Apologies for the silence over the past few weeks. Needless to say, I'm very grateful for everybody who spoke out in my support. I'm also extremely thankful to Ian for acknowledging that the original decision to ban me was incorrect and reinstating me.
Unfortunately, right around the same time, a pretty sizeable project landed on my desk at work. Although it's not keeping me as busy as it was, I might be pressed for time to contribute to this site over the next month or so. However, even if I can't spare the time for the really sizeable projects, there are some smaller ones that I should be able to write up and post.
As both a thank you for the support, and an apology for the lack of communication, I thought I'd post some of my detailed research for others to use. I've talked previously about my lists of ship positions, so here they are:
Royal Navy ship positions as at 5 January 1862
Union Navy ship positions as at 26 January 1862
The dates may seem arbitrary, but they're intended to be a little before the Cabinet confirmation of the decision to go to war (in the case of the Royal Navy) and the news arriving in America (in the case of the Union). Where it's possible to do so, I've extended the timeframe to allow for the delay in notifying some of the more distant stations.
As you can tell, these have focused on ship positions rather than the minutiae of armament and captains. They're very much a work in progress, but there's enough information present in them already to make them useful. Perhaps most importantly, it's almost all based on the kind of evidence that TFSmith dismisses as worthless. I hope you find it as useful as I have.
This doesn't include the Armoured Frigates. On 5th January:
ReplyDeleteWarrior was off Spithead taking on her powder stores for American service, having come out of No. 1 dock at Portsmouth for bottom scraping and application of three layers of anti-fouling paint.
Black Prince was in No.1 dock at Portsmouth having the same operation as Warrior had.
Defence came out of No. 3 dock at Chatham that day having been cased. She then moves down the Medway to fit out for American service.
Resistance is just outside No. 3 dock waiting to go in. She is due out (cased) on 18th February.
The Royal Oak etc. are still having the moulds for the iron plates made etc.
Ah, so you did. My first keyword search failed to pick it up.
DeletePS. It's fantastic work.
ReplyDelete