Project Gutenberg's U.S.S. Cairo, by United States National Park Service This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: U.S.S. Cairo The Story of a Civil War Gunboat Author: United States National Park Service Release Date: May 22, 2019 [EBook #59574] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK U.S.S. CAIRO *** Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net U.S.S. Cairo: The Story of a Civil War Gunboat 2 Period photograph of gunboat The Story of a Civil War Gunboat U.S.S. CAIRO comprising A Narrative of Her Wartime Adventures by Virgil Carrington Jones and An Account of Her Raising in 1964 by Harold L. Peterson National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 1971 The U.S.S. Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo River by a Confederate torpedo in December 1862. A century later, she was raised and salvaged along with thousands of priceless artifacts. The boat, currently owned by the State of Mississippi, is now at Pascagoula, Miss., awaiting reconstruction. 3 5 6 The artifacts, through an agreement with the State of Mississippi and the Warren County (Miss.) Board of Supervisors, have been entrusted to the National Park Service for preservation, care, and display at Vicksburg National Military Park. This publication is designed to interpret both the boat and the artifacts to visitors at the park. Inquiries about the Cairo should be addressed to the Superintendent, Vicksburg National Military Park, Box 349, Vicksburg, MS 39180. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Price—80 cents Foreword For 11 years, I was closely associated with the Cairo project, and I know how difficult it is to place the undertaking in its proper perspective and to dispassionately evaluate its historical significance. I was accordingly delighted to learn that Virgil Carrington Jones, who needs no introduction to readers interested in Civil War partisan operations and action afloat, had agreed to chronicle the story of the Cairo and her rendezvous with destiny on the Yazoo in December 1862; and that Harold L. Peterson, whose publications on arms and armament are legion, would survey, describe, and evaluate the thousands of artifacts recovered. Jones and Peterson, as the readers of this booklet will discover, have written of the Cairo and her treasure trove of artifacts with keen insight and understanding. Their accounts will spark the reader’s interest, and, in conjunction with the salvaged objects themselves, lead to a better understanding of how bluejackets lived and fought in our Civil War. —Edwin C. Bearss The Wartime Adventures of the U.S.S. Cairo 1 1 8 7 Eads ironclads under construction at the Carondelet shipyards near St. Louis. The Cairo, although not built here, would have looked much the same at this stage. National Archives Some men and some ships seem fated for bad luck. It was the Union ironclad Cairo’s fate to have as her second and last captain a man who, although a hard worker, was a repeated slave to misfortune. Three of the vessels on which he served, their names all beginning with the letter C, went to the bottom in the order named—the Cumberland, the Cairo, and the Conestoga—no matter if he was credited with gallantry and exonerated of blame by some of his superiors. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., son of the commandant of the Navy Yard at Mare Island, Calif., was a member of seafaring family. He was dedicated and ambitious, but, as fate would have it, he served mostly on doomed vessels and was unable to get along with his men. Perhaps his fellow seamen had reason to be displeased with him, for he seemed always to flirt with disaster, barely escaping further serious mishap early in the war while experimenting with the crude submarine Alligator on a trial run from the Washington Navy Yard. So bad was his luck that the Cairo’s career ended just 3 months to the day after Selfridge first stepped aboard her. The Cairo was one of the weapons designed by the North to wrest the lower Mississippi River away from the South, a move decided on early in the war as part of a program of vigorous action needed to bring victory. One of those who expounded the strategy was James B. Eads of St. Louis, Mo., who had retired at 37 after making a fortune salvaging wrecked craft on the Western rivers. An engineer known to every riverman on the Mississippi, he had had long experience at the business of designing and building boats. Soon after the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Eads was called to Washington to present his recommendations at a Cabinet meeting. His strategy seemed simple: seize control of the lower Mississippi, the main channel through which flowed the South’s food supplies, and leave open as avenues of commerce in the Mississippi basin only the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers and the railroads from Louisville to Nashville and Chattanooga—all of which could be easily controlled. The result, as he saw it, would be starvation for the Confederates in less than 6 months. To carry out his plan, he urged the North to build a fleet of river gunboats, an inland navy. