The Galena, one of the three ironclads ordered by the Union Navy at the outset of the war, was an 750-ton experimental vessel, built of wood with a novel design of light armor protection over the vitals. This was a design of Samuel Pook, built by C.S. Bushnell of Mystic, Conn. -- Ericsson's wartime partner. She used Ericsson's vibrating-lever engines, a proven design. Diagram Video
In section, she had an odd, oblong shape with a curved, unarmored top deck tapering into a 45-degree tumble-home of the ship's sides. The ship's innovative armor scheme (right) was complex, involving interlocking dovetailed horizontal plates, and was sold to the Navy on the basis of superior strength for less weight. Like the other early on-the-cheap armor schemes, it was an attempt to find out not how much armor was needed to do the job, but how little could be gotten away with. Completed in April 1862, soon after the Monitor's debut, Galena carried four 9" Dahlgrens and two 100-lb Parrot rifles. She originally carried a towering topsail schooner rig, but her tophamper was stowed away when she arrived on her blockade station. This is ironic, for later in her career she became a square-rigger again.
Galena was among the flotilla stationed to contain the Virginia in early 1862. Later she was part of a thrust up the James to compel Richmond's surrender, and the expedition on James Island. But her actual battle debut was far from propitious.
Reflecting the ironclad religion gripping North and South alike, she was appointed flotilla leader for an expedition to bombard Drewry's Bluff, on the James River only 8 miles below the Confederate capital. Her flotilla also included the Monitor and several wooden gunboats. Galena delivered a series of frightful salvos to the battery, but when nearly all her ammunition had been spent,her target returned the compliment. The complex shapes where the two layers of armor interlocked proved to be a source of weakness: on receiving metal fatigue from repetitive blows from enemy shot, the armor began to break down (right). The great shells and cannonballs enfilading Galena cracked her thin armor and exploded inside the gundeck, killing 12 and wounding 15. The ship limped back to City Point. Yet duty still called. The Galena's wounds were patched up, and the ship went on to cover McClellan's retreat down the James, just as her Navy sisters carried the Army of the Potomac's latest bumper crop of wounded back to Washington.
In September 1862 the ship was detached for light duty and the following May she found herself in Philadelphia for a refit. This proved to be more of a redesign, as she emerged in February 1864 as an all-wooden sloop-of-war (though, of course, retaining her engines and screw.) In this guise (above), she was part of Adm. David Glasgow Farragut's fleet at the Battle of Mobile Bay, in which Galena rendered heroic service, rescuing the sloop Oneida when Confederate shot disabled her boilers. Galena ended the war as a picket and patrol ship on the James. Essentially beached after hostilities ended, Galena was condemned by a survey in 1870. She was broken up in 1872 at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
Plans and Specifications
The Galena in original fit -- drawings by Robert MacBride.
Specifications for the Galena:
Dimensions: 210' x 36' x 11' Displacement: 950 tons as built; 738 tons when rebuilt at wooden sloop. Armament: (4) 9" Dahlgren smoothbores; (2) 100-pdr. Parrot rifles. Armor: 4"/2" interlocking armor plates over battery. Rig: 2-mast topsail schooner (as built); 3-mast barque (1864 rebuild). Propulsion: Coal-fired boilers, 2-cyl. Ericsson VL developing 320 IHP, shafted to single screw. Maximum speed: 8 kts. Crew: 164.
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 64m x 11m x 3.4m Displacement: 950 tons as built; 738 tons when rebuilt at wooden sloop. Armament: (4) 229 mm Dahlgren smoothbores; (2) 100-pdr. Parrot rifles. Armor: 102/51 mm interlocking armor plates over battery. Rig: 2-mast topsail schooner (as built); 3-mast barque (1864 rebuild). Propulsion: Coal-fired boilers, 2-cyl. Ericsson VL developing 239 kW, shafted to single screw. Maximum speed: 14.8 km/hr. Crew: 164.
Galena Gallery
In a period engraving, Galena and Monitor bombard the batteries at Drewry's bluff.
Galena takes punishment at Drewry's Bluff, in a watercolor by Paul Bender; © by Paul Bender.
The new ironclad Galena, built at Mystic, Conn. -- period illustration from Harper's Weekly.
The most famous photo of Galena, showing interlocking strakes of armor.
Gundeck on the Galena -- illustration from Harper's.
The Galena under sail -- another nice woodengraving from Harper's. Enlarge
