City-class ironclad
The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from the keel up in Carondelet, Missouri shipyards owned by James Buchanan Eads. Eads was a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union.
USS Baron DeKalb in 1862 | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | City class |
| Builders | James B. Eads, St. Louis, Missouri |
| Operators |
|
| Cost | $191,000, approximate average |
| Lost | 2 |
| Retired | 5 |
| Preserved | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Gunboat |
| Displacement | 512 tons |
| Length | 175 ft (53 m) |
| Beam | 51 ft 2 in (15.60 m) |
| Draft | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
| Installed power | two non-condensing reciprocating steam engines |
| Propulsion | 22 ft (6.7 m) diameter paddle wheel |
| Speed | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement | 251 |
| Armament | 3 × 8 in (203 mm), 4 × 43-pounder (19 kg), 6 × 32-pounder (14.5 kg) (January 1862) |
| Armor |
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The City-class gunboats were the United States' first ironclad warships.
The gunboats produced by Eads formed the core of the United States Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, which later was transferred to the US Navy and became the Mississippi River Squadron. Eads gunboats took part in almost every significant action on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries from their first offensive use at the Battle of Fort Henry until the end of the war.