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles liked Eads’ ideas, but, before they could be acted upon, a brief flareup of jealousy between the War and Navy Departments created interference. At this time the Army had jurisdiction over the inland waters, while the Navy’s only responsibility was to furnish guns and crews for the vessels the Army acquired. Secretary of War Simon Cameron had initially thought Eads’ proposals absurd, but when it seemed that the Navy Department intended to go ahead with them, he reversed himself and insisted that the fitting out of river gunboats be handled by the Army. Cameron’s vacillation created so much confusion that prospects for an early decision in the matter were now remote. Thus stymied, Eads left Washington. 9 10 It was mid-summer before Eads noticed advertisements in St. Louis newspapers inviting bids to build the gunboats. According to the specifications, the vessels were to be 175 feet long, with a 50-foot beam, and to draw 6 feet of water. They would have flat bottoms, with three keels, and an oblong casemate sloping up to a flat spardeck, 45° in front and 35° on the side. The forward end was to be pierced for three guns, the port and starboard beams for seven guns each, and the stern for three guns. (As built, however, there were four ports on each side of the casemate, three on the forward face, and two on the after face.) Each vessel was to be fitted out with a paddle wheel, two engines, five 36-inch boilers 24 feet long with a firebox under each, and two 44- inch chimneys 28 feet high. They would have plain cabins with two staterooms, two messrooms, and eight staterooms for officers, as well as suitable magazines, shell rooms, and shot lockers. Officers’ quarters were to be equipped with berths, bureaus, and washstands. When bids were opened August 5, 1861, Eads’ was the lowest of seven: In it he agreed to build four to 16 of the boats, at a price of $89,600 each, by October 5 of that year. If not delivered on time, he would forfeit on each vessel $600 per day it was late. The contract Eads signed called for seven gunboats, moved the delivery date to October 10, and reduced the forfeit to $250 per day. Every 20 days, superintendents appointed by the Government would estimate the amount of work done, and the Treasury would pay Eads 75 percent of the estimate. The Government retained the right to suspend work at any time, and it was definitely specified that no part of the contract was to be sublet. Government representatives would inspect the material used in constructing the vessels and reject all considered defective. To his benefit, Eads obtained an agreement that the Government would require no change in specifications which might delay completion of the contract as specified. James B. Eads. Library of Congress Eads began work immediately, starting four of the vessels at the Carondelet Marine Ways on the outskirts of St. Louis, and three at the Marine Railway and Ship Yard at Mound City, Ill. Labor troubles set in early. Although wages were comparable with rates prior to the war, workers threatened to strike for more money. The contractor in the meantime advertised for additional boat carpenters, offering to pay $2 per 10-hour day and 25 cents per hour overtime. By the end of August, Eads had about 600 men and 12 sawmills at work on the seven hulls. The first estimate of work done, submitted to the Government on August 27, amounted to $58,315 and was accompanied by a statement that the smallness of the sum did not mean that matters were not being pushed with vigor. In mid-September, when Eads sent in a second estimate, he complained of not having received 11 12 even $1 on a contract involving an outlay of nearly $700,000. He said that, despite the inconvenience brought upon him by the Government, he was still confident he could fulfill his contract. Newspapers came to his defense, reporting that, without any money in advance, he had 800 workmen on the two jobs, as well as one steamboat and four barges engaged in transporting lumber from sawmills in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, and along the Missouri River. But even the reporters inspecting the work doubted that the vessels would be ready on schedule. The first boat was launched October 12, two days late. It came down the runway at Carondelet in the presence of a large crowd and was promptly named the Carondelet. It was mid-January before the Cairo was commissioned. By that time, the Western Flotilla had come under the command of Andrew H. Foote, formerly commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and a veteran of 40 years’ service in the Navy. It was Foote who decided that the ironclads would be named for cities and towns along the Ohio and upper Mississippi Rivers, and not for Union military leaders, as