Pook's Turtles

Pook's Turtles. Did you Know?. An ironclad was a wooden warship of the 19-century having iron or steel armor plating. The Confederate's ironclad ,"Monitor" (formerly Merrimack"), and the Union's ironclad, "Virginia" fought off the coast of Virginia in March of 1862. However, these were not the first ironclads that fought in the Civil War. , Between August 1861 and January 1862, a series of seven gunboats were designed by Samuel Pook and built by James Eads at a cost of more than $100,000 each. Four gunboats were built at the Carondelet Marine Ways just south of St. Louis; the other three were built at Mound City, IL. The gunboats were named after cities along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, but some observers referred to them as Pook's Turtles because of their squat, armored appearance. , The gunboats looked so similar that colored bands were painted on their smokestacks to differentiate each boat. The ironclads were 175 feet long and 50 feet wide. Weighing more than 500 tons, they could only travel about 7 to 10 miles per hour but, thanks to their low and broad shape they could navigate water as little as seven feet deep. Each boat carried thirteen large cannons - more firepower than all four forts in Cape Girardeau combined. , The four boats built at Carondelet headed downstream, passing Cape Girardeau, in November 1861. In early February 1862, the gunboats captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River: the first major Union victory of the Civil War. Next, the boats helped capture Island #10 at New Madrid, MO in April 1862. , After the Civil War, James Eads, became even more well known as the builder of namesake bridge in St. Louis, which is still in use today.