The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-02-28
YiIOLLINS'S TURTLE.
How ~ Peaceful Merchant Snip was Made
10 do Duts an IA TerriHer 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 slips" built
OF the Piscataqua--the Mary Kingsland.
This ship was built in this city by the
late George Raynes, in 1889 she was o
a fine molel, and registered about one
hundred tons-a large ship for those
days After she wa launched her load.
ing up and fitting out were carried on TO.
getlier, and one day a bale of pressed hay
fell out of the sings when high IN air and
struck a man named Pike, who was at
work on The main hatch coaming4. The
man was taken to Mr.. Raynes's house,
and everything possible done ior. him,
but he soon died. A post-mortem ex.
animation was held, and the physician
who made it came near losing his
lite from blood-poisoniDg, having been
infected through an abrasion of the skin
on his hand. Ii was quite a job to get =
crew for the ship when she was ready
for the sea, the local mariners declin,
ing to go in her, shaking their heads and
asserting that she would always be an
%unlucky ship" having caused a mans
death before she everdroppea her keel in
blue water. But she went to sea, took her
cargo of pressed hay, apples and potatoes
to Il 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,
fitted with powerful engines, and made
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
chlnery to suit her new career, fitted her
with II powerful ram, and built II
convex iron shell all over her, so
she looked not unlike a NAM
moth turtle. Hollins called her
the Manassas, but her popular
name wa" Hollins's turtle" It was the
old Mary Kingsland, transferred into
this wonderful "turtle," that caused
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 a flock of
gulls on her appearance-but iron.clad
warfare was then a new thing. This one
was about all the famous IA
ever accomplished she never managed
get up another scare, and finally came
grief and total destruction when
fleet fought its way past the
forts to New Orleans. In flag officer
Farragut's report to the secretary of the
navy of the fight with the forts and the
rebel fleet, on the night of March % and
II, 1862, he tells how his ship, the Hart
ford, was crowded ashore by attempting
to avoid a fire.rait that was pushed by the
Manassas, and which the ram did succeed
in forcing against the hartford, setting her
q on fire half way up to her tops" After
the union fleet had passed the forts and
destroyed eleven of the rebel vessels, the
Manassas still kept up the fight, and
ordered the Mississippi, one of
the big old side-wheelers, to run her
down. The Mississippi went at her with
full speed, but when within fifty yards
Of her the ram lodged and ran ashore,
but though she could escape the huge
she could not dodge her missiles,
md two broadsides of nine-inch solid shot
close range riddled her like a sieve.
She surrendered, and a boats crew and
engineer went on board her but the
,rize crew was recalled, the prizs set on
ire, gwen another brOadside, and sent
own the river a wreck. When she
ot down abreast of Commander Porter's
MORTAR boats she was shot at again by two
learners and some of the mortar vessels
ut Porter o found she was on fire and
mixing, her pipes twisted and riddled
18th shot, and her null well cut up"
,orter "tried to save her as r curiosity,
getting a hawser around her and Sc
iring her to the bank, but just after
ping 10 she family exploded. Her only
I'm went ofI,and emitting flames through
er bow port like some huge animal, she
ave a plunge and disappeared under the
And thus the formidable ram
ianassas, once the peaceful merchant.
hip Mary Kiugsland, finished he career.