The ship was built in 1862 as the fast merchantman Japan. She had a round stern, iron frame, fiddle-bow figurehead, short, thick funnel and full poop. Being an iron hull, she was clearly unsuited to long cruises without drydocking during a period when antifouling under-body coatings were yet unknown. Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch, a key Confederate procurement agent overseas, would have nothing to do with iron bottoms, but Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury settled for Japan because wood (which could be coppered) was being superseded in Great Britain by the new metal; consequently wooden newbuilding contracts were not easy to buy up in British shipyards.
Attributes | Values |
---|---|
rdf:type | |
rdfs:label |
|
rdfs:comment |
|
dcterms:subject | |
dbkwik:military/pr...iPageUsesTemplate |
|
Ship image |
|
module |
|
abstract |
|