Eads had proposed. As an aftermath of the campaign to get the ironclads built, Eads made claims against the Government for failing to make prompt payments on estimates, maintaining this had delayed completion of the contract. Moreover, he charged that the numerous changes Foote had insisted upon had added materially to his costs, for which he wished to be reimbursed, and had delayed the delivery date. In return, the Government made claims against the builder for tardiness in delivering the boats. Finally, a member of the Quartermaster General’s staff was assigned to make a study of the contract, and the subsequent report led to a satisfactory settlement without penalty upon either party. The Cairo’s first captain was 39-year-old Lt. Nathaniel Bryant, member of a Maine shipbuilding family and formerly assigned to the steam sloop Richmond. The commissioning of the new vessel took place on January 16. She was newly painted and her decks had been holystoned (scrubbed) until, as one member of the crew recorded, they were as white as linen sheets. Everything was snug and clean from top to bottom. On board were 14 guns, ranging from rifled 42-pounders to a 12-pounder howitzer. In the beginning, the Cairo’s engines failed to function properly, and she was taken to an anchorage near Cairo for repairs. While lying there with a skeleton crew, news was received of the Union victory scored by ironclads at Fort Henry. The story was different at Fort Donelson, where Foote’s gunboats were mauled by Confederate shore batteries, but the Cairo men complained because they had been unable to take part in either affair. On February 16, a month after her commissioning, Foote ordered the Cairo to the Cumberland River. As she moved up the Ohio, she met a steamboat bringing news that Fort Donelson had surrendered. Her crew did more grumbling, fearing the war would end before they had a chance to fire at the enemy. Following a conference between Foote and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding at Fort Donelson, the Cairo, with the Conestoga, was ordered on a reconnaissance to Clarksville, Tenn. Along the way they passed Forts Defiance and Clark, both of them abandoned and flying white flags of surrender. At Clarksville they found the Confederates had also evacuated that point. The Cairo remained at Clarksville on a standby basis for several days and then was ordered to Nashville, where she arrived on February 25, again to find that the Confederates had gone. She lay idle in the Cumberland for several weeks; then she was ordered to the Tennessee River, reaching Savannah, Tenn., where Grant had his headquarters, on the evening of March 31. Only known photograph of the U.S.S. Cairo, taken early in 1862 while she was being outfitted at Cairo, Ill. Library of Congress 14 16 U.S.S. CAIRO High-resolution Version Hammock berthing (port and starboard) Three 8″ Navy smoothbores (forward ports) Load waterline Chain locker Commissary stores Coal Fireroom Launch (port) Cutter (starboard) Cutter (port and starboard) 32-pounder Navy smoothbores Engineroom Shell rooms (port and starboard) Magazine (port) Stores (port and starboard) U.S.S. Cairo Type and class: Ironclad River Gunboat, City Class Length: 175 ft. Breadth: 51 ft. 2 in. Full load keel draft: 6 ft. Tonnage: 512 Number of keels: 3 Armament: 3 4-pounder Army rifles, 3 64-pounder Navy smoothbores, 6 32-pounder Navy smoothbores, and 1 30- pounder Parrott Bow ports: 3 Side ports: 4 each side Stern ports: 2 Paint Colors: Black exterior, whitewashed interior, colored bands for identification on chimneys. 18 Deck Plan of the Cairo (scale ¼″ : 4′) High-resolution Version 2½″ × 13″ iron plates 42-pounder Army rifles (port and starboard) Galley Three 8″ Navy smoothbores (forward ports) 1¼″ plating Wood 32-pounder Navy smoothbores (port and starboard) Officers’ quarters Captain’s cabin 2½″ plating Wood 32-pounder Navy smoothbores Thickness of plate armor: 2½ in. Total weight of plate armor: 122 tons Plate armor material: Charcoal iron Wood backing for armor on three front panels of pilothouse: 19½ in. Wood backing for armor on five side and back panels of pilothouse: 12 in. Thickness of casemate timbers and sheathing: 26 in. Location of plate armor: Casemate front and casement sides abreast machinery 19 Bow of the Cairo (scale 1/4″ : 4′) Hammock berthing Hammock berthing Fireroom Forward end of boilers 2½″ × 13″ iron plates 32-pounder Navy smoothbores (port and starboard) Load waterline Number and type of engines: Two reciprocating steam-non-condensing Number of boilers: 5 Fuel: Coal Fuel consumption per hour: 18 to 20 bu. (1,980 lb.) Crew: 17 officers, 27 petty officers, 111 seamen, 3 landsmen, 1 apprentice, 12 firemen, and 4 coal heavers On April 1 the Cairo, with the gunboats Lexington and Tyler, accompanied Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman’s command on an expedition against the Confederate batteries at Eastport, Miss., and Chickasaw, Ala. At Eastport, guns were run