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32: ORIGINATOR OF THE IRONCLAD. According to the New Orleans Picayune, the man who orig- inated the idea of the ironclad was Capt. J. J. Peetz of Algiers, who held the rank of first lieutenant in Grivot's artillery during the civil war. Capt. Peetz drew the plans and superintended the construction of the iron armor of the Manassas, the ram which played such havoc with the federal war vessels in the lower Mississippi. She was a twin-screw propeller towboat called the Enoch Train and was originally brought out from Boston by the firm of Hyde & Mackie. The confederate government took pos- session of her and began reconstructing her for war purposes. Said. Capt.) Peetz: "After Lincoln's election it was generally accepted that there would be war, and having had experience in seafaring and the construction of vessels in the Crimean war on board the English line-of:battle-ship Orion, of ninety-nine guns, I began the study of a vessel that would be effective and dangerous to an enemy. While stationed on this English battleship, blockading Cronstadt on the Baltic, the small Russian gunboats frequently sallied out, and, having guns of longer range, could lie where our guns could not reach them, and place shots clear through our wooden ves- sels. -I often 'wondered if this could not be prevented if some- thing was there to make the balls glance off, or it our vessel set lower in the water with a covered, inclined top, instead of having a high freeboard or height out of the water. ; "The Crimean war came to an end. I gave up the study until the approach of the war of the states. I was in Mobile at the time, and after much thought I made a model and tried to awaken interest in it among the people of that city, but William L. Yancy, the great secessionist, came to Mobile and made a number of speeches, claiming that we did not need any ships. He said that cotton was king, and that England would have to have cotton and would open our ports to get it. His views were sadly mistaken, as it afterward proved. After a few months, when the need of ships was apparent, the building of two of them was started in Mobile. They were the Morgan and the Gaines, both planned on the old style. I submitted my model for inspection,: but getting no encotiragement, came over to Algiers. I was personally ac- quainted with John Hughes, the dry dock owner, and showed him my model. He immediately became interested in it, and see- ing its utility soon got the confederate government to adopt it as the plan for the ram Manassas. The boat turned into the ram was reconstructed by putting on an extra bow made solid and extending out a few feet, with an iron prow for ramming pur- poses. A shield, or roof, was put over the deck in the shape of a turtle back. The frames were 8 in. thick, molding way; that is, solid against each other crossways from forward to aft, and the planking on top of this was 4 in. thick. Outside of this she was covered with a single layer of flat street car iron, such as was used at that time to run the street cars on, not rails such as are used now. On the water line all around she had a solid sponson 4 ft. thick to protect her from being rammed. She carried two 68-pounders, one over the stem and the other over the stern-post. She had a projecting stem below the waterline, extending out 2 ft., for the purpose of ramming. When the ram was all ready, Capt. Alexander Frazer Warley, a graduate of Annapolis, was placed in command, and I was taken on board as quartermaster. "We left the city for Fort Jackson and remained there eight days, and then went down the river to within a few miles of the enemy's fleet, then lying in southwest pass. Being very low in the water, with a short smokestack, we were hidden from their view by the high marsh grass, but by raising our Jacob's ladder we could plainly observe their movements. We lay there several days, waiting for a dark night so as to take them by surprise. We left our moorings one night between 11 and 12 o'clock and started toward them, going at half speed. Being low-pressure, the boat made no noise and we came to within 30 or 40 ft. of the first vessel of the enemy's ships. I was at the wheel and orders were - given to port the helm, which I immediately complied with, thus ° bringing us in line to ram the vessel ahead. We struck her a glancing blow on the port bow and raked a portion of her sheet metal off, but did not injure her enough to sink her, as was in- tended. We backed out to prepare again, but the Yankee fleet began firing their guns and sending up signal rockets. They at once slipped their anchor chains, leaving the anchors behind, and made for the sea. Our commander gave orders to go ahead full speed, and keeping the helm a-port, and steering by the com- pass, I noticed that we were going at right angles across the river. I saw a ship on the starboard bow, the captain being on the port side. I called his attention to it, but we missed this vessel by 8 or to ft. We cruised about the river all night, but met no more ships. When daylight came we saw the Yankee fleet getting out over the bar into the gulf. Looking up stream above us we noticed that one of their vessels had not succeeded in getting out, and that we were between her and