Bullethead
30 Jul 07, 15:12
This is kinda off-topic, but it does involve a battleship, a sub, and an old naval battle, so I figure it's OK :). I spent the 1st half of last week in Mobile, showing my nephew the various things of military historical interest. That's why I haven't posted lately.
First off is the battleship Alabama. This ship is in pretty good condition, although none of the AA guns still move. One of the attached pics shows my nephew, Andy, who is about 5'2" tall, standing in front of the forward main turrets. Even though this class of ship was the "smallest" of modern US BBs, it's still a huge hunk of iron :). The ship is in pretty much late-WW2 configuration, having been disposed of shortly after the war and never recommissioned. Also in WW2 condition is the fleet sub Drum, which is now mounted on stands on dry land like a giant model on a shelf. When I was young, this sub was in the water just behind the BB. The same facility also has a collection of airplanes and tanks, the former including such rareties as an OS2U, an A-11 (single-seat prototype of the SR-71), and the YF-17 prototype.
Hurricane Katrina sideswiped the Mobile area and did some damage to all these things. The BB came off the best but had a 10^ list after the storm. She's in fine shape now. The sub took a pounding and hasn't been fixed up to the same extent, although work was in progress while we were there. The sub's main problem is that she was pretty much rusted out beforehand, which is why she got put on land. The storm surge crumpled the stern casing by the aft tubes, which was pretty much paper thin from rust anyway. The worst damage was to the airplane collection, however. The surge came through the hangar walls about 10' deep, piled the planes on top of each other, and dropped sections of hangar wall on them. Thus, most took serious damage. They're slowly being put back together and several are back inside, but even these still have many dents, bent wingtips, etc. Most planes, however are outside looking pretty sad, with much more obvious damage. The P-51 appears the worst, with the whole tail assembly smashed. It kinda looks like one of those post-war scrap yards :(.
30 miles or so south of town there are 2 old forts, one on each side of the entrance to Mobile Bay. These are Ft. Morgan to the east and Ft. Gaines to the west on Dauphin Island. This is where, in 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral Farragut said "Damn the torpedoes!"
Ft. Morgan was the main one involved in the battle because the channel Farragut ran was close to it. This fort is now a state park, so I figured it would be in better post-Katrina shape. However, it actually looks pretty run-down. Briars and scrub have completely overgrown the glacis and covered way, and are taking good hold on the ramparts. I don't think they've been trimmed since the storm, although the grass in the ditch and parade seems to be mowed regularly. The overgrowth is so extensive that the fort looks like a natural hill from the outside, and is only apparent as a fort from inside. This fort suffered extensive updates around 1900, with several batteries of disappearing guns installed in and around the fort. Thus, only the landward side near the entrance looks much like it did in 1864. The concrete of the newer gun positions was VERY cheaply done so, in common with that at other old forts around the Gulf Coast, is falling apart more rapidly than the original brick.
This fort was built in 1833 and had the classic pentagonal bastioned trace. The escarp wall is vertical brick but completely shielded by the covered way and glacis. On the SW corner, the covered way goes out into a large redan that mounted a number of guns as a water battery. The rest of the main armament was on the terreplein, with howitzers in casemates in the angles of the bastions covering the ditch. The ditch was also covered by many musketry loopholes in the escarp wall. Today, there's only 1 gun at all, a 24pdr on a fortress pivot mounting on one of the bastions. Only the pivots and pits remain for the other guns, both original and added.
Taking the ferry across the bay mouth brings you to Ft. Gaines, which is owned by the town of Dauphin Island. It's in VERY good shape, and also more in original condition, although it also has some Endicott Board updates (which are holding up better than at Ft. Morgan). This fort wasn't so much involved in the naval battle but did take a few hits, some of which are still visible.
The most interesting thing about Ft. Gaines, however, is that it's got probably the only example of the short-lived "Carnot wall" in the Western Hemisphere, and maybe the last left in the world. This fort was built in 1821, just before Carnot's ideas were discredited by tests in Britain :).
