Thursday, 6 July 2017

Shubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Outside the TL, TFSmith has expressed his belief that 'the US has a gunboat there [on Puget Sound] that is the equal of Grappler'. We know what he intends this gunboat to be:
'the only American ship of any significance on the Sound was the Revenue Service sidewheel gunboat USRC Shubrick (2), which had helped evacuate the small Army contingent on San Juan Island and then fled south toward Olympia.'
Why is the equation between Shubrick and Grappler, when the British had two gunboats permanently stationed in Puget Sound? More importantly, why is it so wrong?

HMS Grappler:
  • 1 68pdr (8in) smoothbore muzzle-loader
  • 1 32pdr (6.4in) smoothbore muzzle-loader
  • 2 24pdr (5.82in) smoothbore muzzle-loading howitzer
USRC Shubrick:
  • 1 24pdr (5.82in) Dahlgren muzzle-loading howitzer
  • 1 12pdr (4.62in) Dahlgren smoothbore muzzle-loading howitzer
Even if Grappler landed both her main guns, she would still outgun Shubrick and would also have the advantage of screw propulsion over paddle. So how is Shubrick ‘the equal of Grappler, at least’?

Bonus: The image of Shubrick which TFSmith posted here comes from the USCG page. Right click the image, select properties, and it informs you that the address is:

proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uscg.mil%2Fhistory%2Fimg%2FShubrick1857sm.jpg&hash=a97d7de9ad9a33fef89c85db7affed78

This persumably means that TFSmith has read the page, and knows that Shubrick carries only two howitzers. So why did he ever claim that it was the equal of Grappler?
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3 comments:

  1. 67th Tigers7 July 2017 at 05:11

    One question is what armament was Grappler carrying?

    During the Crimean her 68 and 32 were on pivots (the 68 in the centre, forward of the mainmast and the 32 on the forecastle), whilst the 24's were on trucks (aft of the main mast), one facing port and one starboard. Other armament patterns were in use, and the 2x 24's could be replaced by a single 68. Indeed the heaviest armament for a gunboat during the Crimean was 3x 68 pdrs on pivots.

    In fact, Grappler were carrying 2x 24 pdrs and a 32 pdr. Neither her nor Forward carried their a 68 at this time. See http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/view/1354/1397

    With the mount of the 68 empty the crew would be able to move the other 24 pdr round is they wished giving a throw weight of 80 lbs (56 with only 1x 24) vs Shubrick with 36 lbs.

    Of course Shubrick was stationed in San Francisco bay as the revenue cutter there. What she's doing at Puget Sound is another question...

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    Replies
    1. cerebropetrologist8 July 2017 at 03:22

      Thanks for highlighting the source- the full collection of letters has been published, and may be worth my looking into. In a Trent War scenario, I imagine they'd transfer 8in shell guns from Topaze onto the gunboats. Topaze can manage temporarily, and 8in shells would be pretty devastating against Shubrick.

      From looking through the Daily Colonist, Forward was on the stocks at Scorgie and Bolton’s for hull repairs between 11 January and 31 January. She was out and about in the time period TFSmith is talking about, however, arriving at Esqimault from New Westminster on 5 April and from Fort Rupert on 2 July.

      Delete
  2. 67th Tigers7 July 2017 at 05:56

    Also, in late 1862 the Forward was taken out of service for several months to be reboilered. That's late 1862 though...

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