RECOLLECTIONS OF FOOTE AND THE GUN-BO ATS.
342
“ Plenty fast enough to fight with,” was Porter’s rejoinder.
Very soon after this (early in the spring of 1862) I was called to Washing-ton, with the request to prepare plans for still lighter iron-clad vessels, thedraught of those which I had then completed being only about six feet. Thelater plans were for vessels that should be capable of going up the Tennes-see and the Cumberland. As rapidly as possible I prepared and presentedfor the inspection of Secretary Welles and his able assistant, Captain
Pox, plans of ves-sels drawing fivefeet. They werenot acceptable toCaptain Pox, whosaid: “We wantvessels muchlighter than that.”
“ But you wantthem to carry acertain thickness
THE “NEOSHO”).
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
of iron?” I re-plied.
“Yes, we wantthem to be proofagainst heavyshot—to be plat-ed and heav-ily plated,—butthey must be
of much lighter THE “Chickasaw ” (type of the “ MILWAUKEE,” “ winnebago,” and “kickapoo”).
® FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
draught.”
After the interview I returned with the plans to my hotel, andcommenced a revision of them; and in the course of a few days I pre-sented the plans for the Osage and the Neosho. These vessels, accord-ing to my recollection, were about forty-five feet beam on deck, theirsides slanting outward, and the tops of the gunwales rising only aboutsix inches above the surface of the water, so as to leave very littlespace to be covered with the plating, which extended two and a hah feetdown under water on these slanting sides. The deck of the vessel, risingfrom six inches above water, curved upward about four feet higher atcenter; and this was covered all over with iron an inch thick. The platingon the sides was two and a half inches thick. Each vessel had a rotating