Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program
History Of Connecticut's Water Trails
Connecticut and The Sea
Connecticut Shipyards and The Civil War
Of Cotton, Gunboats & Civil War
In the 1850s, shipyards on the Connecticut River and in Mystic and New London specialized in building shallow-draft vessels used in the coastal cotton trade in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. When the United States entered a commercial depression in the late 1850s, the cotton trade business enabled many Connecticut shipyards to survive.
When the Civil War arrived these shipyards were still active and played a very important role in shipbuilding during the war. In Mystic, 56 steamers were launched in a 4-year period. Probably the most famous was the gunboat Galina which was the nation’s first ocean going ironclad vessel ever. It was one of the first of the three ironclad vessels ordered by the United States Navy during the Civil War. The other two being the vessel called the New Ironsides, and the most famous, of course, was the Monitor.
The Galena was built by Madison’s Cornelius Scranton Bushnell, a successful shipbuilder and owner of the Shoreline Railroad. After starting construction of the Galena, Bushnell met John Ericsson, a ship designer who had plans for a radically different type of ironclad ship. Bushnell recognized the cutting-edge technology and brought the plans to Washington, where he lobbied Congress for another shipbuilding contract.
It was a Connecticut
connection in Washington, Gideon Welles, that helped win Bushnell his
second ironclad contract, for a ship, to be called the Monitor.
Gideon Welles, helped in maintaining the broader influence that
Connecticut had on the nation’s maritime affairs over the years.
He was Abraham Lincoln’s
Secretary of the Navy. Though he wasn’t really a seafarer himself, he
had great organizational skills and was instrumental in putting together
the American Navy during the
Civil War. Building it up to
a point where it grew from a relatively small fleet of vessels to the
largest naval fleet in the world by the time the Civil War came to an
end.
The story of getting The Monitor accepted by the
government in Washington is really where the story intertwines with
Gideon Wells knowing Cornelius Scranton Bushnell. One thing led to
another and a contract was signed. Simultaneously he was building The
Galena up the coast while The Monitor was being built over in Green
Point Long Island.
On March 9th 1862
the Monitor fought the battle, with the Merrimack which
was the first significant
battle of ironclad vessel against ironclad vessel and it was the final
proof that a wooden hull vessel really has no longer useful in this form
of warfare.
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