| What makes it historical? |
Launched from Mound City, Illinois in 1862, the Cairo was one of seven armored gunboats designed to patrol the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the Civil War. It had 11 heavy cannons that took 6 crew members to maneuver at once and could take out forts on the riverbanks! It was originally only supposed to participate in the Battles of Plum Point and Memphis, but Lt. Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr. saw more potential for the gunboat!
In December of 1862, he led the Cairo up the Yazoo River to clear Confederate mines and batteries, but the boat ended up blasted by two underwater mines, ten called torpedoes! It was the first armored vessel to be sunk by a torpedo in the history of warfare, but amazingly, no one died!
The Cairo rested in the mud of the Yazoo River for nearly a century until historian, Edwin C. Bearss, started an investigation in 1956 to find the gunboat’s remains. It took three years to identify it and another five before any attempts could be made to pull it up. It was impossible to haul the whole ship up at once, so it had to be cut in three, transported to the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagula, reassembled, cleaned, and eventually, turned over to the National Park Service to become a museum! |
