CIVIL WAR PADDLE WARSHIPS.

[Walter Snowdon]

A question aimed more for our US members. I have always been fascinated by merchant ships pressed into service as warships and paddlers in this category feetured heavily in th American Civil War. I have been searching for information for a long time as to whether these vessels were ever painted a uniform colour or camouflage. Anyone throw any light on this subject?  Regards Walter.

[harve202]

Unfortunately, all photographs were black and white, so it IS hard to tell. So far as the South no repainting was done IMHO. I have access to a local historian and will raise your question with him in our next conversation. My interest has been in the ALICE a local blockade runner finding contraband in and around the Albemarle Sound in NE NC and delivering it to Confederacy upriver at Halifax on the Roanoke river. She was captained by Lafayette Thrower who also had been employed in laying mines in the Roanoke which effectively kept Union gunboats below Hamilton and Fort Branch.  If any correspondent can assist in any info abt. ALICE it sure would be welcomed.

[harve202]

Had a chance to look over photographs in Portraits of the Riverboats by Wm. C. Davis, Thunder Bay Press, 2001, of CW vessels, it appears that both sides left them as they were found and did not go to repainting trouble. If bulwarks were added they seem to have been left unpainted. Several boats were taken down to deckline and then topsides rebuilt according to needs. They appear unpainted. Can anyone shed different light on this? (pun intended)

[Swordfish]

Research I've done on a former New York City ferryboat, converted hastily to become the gunboat USS Commodore Barney, causes me to agree with the comments of Harve202. At the start of the American Civil War, the Union Navy consisted of only 41 assorted vessels, so a concerted, rush  effort was made to purchase a widely assorted group of civilian craft for blockade and river patrol duty. In many cases conversion work was done in a matter of weeks with no time for such such finishing touches as paint.  
   
In correspondence, the captain of one former ferry notes that another ferry remained white, the color it was painted when in civilian ferry service. It would appear that ship's carpenters and crew members were frequently called upon to make minor structural changes to many vessels while they were on station. Thus, it would not be illogical that crew members used any available or captured paint on their craft. What does appear to be clear, is that there was no standard color scheme on the relatively few that were painted. Weathered wood, soot and rust dominated.  
 
A likely exception to this among Union Navy vessels might have been the gunboats that were built during the war. They had a better chance of being painted; almost always with gray of varying shades, depending more upon availability than choice.
   
I'm not familiar enough with the Confederate naval forces to be sure, but due to the even greater scarcity of materials, I'd guess that the same situation prevailed for the South. The exception would have been the sleek, foreign built blockade runners which were usually painted in shades of gray and black as camouflage.

[harve202]

Just a note of Appreciation to be allowed into this discussion. I've had opportunity to confer with several local historians and they all agree as to above generalization as to Confederate vessels.  Cash flow to pay Union expenses created problems perhaps in part brought on by sunk vessels in process of carrying bullion to ease bank drains, etc. But that's another discussion, isn't it?  BW to all, a friend in NC. :idea:

[Walter Snowdon]

Thanks for your input Harve it is very useful. I have been a wargamer for over 40years and can find the colours of soldiers bootlaces because there is so much written data, but try and find colours of ships or their equipment and you are in a lonely neglected world!. Thanks to all our American members who have contributed to this and other Civil war threads over the past year or so, it has all been very useful. Regards to all, Walter.