Daniel Ammen, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.2, The Atlantic Coast
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[113] the turret, and a third over the engine-room, were covered with iron plates and calked on going to sea, and on going into action were put on, leaving no egress from below except through the turret. For ventilation, six holes of 8 inches diameter were cut through the deck forward and four aft, and ventilating pipes 4 feet high were fitted with gaskets to keep out the water; beneath were bull's-eyes that could be screwed up below to exclude the water when the pipes were taken off.

Forward of the hull proper, in the ‘overhang,’ was what was known as the ‘anchor-well,’ a cylinder into which a four-armed anchor could be hove up by means of a windlass in a small apartment called the ‘windlass-room’ in the bow, the chain passing in through a hawsehole less than two feet above the ordinary water level. The anchor-well had a removable plate over it, as also had what was known as a ‘propeller-well,’ some fifteen feet from the stern. The turret was nearly, if not quite, on the centre of the vessel, and the smoke-stack, made of eight 1-inch plates to a height of 6 feet above the deck, and then of the usual height with the ordinary thickness of iron, was 12 feet farther aft. The deck itself was of heavy wood and covered with two 1/2-inch plates of iron. When ready for sea and properly trimmed, the bow would usually be 2 1/2 feet, and the stern a foot less above the water level. With a perfectly clean bottom, a speed somewhat in excess of seven knots was attainable. Lying in the warm salt water of Southern ports soon caused the bottom to foul in the most extraordinary manner, and reduced the attainable speed to less than four knots.

The armament intended was two Xv-inch guns, but owing to inability to obtain them in time, one of that calibre was given and one Xi-inch gun, fitted with a ‘yoke,’ as before