These were shallow draft gunboats with four gunports to the sides, and three fore and aft. They were manned by about 200 men and were powered by a paddle wheel installed inside the hull to protect it from cannon fire from the sides. This unit of the type was completed in October of 1862 and sunk by a mine in December of that year.
The specs were :
Name Cairo
Commissioned 1 October 1862
Fate Sunk by mine, 12 December 1862
Status Raised, 1964, museum ship
General characteristics
Class & type City-class ironclad
Tonnage 512
Length 175 ft (53.3 m)
Beam 51 ft 2 in (15.6 m)
Draft 6 ft (1.8 m)
Installed power 5 fire-tube boilers
Propulsion
1 Steam engine
Paddle wheel
Speed 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph)
Complement 251 officers and enlisted men
Armament varied and was based on what was available at the time of launching, by the time this ship was sunk the armament had evolved to be:
3 × 8-inch smoothbores
• 3 × 42-pounder rifles
• 6 × 32-pounder rifle
• 1 × 30-pounder rifle
• 1 × 12-pounder rifle
Adding metal armor to ships of this era was one of the key features of the conversion from sail to steam. In this case most of the armor was either plate iron or iron railway ties attached to the sloping sides.
Armor
Forward casemate: 2.5 inches (64 mm)
Pilot house: 2.5 inches (64 mm)
60 feet (18 m) of the side covering the machinery: 2.5 inches (64 mm).
Forward part of casemate sides: 3.5 inches (89 mm) railroad iron
I am using the Flagship Cast Resin model and had to use some scratch built parts as they were not provided or inadequate for what was needed, the overall hull was pretty accurate, the size of the stacks (plastic parts) was not, but I chose to just use what they included after shortening it. Some of the included printed brass parts were so fine in side to be really almost unusable, but i did what i could but as this is the first model i have made that uses fine size printed brass parts it is part of a big learning curve.
I began this two years ago and have worked on it as i had time and other projects allowed. I am at the stage now of adding on or finding things like Davits for the boats, rigging, and finding a good anchor chain, etc. So it is not complete by any means. I have simulated a bit of the rigging and a few other features in the photos to give an idea of where I am going but likely I will be switching over to working on WWII Japanese ship models soon, so this may be a while before completion but I wanted to post this stage for now.
I will include a history of this ship from internet sources at the end of this post. fyi.
I started this model as part of my research for a ongoing digital project posted where on this site that involves a digital restoration of a major project to construct a military supply base port for shipping and both to supply the Union Army beseiging General Lee's army at Petersburg at the very end of the Civil War.
Post about the USMRR Military Railroad, City Point and Petersburg 1865
viewtopic.php?p=1087373#p1087373
Several river monitors of this class were stationed there at the City Point port on the James River to defend the Union base from the Fleet of ironclads up river at Richmond in the Capital City Fleet of the CSS of five large ironclad ships. There was one battle between the two fleets but it was inconclusive due to the difficulty of navigating those shallow rivers but the City class gunboats were one i could find a model to make to study them.
This model is far from representing what I will be able to achieve in time in terms of quality but my career as an artist taught me to just start and keep learning.
All of the fine examples of fine work here and some great advice from some of the veteran model makers here has encourage me to keep going. The previous ship models (physical ones) i made were plastic ones the last being the Royal Soverign that i made completed in the spring of 1975 while I was studying at the University of Oxford, completely rigged. Onwards
C Gerlach
Planned Changes and Additions
Current Model
USS Cairo 1862
History
USS Cairo is the lead ship of the City-class casemate ironclads built at the beginning of the American Civil War to serve as river gunboats.
Cairo is named for Cairo, Illinois. In June 1862, she captured the Confederate garrison of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, enabling Union forces to occupy Memphis. As part of the Yazoo Pass Expedition, she was sunk on 12 December 1862, while clearing mines for the attack on Haines Bluff. Cairo was the first ship ever to be sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand.
The remains of Cairo can be viewed at Vicksburg National Military Park with a museum of its weapons and naval stores.
Service in the American Civil War
Cairo was built by James Eads and Co., Mound City, Illinois, in 1861, under contract to the United States Department of War. She was commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla,[1] which had US Navy Lieutenant James M. Prichett in command.[2]
Cairo served with the Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and their tributaries until she was transferred to the Navy on 1 October 1862, with the other river gunboats. She was commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote.[2]
Active in the occupation of Clarksville, Tennessee, 17 February 1862, and of Nashville, Tennessee, 25 February, Cairo stood down the river on 12 April, escorting mortar boats to begin the lengthy operations against Fort Pillow. An engagement with Confederate gunboats at Plum Point Bend on 11 May, marked a series of blockading and bombardment activities which culminated into the abandonment of the fort by its defenders on 4 June.
On 6 June 1862, two days later, Cairo joined in the triumph of seven Union ships and a tug over eight Confederate gunboats off Memphis. Five of the opposing gunboats were sunk or run ashore during this action; two were seriously damaged, and one managed to escape. That night, Union forces occupied the city. Cairo returned to patrol on the Mississippi until 21 November, when she joined the Yazoo Pass Expedition.
