Question of the Week: 3/9-3/15/2020
If you could’ve had the opportunity to serve in a Civil War ironclad, would you have volunteered? Why or why not?
If you could’ve had the opportunity to serve in a Civil War ironclad, would you have volunteered? Why or why not?
No. Claustrophobic. Plus not a particular fan of the technology.
No, still too untried
No. The conditions were brutal in several respects. At least in the blue water navy you got open air and open ocean.
So true, I think I’d liken the regular plank and sails ship navy to a dinghy and the iron clad navy to a coffin. I’d much rather travel in a dinghy than a coffin with a few holes drilled in the side.
No way, severe case of claustrophobia and especially thanatophobia.
Depends on the quality of food
Depends on the ironclad involved.
Nope not a chance, for many reasons …. Close quarters, with little light, bleeding ears after battle or target practice, southern oceans in the summer with no air conditioning, ha ha, the lack of modern weather tracking technology, being stuck on a ship with dozens of smelly men for weeks or months on end, while never even once seeing a person of the opposite sex. The list goes on. I would like to tour one though if that were possible.
Not only no…heck no. Too easy to get trapped below decks if you sank. Foul working conditions. If you were inside a turret when cannonballs hit it, it must have sounded like being inside a trashcan as Godzilla pounded it with a hammer.
If you wanted to have fun, jine the cavalry!
No. I value my hearing too much. And big guys like me don’t get along with 100 degree cabins in a hot, humid southern summer. No light for reading (when you’re off duty, that is), and dozens or smelly men who haven’t bathed lately living in close quarters. If you’re gonna join the Navy you’d better hope for blockade duty. None of that, plus little chance of combat and if you catch a blockade runner you get to divide up the loot.
I agree with other posts. Serving on a brown-water ironclad was tough duty. How about some shout-outs for those brave sailors who volunteered. The Union’s inland fleet was a major reason the North was so successful, especially in the early years, in the Western theater.