See the other attachment for the landward wall of this fort. What you see there isn't the escarp wall, but the Carnot wall with its musketry loopholes. Originally, the ditch and glacis were built up outside to the same height as this wall, but today little of the glacis remains (it was just loose beach sand). Also note that the "bastions" are more like caponiers, with room on top for only 1 cannon (the one in the photo has an Endicott Board observation post on it now). The actual escarp wall was about 20 feet inside the Carnot wall. Its vertical brick face as buried in sand left at its angle of repose, sloping down to the bottom of the inside of the Carnot wall. The escarp and Carnot walls were only connected at the corners, where narrow structures spanned the gap to the bastions/caponiers. Howitzers and musketry ports in these narrow structures covered the space between the walls, but the fort's main armament was on the terreplein all the way around. All in all, a very strange and unsuccessful design :).
Today, the area between the walls on the landward faces has somewhat silted up with blowing sand, which now comes up to the bottom of the musketry ports in the Carnot wall. I bet the troops stationed here back in the day spent a lot of time shoveling sand out of this space :). On the seaward side, the space was completely filled to the brim on purpose, as part of the installation of disappearing guns. The sea also nearly laps the seaward faces, so the fort presents its Carnot wall completely unprotected (although it's the face of a wall over 20 feet thick now). I figure originally the ditch and glacis continued around these sides, but that this part of the land has since washed away (the whole of Dauphin Island is just 1 huge sandbar). Each bastion/caponier (except the one shown in the pic) still has a 32pdr pivot gun, and they still work. They fire them periodically, but unfortunately not while I was there :(.
Besides being in better shape and more interesting than Ft. Morgan, Ft. Gaines also has a better museum. Included in the collection are an anchor from USS Hartford, Farragut's flagship, and even the part of the deck he was supposedly standing on when he said "Damn the torpedoes!". The wreck of USS Tecumseh, sunk by one of these torpedoes, still lies near Ft. Morgan, marked with a buoy. Ft. Morgan also has several large fragments of a burst gun. Although there's no sign now (there used to be) telling what they were part of, they appear to be from a large Rodman smoothbore (based on the teeth cast into the cascabel), probably of 15".
Anyway, Mobile has a lot to offer folks with an interest in naval history. If you're in the area, I recommend seeing the sights. It takes a full day, however, to see it all, including travel from the BB to the forts and back to town. I recommend going down the west side of the bay to Dauphin Island as that's a quick, non-stop trip, whereas the east road is stoplights all the way and takes about 1.5 hours. Also, it pays to get in line for the ferry well ahead of time, because if you miss it, the next one won't leave for 1.5 hours. See its web site for a schedule of departure times from each side.
First off is the battleship Alabama. This ship is in pretty good condition, although none of the AA guns still move. One of the attached pics shows my nephew, Andy, who is about 5'2" tall, standing in front of the forward main turrets. Even though this class of ship was the "smallest" of modern US BBs, it's still a huge hunk of iron :). The ship is in pretty much late-WW2 configuration, having been disposed of shortly after the war and never recommissioned. Also in WW2 condition is the fleet sub Drum, which is now mounted on stands on dry land like a giant model on a shelf. When I was young, this sub was in the water just behind the BB. The same facility also has a collection of airplanes and tanks, the former including such rareties as an OS2U, an A-11 (single-seat prototype of the SR-71), and the YF-17 prototype.
Hurricane Katrina sideswiped the Mobile area and did some damage to all these things. The BB came off the best but had a 10^ list after the storm. She's in fine shape now. The sub took a pounding and hasn't been fixed up to the same extent, although work was in progress while we were there. The sub's main problem is that she was pretty much rusted out beforehand, which is why she got put on land. The storm surge crumpled the stern casing by the aft tubes, which was pretty much paper thin from rust anyway. The worst damage was to the airplane collection, however. The surge came through the hangar walls about 10' deep, piled the planes on top of each other, and dropped sections of hangar wall on them. Thus, most took serious damage. They're slowly being put back together and several are back inside, but even these still have many dents, bent wingtips, etc. Most planes, however are outside looking pretty sad, with much more obvious damage. The P-51 appears the worst, with the whole tail assembly smashed. It kinda looks like one of those post-war scrap yards :(.
30 miles or so south of town there are 2 old forts, one on each side of the entrance to Mobile Bay. These are Ft. Morgan to the east and Ft. Gaines to the west on Dauphin Island. This is where, in 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral Farragut said "Damn the torpedoes!"
