shell ammunition was replaced with steel-tipped bolts of solid iron.  When she left the repair dock in April, she was truly a more formidable opponent.  Tattnall’s enthusiasm to capture MONITOR is reflected in one of the more colorful quotes of the war.  “I will take her!” he said, “I will take her if Hell’s on the other side of her!”

The three vessels captured by Jamestown were Marcus, Saboah, and Catharine T. Dix, the former two laden with hay and the last empty.  Thirteen crewmen aboard these ships were held as prisoners though it was later discovered five were native Virginians.  Disrespecting the American ensign, as was done, was particularly noisome, as it was observed by two foreign navies.  The British corvette HMS Rinaldo and the French Navy warships Gassendi and Catinet were standing off Sewell’s Point this morning, plainly viewing the proceedings.

USS MONITOR vs, CSS VIRGINIA, 9 March 1862

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