safety. We captured her and brought her up to the city and anchored her opposite the third district _ ferty landing on the Algiers side. 5 _ "T was not on the Manassas on her succeeding trips, but would like to say a word as to what became of her. During the Spanish-American war a northern paper stated that Admiral Dewey, then a captain, had sunk her during the fight at the forts but: this was an error. I was in this fight, stationed on board the flagship Louisiana, 'Commodore Mitchell and Capt. McIntyre, com- m ding. This vessel was manned by a company of the Crescent artillery 'and a part of a company of Grivot's artillery, of which I "was first lieutenant. The Louisiana was anchored in the stream ht 300 yds. above Fort St. Philip, and the Manassas was tied MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. [July 9, iti e occupied the night of the battle. 'Two days be- foe tha tect Cee Johnson came aboard in a boat with dis- patches for Commodore Mitchell. Lieut. Johnson told us that from the information he had gathered, the federals were going to attack us within two days. Capt. McIntyre wanted to antici- pate them, and remarked to Commodore Mitchell: Commodore, let us go down and fight the Yankees. The Commodore's answer was a short 'No. Capt. McIntyre had both arms shot.off and one leg broken in the fight, and was taken off the ship into Fort St. Philip the morning after the battle. The engagement began at z ~ o'clock at night, and lasted until daylight, but the enemy's ships had passed through our line. We had the two best ships left, the Louisiana, sixteen guns, and the McCray, ten guns, and I sug- gested to Commodore Mitchell that we run them to Mobile. I said that I would pilot them, as I knew the route, either by day or night, in case we had to run through the blockading fleet. I got the same answer that Capt. McIntyre did two days before, a short 'No.' "Tf this brave captain had been in charge of the fleet I think we would have succeeded in preventing the Yankee fleet from getting through our lines. One federal ship, the Winona, commanded by Capt. Schley, now admiral, was sunk by the confederate gunboat Stonewall Jackson, but our ships were but little damaged. Lhey were all sunk or set fire to by their own crews during and after the fight, some never having left their moorings. This was the case with the Manassas. Orders were given to abandon and blow up our vessel, the Louisiana, which we did, and -along with the officers and crews of the other vessels, we started on a long march of eighty-five miles to the city, on the right bank of the river. I met Capt. Warley of the Manassas on the way, and marching together, I asked him what execution he had done dur- ing the fight. He replied that he had done nothing, but had the water supply pipe cut and let her sink at her mooring. Thus in- gloriously ended the famous ram Manassas." PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS NOTES. Philadelphia, July 8--The Asbestos Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia will erect a new plant at Port Kennedy, Montgomery county, Pa., consisting of a three-story main building, 67x265 ft.; boiler house, 20x30 ft.; dryer house, 40x80 ft.; four-story elevator building, 30x60 ft. The plant is to have modern equipment throughout. One of the products of the company is asbestos pipe and boiler coverings and packings, and these are extensively used on vessels as well as in ship yards. The cost of the new buildings wil aggregate $250,000 and it is expected they will be completed this year. _ The demand for Tubal manganese bronze, manufactured by Paul S. Reeves & Son of Philadelphia, has increased wonder= fully of late and the metal is being more widely used in ship yards than ever before. Tubal manganese bronze is especially adapted for propellers, piston rods and all castings requiring high ultimates. The firm supplies the metal in ingots or castings up to 20,000 lbs. in weight. The expanded metal lockers made by Merritt & Co., Ridge avenue, Philadelphia, are not made of wire or steel rods, as some persons imagine, but are made of sheet steel cut and opened into diamond-shaped meshes having no joints or connections. The lockers are easily cleaned on shipboard and possess unusual strength. They have been put in almost all the vessels recently built on the Delaware. Thomas €. Warley & Co., manufacturers of Warley's boiler cleansing compounds, have removed from South Water to 221 South Front street. The company has taken a larger building, has installed new appliances and made other improvements, there- by permitting it to almost double its manufacturing capacity. The Warley boiler compound is having a steadily increasing sale and ° is largely used in marine circles. Sand Sucker for Sale. For Sale--Sand sucker of about 175 tons capacity. Equipped with 8-inch pump. In first-class condition, ready for business. Price right. Address 35 Chene St , Detroit, Mich. July 23 "Seaboard Steel Castings" A Guarantee of Quality. Open Hearth Steel Castings of the. Highest Grade for Locomotive, General Machinery and Shipbuild- ing Work. Subject to U. S. Government, Lloyds, Railroad and | Other Highest Becuisemente, oe Seaboard Steel Casting Co., éast Of us, on the Fort Jackson side, and this was Chester, Pa. Rb eritni lta A ommended