out and a few rounds fired, but there was no reply. The Confederates had fled. Chickasaw also was found deserted. Although the expedition proved disappointing, it did give the men on the Cairo their first chance, except in practice, to exercise their guns. Upon her return from Eastport and Chickasaw, the Cairo received orders to move to the Cairo Naval Station and defend it against a threatened Confederate attack. Foote had learned that the South had completed 13 gunboats at New Orleans, and he feared these would be joined with the ram Manassas and run up the Mississippi against the Union fleet and bases. The Cairo arrived at the naval station on April 5. The following day the Shiloh campaign opened, giving her crew new cause to complain about their inability to take part in battle action. While the vessel lay at Cairo, Lieutenant Bryant took advantage of the opportunity to strengthen her pilothouse. His action was based on what had happened to Union gunboats at Fort Donelson (where the Confederates scored damaging hits by centering on the pilothouses, killing and wounding several men, among them Flag Officer Foote, who was struck on the ankle by a piece of iron). Other changes included the addition of timber, iron plating, and flaps. The work was completed by April 10 and Bryant, following orders, set out the next day for Island No. 10. There he joined a fleet of 20 21 transports, mortar boats, gunboats, and tugs, which moved down the Mississippi several miles and anchored off New Madrid, Mo. The next point of attack would be Fort Pillow, a stronghold guarding the approach to Memphis, but the Cairo’s assignment was to wait behind with the unwieldy mortar scows. By remaining with the mortars, the Cairo’s crew missed the flurry of action that took place with some Confederate boats at Hale’s Point, 50 miles or so below New Madrid, As the Southern craft turned about and fled downstream, the Union fleet followed to within range of the guns at Fort Pillow, then turned about and tied up at Plum Point, a short distance upriver. The Cairo drifted in later with the mortar scows and took station the morning of April 14 to hurl 200-pound shells in a bombardment that would last for 7 weeks. Her guns were trained so as to protect the mortarscows from possible interference by Confederate gunboats. Day after day, sometimes at the rate of one a minute, shells were dropped upon the fort; the Southerners fired back, occasionally scoring hits, but never inflicting serious damage. The lower Mississippi River and its tributaries, showing the Cairo’s area of operations. In the meantime, Foote’s wound had become worse and finally reached the stage at which he was forced to retire. On May 9 he turned over command of the Western Flotilla to Capt. Charles H. Davis, a Harvard student who had followed a naval career. (He had been a member of the Office of Detail in Washington at the start of the war and was later stationed with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.) That afternoon a Confederate steamer came within range bearing a white flag under the pretense of exchanging two Union surgeons captured at Belmont, Mo. The Federals presumed correctly that the move was one of reconnaissance. 22 23 The morning after Davis took command, a Confederate fleet of rams steamed up from Fort Pillow just as Mortar Boat No. 16, guarded by the Cincinnati, was being moored at Craighead Point to begin the daily bombardment. This move by the Southerners caught the Union ironclads unprepared, some of them without sufficient steam to hold against the current of the stream. But their engineers reacted to the emergency, throwing oil, and anything else flammable which was available to them, into the fireboxes in an effort to raise steam. Battle of Plum Point, May 10, 1862. From a sketch by Rear Adm. Henry Walke. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War The Confederate attack was opened on Cincinnati, farthest downstream. Three rams, first the General Bragg and then the Sterling Price and the Sumter, struck the ironclad, inflicting considerable damage. Other Union vessels came to her rescue as rapidly as they could. The Cairo moved from across the river and had her first chance for battle action. As her bow guns were rapidly fired, a ball from the Van Dorn struck near the center gunport, but glanced off without doing damage. Then she turned her attention to the Mound City, a sister ironclad which had been struck by a ram and had had a hole smashed in her starboard forward quarter, accompanying her until she grounded herself. As the furious action ended and the Confederates ran back down under the protection of Fort Pillow, the Cairo assisted in running the Mound City onto a shoal opposite Plum Point, where she sank. The Cincinnati also went down. (Both would be raised and repaired.) The Cairo’s crew at last had something to talk about. They had taken part in what was described as the first strictly “fleet action” of the war, but there