Description
BOAT DESCRIPTION: Recess wheelBOAT TYPE: GunboatBUILT: 1861 at Mound City, IllinoisFINAL DISPOSITION: Sunk by Confederate mines on the Yazoo River on December 12, 1862OWNERS: U.S.RIVERS: Yazoo RiverOTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 0793; One of seven Civil War gunboats built by James B. Eads. Samuel M. Pook was the designer and these gunboats became known as "Pook gunboats or turtles". Each of these gunboats carried 13 guns: six mounted 32-pounder smoothbores, three 8-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns and four rifled 42-pounders. The Cairo was the first "Pook turtle" to be lost. On December 12, 1862 she was ascending the Yazoo River when she ran into two Confederate mines which were planted in the channel. She sank up to her stacks but all personnel got safely ashore. The wreck was abandoned. In 1961, skin divers discovered the remains of her wreck about 14 miles up the Yazoo River from Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1964 the wreck was raised although in very damaged condition. Many artifacts were able to be recovered and were preservedPHOTO DESCRIPTION: Salvage from the Cairo near Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1965
Image
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