The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-27
THE OLD KEARSARGE.
P3obabIe Withdrawal of This Famous Ship
The Fight with the Alabama.

Probable Withdrawal of This Famous Ship
The Fight with the Alabama.
There is no vessel in the United States Navy
whose history Is of greater interest than that OF
the Kearsarge, now undergoing examination by
board of survey at Portsmouth yard. She is
open aud battered, and will probably be con-
demned, as further repairs are almost imprac-
ticable. This necessity brings to mind the ia
nous battle between herself and the Alabama,
which was the GROWING naval exploit of the re-
bellion.
The Kearsarge was one of the first gunboats
built by the government at the commencement
of the civil war. She a steamer of /, OBJ
tons burden, bark-rigeed, with two engines of
4OO-horse power each. She was named
after Kearsarge mountain, in New
Hampshire Her battery consisted of
seven guns-two eleven-inch Dahlgrens four
thirty two FOUNDERS, and one light, rifed TWEEN
eight FOUNDER. Much was said at the time of
her victory by rebel sympathizers about the in
eanality of size and armament between the two
vessels, the Kearsarge being called Yankee
ironclad." The truth is she had one less gun
than the Alabama, and there only a spaee OF
about forty-seven feet in length by six feet in
depth amidships, which was covered by chain
armor This had been put on to protect that
section of the vessel when its bunkers should be
empty of COAL aud had been done by the hands
of the Kearsarge and not in the building. This
plating of chains was covered by one-nch deal
boards as finish. That this covering played a
very unmportant part in the defense of the YES
sci is shown by the fact that it was but
twice struck during the engagement, once
breaking but single link of chain and
the other time destroying a space of the deal
covering and that five feet above the water line.
Therefore. it is safe to say if the Kearsarge had
boon entirely without iron protection. the result
would have been the same. She was SO little
damaged she could have engaged another enemy
or have Immediately proceeded to sea.
The Alabama, or the $780," she was called
to show how many sympathetic Englishmen bad
contributed to her construction was bark
rugged wooden propeller of rather more than
1000 tons register. She was regarded AS crack
ship and was held up as a model of her class.
Captain Semmes took command of her in 1862.
and fireman on board is authority for the re-
port of his speech to MS men when starting upon
their piratical cruise. He said: eve are going
to burn, sink and destroy the commerce of the
United States; your prze-money will be divided
proportionately according to each mans rank "
The launch was celebrated by English poet:
Beautiful steamship, strong swift
Alabama!
England's Northumberland gift,
Gift TO the people who fight to be free,
For altar, for home and for liberty
Alabama!
| During the action off Cherbourg both vessels
were stcamng at the rate of seven miles an hour
and swinging round each other in circles, so as
| to bring their broadsdes to bear. One shot OF
| the Kearsarge's first broadside brought the enc
mys ensign to the deck. The firing of the rebels
was wlld and rapid, and that or the kearsarge
| deliberate and regular. The Alabama's decks
| were covered with blood one gun, the
| after pivot, having its gunners renewed three
| times. The carnage so great round this
gun that the blood and fragments of limbs had
| to be removed before the piece could be worked.
| Only three men on boar5 the Kearsarge were in
| Jured, and but one, the brave Gowan, died
After the vessels had described seven circles
they were within quarter of a mile of each
other, and the Alabama was sunk. Captain
| Semmes and his officers were picked up and car
| ried off by his escort, the English yacht Deer
| hound while the humane Wlnslow was rescuing
| his struggling and drowning foes. Captain
| Winslow made commodore for his bra cry.
though eensuEed for letting his prize slip so cas-
| lily through his fingers.