USS Cairo Boilers
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
USS Cairo Boilers
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The boilers on the Civil War ironclad gunboat the USS Cairo.
The only remaining ironclad of its type left in existence, she is the sole survivor of a fleet of river gunboats built by the Union during the Civil War to control the lower Mississippi River. The Cairo sunk in the Yazoo River while clearing mines on December 12, 1862, and was buried in mud for nearly 100 years. Discovered in 1956, and raised in 1964, along with all her guns, ammunition, ship store, and personal items left behind by her crew.
The USS Cairo along with her six sister boats dominated the Mississippi River. These ironclad vessels were 175 feet long, with steam-driven engines, armor plating, and 13 canons and they could do a top speed of 9 miles per hours.
A steam driven propulsion system powered these ironclad warships, just like the riverboats of the mid-1800s. Cairo’s engines and boilers are among the oldest and best surviving examples of this type of machinery. A long steam drum connected to the top of 5 boilers collected steam and delivered it to the engines. Hot gasses from a fire flowed through tubes running the length of each boiler turning the water inside the boilers to steam. The steam drove two large pistons, one on either side of the engine compartment. The Pistons pushed two oscillating arms that turned the paddlewheel.
It was necessary to keep the fires burning and steam pressure built up even when at anchor since a gunboat without steam could not move. A miserable job, no matter what time of year the lower level of the boat was at least 100 degrees. Working in shifts at this endless job, 4 Coal Heaver’s piled coal from storage bunkers into the Fire Room while 12 Firemen fed the Firebox of each boiler. It took one ton of coal an hour to make enough steam to power the Cairo’s engines when the boat was underway!
USS Cairo is listed as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. She is located at the USS Cairo Museum inside the Vicksburg National Mili
Uploaded
April 25th, 2019
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