laststandonzombieisland

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Above we see the mighty armored steam turret ship of the Sultan of Egypt, the El Monassir as she lies fitting out in England. Laid down in 1862 at Laird, Son & Co., Birkenhead, her North African identity was a ruse as her actual owners was the Confederate States Navy and she was to be the CSS Mississippi.

Built to an innovative amalgam that combined armor plate, a ram, movable armored turrets and steam propulsion with an economical full-rigged three masted sailing suite to enable her to cross the oceans on only the coal in her bunkers, she was an interesting design. Three times the mass of the US Navy’s USS Monitor and with a comparable armor, she carried four 9-inch naval rifles in two twin turrets vs the Monitor’s pair of larger 11-inch (280 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns. Yet, she was almost twice as fast as the union ship. Even compared to the 1864-designed Canonicus-class monitors, she was still faster and better armed. Had she been taken over by the Confederacy, the Union navy was in trouble.

But alas, it was not to be. The British government, after the shattering Vicksburg and Gettysburg defeats in the summer of 1863, saw that the tide was turning against the greycoats. With the writing on the wall, they seized El Monassir/CSS Mississippi and her sistership the El Tousson/CSS North Carolina in October. They were completed on the Queen’s dime and put on the Royal Navy List in 1865 as the HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion respectively.

The ships, even though advanced for their time, were quickly outclassed by later naval developments and hindered by their heavy weight and low freeboard. By the 1880s they were in reserve. The Wivern was sent to Hong Kong where she performed harbor duties such as barracks duty and brig boat until she was scrapped in 1922. She outlived her sister Scorpion who had spent the last three decades of her life as a guard ship in Bermuda before being sunk as a target in 1901.

Still, unless I can find otherwise, I think the  El Monassir/CSS Mississippi/HMS Wivern was the last serving Confederate naval ship in the world when she was scrapped, having a lifespan of some 57-years.

Specs;

Displacement:             2,751 tons

Length:            224 ft 6 in (68.43 m) p/p

Beam: 42 ft 4 in (12.90 m)

Draught:          15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) light, 17 ft (5.2 m) deep load

Propulsion:      Lairds horizontal direct action; 1,450 ihp. Inoperable by 1910.

Sail plan:         Ship-rigged

Speed:             10.5 knots

Complement:   153

Armament:      Four 9-inch muzzle-loading rifles (disarmed 1904)

Armour:           Belt 4.5 inches, 3 inches at bow, 2 inches at stern

Turret faces 10 inches

Sides 5 inches

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