was a question as to the glory of the role they played. Some officers were disappointed that the vessel had not participated more prominently. One result of the Battle of Plum Point, which lasted little more than an hour, was further strengthening of the ironclads. To protect against another attack by rams, railroad iron was placed around the ends of the vessels and other points were buttressed with cypress logs. The bombardment of Fort Pillow continued after the action at Plum Point, with two ironclads being assigned daily to guard the mortar boats on duty for the day. May 25 marked the arrival of a fleet of nine rams and two floating batteries under command of Col. Charles Ellet, a civil engineer who had drawn attention to himself by advancing the idea of converting steamboats into rams. At the start, he and Davis disagreed over a plan of joint action, so Ellet, having orders to that effect, prepared to act on his own. He sent men ashore on June 2, and they came back with a report that the Confederates appeared to be evacuating. 24 Adm. Andrew H. Foote. Library of Congress Next day two of the Union vessels ran down toward Fort Pillow and sighted a Confederate gunboat, the Jeff Thompson, lying under the guns of the fort, but before they could attack, cannoneers opened from above and drove them back. Later in the day, while the Cairo was helping guard the mortar boats, the Confederate fleet appeared and exchanged a few shots before withdrawing. A joint attack on Fort Pillow, with troops moving in from the land side, was planned for June 5, but the Southerners upset the schedule. The fort had been ordered evacuated and was virtually empty on the 3d, while on the evening of the 4th demolition teams began applying the torch. By noon of the next day, the Confederate fleet was at Memphis, a shortage of men for the fort having caused the evacuation. The Federals now advanced on Memphis, arriving there the evening of the 5th. At dawn, the Confederate fleet, consisting of eight rams and gunboats and facing such a shortage of coal that it was unable to go farther downstream, drew up in line in front of the city to await battle. 25 26 Battle of Memphis, June 6, 1862. The Cairo is the fourth boat from the left. From a sketch by Rear Adm. Henry Walke. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War Action began at 5:30 a.m. and ended in a running fight 1½ hours later. All of the Confederate vessels were either sunk or captured except the Van Dorn and a little storeboat, the Paul Jones, both of which happened to have coal enough to flee downriver. In the battle, the Cairo was the first of the ironclads to fire, opening with her 42-pounder starboard bow rifle. Throughout the action she kept busy, firing, rescuing men from the water, and finally taking part in the running fight; but her role was not one to cause her to be singled out in the official reports. For the next 6 days, the Cairo lay with the other ironclads at Memphis. On June 12 she was ordered to return to Fort Pillow, where she would remain for 3 months while her crew guarded public property, undertook patrols on each side of the river, and strengthened the boat. From a nearby sawmill and from the Fort Pillow fortifications, lumber and iron were obtained to build a barricade around the engines, steam drums, and boilers. September brought the Cairo a change of command. For months, Lieutenant Bryant had been in failing health and, as he grew steadily worse, a medical board recommended that he be allowed extended sick leave. On orders, he headed his vessel downstream to Helena to rendezvous with the flotilla and there, on September 12, he turned his command over to Lt. Comdr. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr. The new captain, more youthful than Bryant, was a man who had seen more service during the war than most other officers. He had appeared briefly in the limelight at Norfolk, Va., in the opening stages. There, as a lieutenant on board the U.S.S. Cumberland, he had been interested in stopping some of the Confederate shenanigans that led to the evacuation and destruction by the North of the Gosport Navy Yard. Later, he was assigned the responsibility of finding out what could be done about the blockade running that was going on so successfully along the North Carolina coast, especially at Hatteras. He studied the situation and recommended sending in a fleet of tugboats, steamers, gunboats, and launches to patrol Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, claiming this would clear up matters in 3 weeks. In effect, he was prescribing the end of a system of signals between ship and shore that the South operated with great results until the fall of Fort Fisher in January 1865. On March 10, 1862, the day after the famous battle between the Merrimack and the Monitor, he was ordered to command the latter vessel. This order was countermanded by Flag Officer L. M. Goldsborough, who reported plans already had been made to place the ship under Lt. Comdr. W. M. Jeffers. 