CSS WEBB’S RUN FOR THE SEA

The 206-foot sidewheel steamboat William H. Webb started her career as a coastal steamer in New York in 1856.  She fell into Confederate hands in 1861 and was converted to a ram a year later.  Lacking plate iron to protect her boilers, her outfitters “armored” her nevertheless with layers of cotton bales stacked around her mechanical spaces.  Her bow-mounted 130-pounder Rodman gun and two 12-pounder howitzers, along with a spar torpedo on a long pole from her bows, suited her for operations against Union gunboats on the Mississippi.  But after the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 the Union Navy completely controlled the Mississippi.  CSS WEBB found herself trapped in Louisiana’s Red River by Union gunboats waiting at its confluence with the Mississippi.

The Confederacy was in its waning months by the time LT Charles W. Read, CSN, volunteered himself to President Jefferson Davis.   Impressed with WEBB’s phenomenal 22 knots speed, Read arrived in early April in Alexandria, Louisiana, and labored for three weeks to muster a crew and provision the vessel for duty.  He became increasingly frustrated over news of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox and wrote to President Jefferson Davis of his plan tomake a last-ditch dash to the open sea.  On this afternoon of 23 April his preparations were complete.

Read’s departure from Alexandria was timed to arrive at the Mississippi after sunset, and at 2030 WEBB charged into the “Father of Waters” under a full head of steam.  The sudden arrival of the white-painted sidewheeler took the three blockading Union gunboats by surprise.  The confusion was deepened as Read displayed a Union ensign, correctly flown at half-mast out of respect for President Lincoln’s recent death.  By the time the Federals discerned the situation, WEBB had a considerable downstream lead.  Read charged down the Mississippi at frightful speed in a chase that followed, estimated by some at up to 25 knots.  He stopped only once to cut telegraph wires along the bank and outdistanced the Union ironclads USS TENNESSEE and MANHATTAN and the gunboats SELMA and QUAKER CITY that were overtaken by surprise.  He reached New Orleans in three hours, running this city at midnight against the fire of Union gunboats that had been forewarned.  The unshaken Read now broke the Confederate ensign and plunged onward.

But 25 miles further Read reached his bitter end.  Running upon the powerful guns of the Union screw frigate USS RICHMOND and leading a flock of pursuing gunboats, Read set WEBB ablaze and ran her aground.  He and his crew were quickly rounded up before sunrise, ending this last significant action of the Confederate Navy in home waters.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  28 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Clark, Charles E.  My Fifty Years in the Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984, p. 65.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. V-92.

Luraghi, Raimondo.  A History of the Confederate Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1996, pp. 339-40.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 231.

Trudeau, Noah Andre.  Out of the Storm:  The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1994, 336-38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  WEBB was hit only three times in this five-hour chase.  Her only noteworthy damage was to the rigging of her spar torpedo, which had to be jettisoned.  This loss of the spar torpedo may have influenced Read’s decision to scuttle the steamer rather than tackle USS RICHMOND.

Contemporary Union accounts of this episode downplay the surprise they experienced and concentrate rather on the speed of WEBB.  Ironically, despite accounts to the contrary, WEBB’s appearance had probably surprised RICHMOND as well, the latter being unprepared to offer resistance.

Charles William “Savez” Read graduated last in his US Naval Academy class of 1860.  A Mississippi native, he joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter.  His class rank at the Academy belies his conduct as a Naval officer.  His daring raids and surprising successes earned him the nickname “Seawolf of the Confederacy.”

Lee surrendered at Appomattox on 9 April, and by this date the Civil War was all but over.  Read’s men were captured and subjected to public display in New Orleans before being paroled to return to their homes.  Two days later, on 26 April, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last Confederate force of consequence, the Army of Tennessee, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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                                             RETIRING VICTORY

VADM Boshiro Hosogaya’s heavier force pursued the American cruiser/destroyer squadron of RADM Charles H. McMorris, gaining steadily.  CAPT Bertram J. Rodgers in SALT LAKE CITY, with the longest-range US guns, kept up impressive fire from the end of the American line.  Both RICHMOND and SALT LAKE CITY “chased salvos” (steered into the enemy shell splashes to subvert corrections).  At 0945, SALT LAKE CITY took the destroyer ABUKUMA under fire as the latter positioned herself 18,000 yards off RICHMOND, an excellent vantage from which to spot.  Eight salvos forced ABUKUMA into a 360-degree turn, to the cheers of Rodgers’ sailors.  But the overpowering Japanese would not be denied.  SALT LAKE CITY took her first hit at 0910, an 8″ shell that penetrated the fo’c’sle and chain locker but did not explode.  Another shell wrecked the starboard aircraft and killed two crewmen.  McMorris turned south and the Japanese followed, coursing inside his turn and cutting McMorris from his Aleutian base.  McMorris now redirected northward in another parry at the transports.

SALT LAKE CITY’s impressive fighting drew the combined fire of the heavy cruisers NACHI and MAYA.  She was holed below the waterline and worse, concussions from her own guns disabled her steering engine.  The gallant cruiser next took a damnable hit in the engine room, and to make matters worse, her crew accidentally doused her boilers by mistakenly flooding the fuel lines with seawater.  At 1155 she went dead in the water with the enemy charging at 30 knots from 17,000 yards astern!  Rodgers’ gunners defiantly slugged away at the onrushing enemy, but disaster seemed assured.  McMorris abandoned the freighters again and turned west, laying smoke.  The destroyers BAILEY (DD-492), MONAGHAN (DD-354), and COGHLAN raced to launch a covering torpedo attack, expecting at any minute to see themselves, or the “sitting duck” cruiser, blasted.  DALE (DD-353) closed to take off Rodgers’ crew, who were reciting prayers and exchanging final farewells.  Miraculously however, working chest-deep in icy water in total darkness, SALT LAKE’s damage control parties stuffed their shirts into hull breeches and purged her fuel lines.  Her boilers were re-fired, and after only six minutes her shafts began turning again!

