Matt's Model Boats

USRC Naugatuck , which was attached to the United States Revenue Marine, was an ironclad that served alongside USS Galena and  USS Monitor  during the American Civil War. Captain David C. Constable, while he held the rank of First Lieutenant, commanded the revenue-cutter while it provided assistance to the United States Army and the United States Navy. Sewell's Point, in the April of 1862, was bombarded by the United States Navy and by the United States Revenue-cutter Service.  USRC Naugatuck , during the Bombardment of Sewell's Point, was engaged in an armed confrontation with CSS Virginia  but it appears that two fighting vessels did not launch their projectiles at one another. A second meeting of CSS Virginia  and USRC Naugatuck , which occurred in the May of 1862, resulted in an exchange of fire between the ironclads.  USRC Naugatuck , according to James Fowler Rusling, was equipped with a gun that fired 250-pound projectiles while Mark Trafton cla...

USRC Naugatuck , which was also known as USRC Stevens , was an ironclad that Edwin Augustus Stevens donated to the Treasury Department of the United States of America. Salmon Portland Chase, who had been Secretary of the Treasury at the time in which USRC Naugatuck  was delivered to the United States Revenue-cutter Service, re-named the gunboat in honour of the industrialist. It is possible, however, to mistake USRC Stevens  for the larger Stevens Battery  that was under construction at Hoboken.  USRC Naugatuck  had been built to provide the Treasury Department, which Chase had asked for half-a-million dollars, with a working model of the design principles which were embodied in the larger ironclad. Ballast tanks, protective iron plates, steam-engines, twin screws and a gun which could have the muzzle of its barrel depressed were among the features that were included in the revenue-cutter. Robert Livingstone Stevens, who was the older brother of E...

CSS David  was a torpedo-vessel that was built, at the behest of Lieutenant William Thornton Glassell, for the Confederate States Navy by Theodore Stoney and Saint Julien Ravenel. Gun batteries, torpedo batteries and submarine obstructions were employed in the defense of Charleston Harbor by the government of the Confederate States of America. Charleston, which is situated in the State of South Carolina, was blockaded by the United States Navy and the harbour defences prevented the armed forces of the United States of America from attacking the city from the direction of the sea. Torpedo-vessels, such as CSS David , provided the Confederate States Navy with a means of conducting offensive actions against the Federal armada. USS New Ironsides , which was one of the few ironclads in the United States Navy that carried its armament in a broadside arrangement, was one of the most powerful vessels to be engaged in the blockade of Charleston. It has been asserted that  CSS David ...

USS Keokuk , propelled by twin screws and armed with two 11-inch Dahlgren guns as well as a ram, was an ironclad that served in the United States Navy during the War of the Great Rebellion.   The steam battery was assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and was ordered to buoy the Charleston bar on the 6th of April, 1863, by Rear-admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont. USS Bibb , a United States Coastal Survey vessel, assisted the ironclad while two  monitors of the Passaic class  guarded the buoys during the night.  USS Keokuk joined  USS New Ironsides and seven Passaic-class monitors during the first bombardment of Fort Sumter on the 7th of April, 1863, but withdrew after its hull was perforated by Confederate shot. The First Battle of Charleston Harbor, as the bombardment is also known, caused some interested parties to question the effectiveness of iron-plated warships. Lieutenant-Commander Alexander Colden Rhind, who commanded  U...