The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-02-21
HOLLINS'S TURTLE.
How "a Peaceful Merchant Ship was Made
to do Duty as e Terrider Of
Union Fleet.

Portsmouth IN. H.) Chronicle A
recent notice of the confederate CommO-
dore Hollins calls to mind the career and
end of one of the unlucky ships :" built
on the Piscataq ua--the Mary Kingsland.
This ship was built in this city by the
late George Raynes, in 1889 she was of
a fine model, and registered about one
hundred tOns-a large ship for those
days After she was launched her load
ing up and fitting out were carried on to-
gether, and one day bale of pressed hay
fell out of the slings when high ia air and
struck a man named Pike, who was at
work on the main hatch coamings. The
man was taken to Mr.. Raynes's house,
and everything possible done for him,
but he soon died. A post-mOrtem ex-
animation was held, and the physician
who made it came near losing his
life from blood-poisonipg, having been
infected through an abrasion of the skin
on his hand. It was quite job to get
crew for the ship when she was ready
for the sea, the local mariners declin-
ing to 90 in her, shaking their heads and
asserting that she would always be an
&c unlucky ship" having caused a mans
death before she ever dropped her keel in
| blue water. But she went to sea, took her
cargo of pressed hay, apples and potatoes
| to a southern port, and went into the
cotton trade. Ill luck followed her, for
after making many successful trips she
at last took fire while lying, cotton
loaded, at New Orleans, and was burned
to the waters edge. The hulk was sold,
into a towboat, and ran for years between
the gulf and New Orleans. On the
breaking out of the rebellion she was
seized by the rebels, and HOllins (who
had deserted from the union navy to
Join the confederacy) altered her ma
chInery to suit her new career, fitted her
with a powerful ram, and built a
convex iron shell all over her, so
that she looked not unlike a mann
moth turtle. Hollins called her
the Manassas, but her popular
name was "Hollins's turtle" It was the
old Mary Kingsland transferred into
this wonderful "turtle," that caused
such a panic among the union men-of-
war blOckading the passes of the Missis-
sippi early in the war, when they slipped
their cables and put to sea like flock OF
gulls on her appearance-but iron clad
warfare was then a new thing. This one
exploit was about all the famous ram
ever accomplished; she never managed
to get up another scare, and finally came
to grief and total destruction when
Farragut's fleet fought its way past the
, forts to New Orleans. Ia flag officer
Faxragut's report to the secretary of the
, navy Of the fight with the forts and the
rebel fleet, on the night of March % anC
; "a, 1852. he tells how his ship, the Hart
, ford, was crowded ashore by attempting
/ to avoid fire-raft that was pushed by the
\ | Manassas, and which the ram did succeed
+ in forcing against the hartford, setting he
: con fire half way up to her tops" Ate
o the union feet had passed the forts anC
destroyed eleven of the rebel vessels, thu
7 Manassas still kept up the fight, ant
{ Farragut ordered the Mississippi, one o
t the big old side-wheelers, to run he
n down. The Mississippi went at her will
, full speed, but when within fifty yard
. of her the ram lodged and ran ashore
{, but though she could escape the hug
3 steamer she could not dodge her missiles
r and two brOadsides of nine-inch solid sho
. at close range riddled her like q sieve
She surrendered, and boats crew sn,
engineer went on board her; but tn
prize crew WAS recalled, the prize set o.
fire, gwen another broadside, and sen
4 down the river a wreck. When sh
y got down abreast OF Commander Porter
( mortar boats she was shot at again by tw
steamers and some of the mortar vessels
but Porter soon found she was on fire an
s sinking, " her pipes twisted and riddle,
S with shot, and her hull well cut up
a Porter " tried to save her as a curiosity
G by getting a hawser around her aud Sc
curing her to the bank, but just afte
e doing so she family exploded. Her onl
Il gun went land emitting flames throug
4. her bow port ike some huge animal, sh
v gave a plunge and disappeared under tn
n water" And thus the formidable raI
Y Manassas, once the peaceful nerchant
g ship Mary Kingslsnd, finished he career