Then in an queer twist of fate, Hosogaya inexplicably broke off the attack.  Failing to sense the victory just off his bows, he apparently feared the arrival of overdue American land-based bombers.  BAILEY and NACHI exchanged the final blows, but Hosogaya’s abrupt return to Japan (where he was relieved for cause) gave McMorris a strategic victory.  Even the transports were forced to return later without landing.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  2 APR 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 84.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 138, 234.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 306, 413.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 269-70.

Lorelli, John A.  The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 137-40.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 22-36.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, p. 310.

Purdon, Eric.  “War in the Arctic:  The Battle of the Komandorskis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 31 (11), November 1998, pp. 34-42.

Sweetman, Jack.  “Great Sea Battles of World War II:  The Komandorskis”.  Naval History, Vol 9 (3), June 1995, pp. 39-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Retiring victories are not usually as impressive as offensive ones, but this scene–with SALT LAKE CITY firing from dead in the water, RICHMOND turning to her aid with guns blazing, and three destroyers in a suicidal torpedo charge–must have been memorable.  SALT LAKE CITY’s OOD concluded her log entry with, “This day the hand of Divine Providence lay over the ship.  Never before in her colorful history has death been so close for so long a time.  The entire crew offered its thanks to Almighty God for His mercy and protection.”

Sakito Maru and Asaka Maru turned back after being spotted by PBY patrol planes.  Americans on Adak indeed planned to send land-based B-25s after these freighters.  But the bombers were delayed six hours installing auxiliary fuel tanks and reloading with armor-piercing bombs, many of which had to be chipped from frozen bomb racks.

The post Retiring Victory appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                 BATTLE OF THE KOMANDORSKIS

One Japanese success at the battle of Midway was an effort intended only to be a diversion.  As Yamamoto’s Combined Fleet closed on Midway Island, a smaller force of two carriers and supporting ships attacked Dutch Harbor, the main settlement in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.  Here the attackers overpowered the paltry American forces and captured two islands at the far end of the Aleutian chain, Attu and Kiska.  These bleak and desolate islands held little value to either side, but after the embarrassing defeat at Midway, Japanese propagandists recognized the value of holding US territory.  To our embarrassment, they dug in.  Initially a minor annoyance, Japan’s garrisons on Attu and Kiska grew increasingly troubling as the US began ferrying planes to Russia via Siberia.  A Japanese presence in the Aleutians could no longer be tolerated by 1943.

Preliminary US efforts isolated the enemy garrisons from resupply.  RADM Charles H. McMorris was sent to patrol the approaches to Kiska with Task Group 16.6 composed of the aging light cruisers SALT LAKE CITY (CL-25) and RICHMOND (CL-9) and four destroyers.  Just after breakfast on this day, on glassy seas in unusually clear weather, the lead destroyer, COGHLAN (DD-606), made radar contact with five enemy ships on the same northerly course.  What followed was anachronistic, the last naval battle in history that did not involve aircraft, missiles, or submarines–a classic surface action in keeping with turn of the 20^th century navalism.

The ships COGHLAN had spotted were the trailing end of VADM Boshiro Hosogaya’s Northern Force escorting two armed marus to Attu.  Smarting from earlier losses to US submarines, Hosogaya was employing the full strength of his four cruisers and four destroyers in escort.  Against this enemy force that outnumbered him two to one, McMorris prepared to do battle.  Lookouts were sent aloft, gunners took up station, prisoners were released from the brig, messmen sliced bread for sandwiches, and coffee was put to boil.  An American line-ahead formed on COGHLAN, McMorris hoping to make a quick strike at the freighters then retire.

But Hosogaya, aware he was being followed, sent the freighters ahead and reversed course.  The enemy opened at 0840 from nearly five miles distant, straddling RICHMOND with salvos.  Two minutes later SALT LAKE CITY brought her long-range forward turret to the action.  Her third and fourth salvos struck the heavy cruiser NACHI, starting a fire worse in appearance than in fact.  From a range of 20,000 yards SALT LAKE CITY was accounting herself well, scoring hits to NACHI’s bridge and torpedo room–and getting drenched by near misses in the process.  But with the full weight of the stronger enemy force now approaching head-on, McMorris abandoned the freighters, rang up a flank bell, and turned away in a fighting withdrawal to the west.

Continued tomorrow….

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 84.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 138, 234.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 306, 413.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, pp. 269-70.

Lorelli, John A.  The Battle of the Komandorski Islands, March 1943.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984.

Love, Robert W.  History of the US Navy, Vol 2  1942-1991. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992, pp. 137-40.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 7  Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1951, pp. 22-36.

Potter, E.B.  Sea Power: A Naval History  2nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, p. 310.

Purdon, Eric.  “War in the Arctic:  The Battle of the Komandorskis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 31 (11), November 1998, pp. 34-42.

Sweetman, Jack.  “Great Sea Battles of World War II:  The Komandorskis”.  Naval History, Vol 9 (3), June 1995, pp. 39-40.

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