The Civil War produced several new techniques of naval warfare, including rifled guns, torpedoes, rotating gun turrets, submarines, and ironclad ramming vessels. In the fall of 1862, construction of two ironclad ramming vessels was rapidly pushed to completion on the Roanoke river and the Neuse River in North Carolina. On the Roanoke River, the C.S.S. Albemarle was under constructions while far up the Neuse River at White Hall Landing (today’s Seven Springs), the keel of a sister ram, the C.S.S. Neuse, was laid.
The ram Neuse, a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed vessel, was designed by John L. Porter for duty principally in the sounds and rivers along the North Carolina coast. When completed, she would be a twin-screw steamer that stretched 158 feet in length with a beam of 34 feet. The gunboat would draft around seven feet. In addition to the six-foot ram, the gunboat also featured two Brooke rifled cannon, guns that could fire solid, bullet-like projectiles, cannon balls, and anti-personnel canister and grape shot. These guns could fire projectiles roughly 1.5 miles at maximum elevation aboard the Neuse.
In November of 1863, the partially-completed Neuse was unshackled from her stocks and pulled about 100 yards on log rollers to launch the vessel into the Neuse River. Crewmen then polled the gunboat-to-be about 18 miles to Kinston. Once the vessel arrived in Kinston, she was pulled from the river, placed in stocks, and fitted out with a locomotive boiler, engines, stores, the Brooke rifles, and some iron plating to armor the casemate. In February 1864, the Neuse was still in her stocks awaiting delivery of the iron plating to finish armoring the vessel.
Adapted from text submitted by William H. Rowland
The ram Neuse, a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed vessel, was designed by John L. Porter for duty principally in the sounds and rivers along the North Carolina coast. When completed, she would be a twin-screw steamer that stretched 158 feet in length with a beam of 34 feet. The gunboat would draft around seven feet. In addition to the six-foot ram, the gunboat also featured two Brooke rifled cannon, guns that could fire solid, bullet-like projectiles, cannon balls, and anti-personnel canister and grape shot. These guns could fire projectiles roughly 1.5 miles at maximum elevation aboard the Neuse.
In November of 1863, the partially-completed Neuse was unshackled from her stocks and pulled about 100 yards on log rollers to launch the vessel into the Neuse River. Crewmen then polled the gunboat-to-be about 18 miles to Kinston. Once the vessel arrived in Kinston, she was pulled from the river, placed in stocks, and fitted out with a locomotive boiler, engines, stores, the Brooke rifles, and some iron plating to armor the casemate. In February 1864, the Neuse was still in her stocks awaiting delivery of the iron plating to finish armoring the vessel.
Adapted from text submitted by William H. Rowland