28 27 Adm. David D. Porter. Library of Congress Selfridge’s first assignment after assuming command of the Cairo was to guard transports taking prisoners down the Mississippi for exchange at Vicksburg and to return with repatriated Federals. On the run back, he got in an argument with Chief Pilot Oscar B. Jolly, one of the best on the river, who promptly resigned. After this incident, members of the crew began making up their own opinions of the new captain. The responsibility for the Western Flotilla, which had been under the Army, was assigned by Congress on October 1 to the Navy. Resulting changes caused Captain Davis to be called to Washington as chief of the Bureau of Navigation and to be succeeded as flotilla commander by David Dixon Porter, foster brother of the immortal David G. Farragut, the Navy veteran who had conducted the successful campaign against New Orleans the preceding spring. Shortly after returning to Helena, the Cairo received orders to accompany the ammunition steamer Judge Torrence to Memphis. This was an opportunity for which Selfridge had been waiting. The fire linings in his vessel had deteriorated to the point at which they were dangerous, and he had been unable so far to get replacements. He felt confident he could find them at Memphis. After a 2-day run up the Mississippi, the Cairo tied up at Memphis, with instructions to remain there for further orders. This gave Selfridge a chance to make the necessary repairs, and he had them completed by November 7. The weeks that followed were spent by the Cairo’s crew in gunnery practice and in patrolling the river above and below Memphis in an effort to break up the smuggling which was so evident at that point. They did an effective job. Meanwhile, Selfridge received notice from Porter that an active campaign on the Mississippi was about to begin. The campaign was to be another advance on Vicksburg, this time by land as well as by water. The Army of the Tennessee under General Grant was already moving southward from Tennessee. These troops, according to plan, were to advance by way of Grenada, down the corridor between the Yazoo and Big Black Rivers, and cut the Confederates off from their base of operations at Jackson. The Navy was expected to clear the Yazoo of the enemy as far up as Greenwood, where the light-drafts would turn into the Balobusha and ascend it to Grenada, and there destroy the railroad bridges. An attempt would also be made to capture the large number of steamers the Confederates had secreted in the twisting waterways of the Delta. Porter, on November 22, ordered Selfridge to bring his vessel to Helena. Three days later the Cairo’s commander sent word that he had 29 30 been asked by the Army to remain at Memphis and that he thought he would be doing right to fulfill the request. This brought a reply from Porter that was couched in sarcasm: “I would feel better satisfied to dispose of the vessels under my command as it seems best to me.” He said he would send a replacement for the Cairo, which was needed on the expedition he was planning. While awaiting the replacement, Selfridge continued to strengthen the Cairo. More railroad iron was added to reinforce the casemate protecting the boilers and machinery. His relief arrived on the morning of December 4, and he set out for the mouth of the Yazoo immediately, arriving on the 8th. The fleet that gathered there ready to go upstream was under the command of Capt. Henry Walke, a Mexican War veteran, a fine artist, and a dauntless fighter. The next 2 days were spent in recoaling. Then, on the 11th, plans for a reconnaissance up the Yazoo were carried out. This was done by the two tinclads, Marmora and Signal, light-draft stern-wheelers covered with 1¼ inches of iron that afforded protection against shells but not against heavier projectiles. They ran up the river some 20 miles and prepared to round to, as the lookouts sighted several suspicious objects floating on the water. A man on board the Marmora fired a musket at one of them and touched off a tremendous explosion that shook the boat and threw water over a wide area. Another explosion occurred shortly afterward near the Signal. No damage was caused by either. However, it was recognized that contact had been made with some of the vaunted Confederate mines, more commonly referred to as “torpedoes.” Back at the mouth of the river that night, the captains of the two tinclads told of their experience. They said the number of small scows and stationary floats they saw at the point where they had turned around indicated the presence of other torpedoes, but, if protected by one or two gunboats, they believed they could safely lift the “infernal machines” from the water and deactivate them. Lt. Comdr. Thomas O. Selfridge. Library of Congress Selfridge requested permission to use the Cairo on such a venture, and Walke consented. He also designated the gunboat Pittsburg and the ram Queen of the West to go along.