Coaling Farragut's fleet after New Orleans
Coaling
Farragut's Fleet at
Baton Rouge.
If “a ship without a captain is like a man without a soul,” as runs an old naval saying, a vessel dependent upon steam power with empty bunkers is as a man deprived of heart-blood, nerves, or muscles; and a few days after New Orleans,
Farragut's vessels faced a serious crisis.
Captain A. T. Mahan has summed it up in the following words: “. . . The maintenance of the coal supply for a large squadron, five hundred miles up a crooked river in a hostile country, was in itself no small anxiety, involving as it did carriage of the coal against the current, the provision of convoys to protect the supply vessels against guerillas, and the employment of pilots, few of whom were to be found, as they naturally favored the enemy, and had gone away.
The river was drawing near the time of lowest water, and the flag-ship herself got aground under very critical circumstances, having had to take out her coal and shot, and had even begun on her guns, two of which were out when she floated off.”
Many of the up-river gunboats could burn wood, and so, at a pinch and for a short time, could the smaller steamers with
Farragut.
But the larger vessels required coal, and at first there was not much of it to be had, although there were some colliers with the fleet and more were dispatched later.
In the two pictures of this page we are shown scenes along the levee in 1862, at
Baton Rouge, and out in the river, a part of the fleet.
The vessel with sails let down to dry is the sloop-of-war
Mississippi; ahead of her and a little inshore, about to drop her anchor, is one of the smaller steamers that composed the third division of the fleet.
Nearby lies a mortar schooner and a vessel laden with coal.
Baton Rouge, where
Farragut had hoisted his flag over the arsenal, was policed by a body of foreigners employed by the municipal authority.
The mayor had declared that the guerilla bands which had annoyed the fleet were beyond his jurisdiction, saying that he was responsible only for order within the city limits.
There was some coal found in the city belonging to private owners, and the lower picture shows the yards of
Messrs. Hill and
Markham, who, through the medium of
Mr. Bryan, the
Mayor, opened negotiations with
Farragut for its sale.
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Levee and river at Baton Rouge in 1862: the vessel with sails let down to dry is the sloop-of-war Mississippi; ahead of her and a little inshore, about to drop her anchor, is one of the smaller steamers that composed the third division of the fleet.
Nearby lies a mortar schooner and a vessel laden with coal. |
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