Ft. Morgan was the main one involved in the battle because the channel Farragut ran was close to it. This fort is now a state park, so I figured it would be in better post-Katrina shape. However, it actually looks pretty run-down. Briars and scrub have completely overgrown the glacis and covered way, and are taking good hold on the ramparts. I don't think they've been trimmed since the storm, although the grass in the ditch and parade seems to be mowed regularly. The overgrowth is so extensive that the fort looks like a natural hill from the outside, and is only apparent as a fort from inside. This fort suffered extensive updates around 1900, with several batteries of disappearing guns installed in and around the fort. Thus, only the landward side near the entrance looks much like it did in 1864. The concrete of the newer gun positions was VERY cheaply done so, in common with that at other old forts around the Gulf Coast, is falling apart more rapidly than the original brick.
This fort was built in 1833 and had the classic pentagonal bastioned trace. The escarp wall is vertical brick but completely shielded by the covered way and glacis. On the SW corner, the covered way goes out into a large redan that mounted a number of guns as a water battery. The rest of the main armament was on the terreplein, with howitzers in casemates in the angles of the bastions covering the ditch. The ditch was also covered by many musketry loopholes in the escarp wall. Today, there's only 1 gun at all, a 24pdr on a fortress pivot mounting on one of the bastions. Only the pivots and pits remain for the other guns, both original and added.
Taking the ferry across the bay mouth brings you to Ft. Gaines, which is owned by the town of Dauphin Island. It's in VERY good shape, and also more in original condition, although it also has some Endicott Board updates (which are holding up better than at Ft. Morgan). This fort wasn't so much involved in the naval battle but did take a few hits, some of which are still visible.
The most interesting thing about Ft. Gaines, however, is that it's got probably the only example of the short-lived "Carnot wall" in the Western Hemisphere, and maybe the last left in the world. This fort was built in 1821, just before Carnot's ideas were discredited by tests in Britain :).
See the other attachment for the landward wall of this fort. What you see there isn't the escarp wall, but the Carnot wall with its musketry loopholes. Originally, the ditch and glacis were built up outside to the same height as this wall, but today little of the glacis remains (it was just loose beach sand). Also note that the "bastions" are more like caponiers, with room on top for only 1 cannon (the one in the photo has an Endicott Board observation post on it now). The actual escarp wall was about 20 feet inside the Carnot wall. Its vertical brick face as buried in sand left at its angle of repose, sloping down to the bottom of the inside of the Carnot wall. The escarp and Carnot walls were only connected at the corners, where narrow structures spanned the gap to the bastions/caponiers. Howitzers and musketry ports in these narrow structures covered the space between the walls, but the fort's main armament was on the terreplein all the way around. All in all, a very strange and unsuccessful design :).
Today, the area between the walls on the landward faces has somewhat silted up with blowing sand, which now comes up to the bottom of the musketry ports in the Carnot wall. I bet the troops stationed here back in the day spent a lot of time shoveling sand out of this space :). On the seaward side, the space was completely filled to the brim on purpose, as part of the installation of disappearing guns. The sea also nearly laps the seaward faces, so the fort presents its Carnot wall completely unprotected (although it's the face of a wall over 20 feet thick now). I figure originally the ditch and glacis continued around these sides, but that this part of the land has since washed away (the whole of Dauphin Island is just 1 huge sandbar). Each bastion/caponier (except the one shown in the pic) still has a 32pdr pivot gun, and they still work. They fire them periodically, but unfortunately not while I was there :(.
Besides being in better shape and more interesting than Ft. Morgan, Ft. Gaines also has a better museum. Included in the collection are an anchor from USS Hartford, Farragut's flagship, and even the part of the deck he was supposedly standing on when he said "Damn the torpedoes!". The wreck of USS Tecumseh, sunk by one of these torpedoes, still lies near Ft. Morgan, marked with a buoy. Ft. Morgan also has several large fragments of a burst gun. Although there's no sign now (there used to be) telling what they were part of, they appear to be from a large Rodman smoothbore (based on the teeth cast into the cascabel), probably of 15".
Anyway, Mobile has a lot to offer folks with an interest in naval history. If you're in the area, I recommend seeing the sights. It takes a full day, however, to see it all, including travel from the BB to the forts and back to town. I recommend going down the west side of the bay to Dauphin Island as that's a quick, non-stop trip, whereas the east road is stoplights all the way and takes about 1.5 hours. Also, it pays to get in line for the ferry well ahead of time, because if you miss it, the next one won't leave for 1.5 hours. See its web site for a schedule of departure times from each side.