Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

We read with interest the exchange of ideas [see JMH 70 (July 2006): 916–18] concerning the fate of the USS Tecumseh during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Prof. Raimondo Luraghi's hypothesis that a hit below the waterline disabled the monitor's steering and sent her on a fatal trip into the torpedo field is intriguing but founded on only the most nebulous of evidence—two holes in the Tecumseh's hull which may have been caused by cannon fire. However, the two 7-inch Brooke rifles that Luraghi suggests fired the fatal shots were not mounted in the Water Battery as he states, but rather in the fort's barbette battery—about twenty-five to thirty feet above sea level. A shot fired at the monitor from that height would have virtually no chance of striking a penetrating blow below the waterline The shot, if it did not ricochet upon striking the water, would lose velocity rapidly due to water resistance before it struck the iron hull. This hit would also strike at an angle in the curve of the hull, thus delivering a glancing blow rather than a solid hit and would have been very unlikely to penetrate. The 1967 underwater archeological report on the Tecumseh states that there were two "small holes" in this area of the hull, not large holes. Thus, there is a reasonable level of doubt as to whether these holes are even battle damage.

Luraghi's hypothesis is further weakened by the complete lack of any evidence that the monitor lost steering. The Tecumseh's pilot, John Collins, survived the sinking but made no statement about losing steering. Steering the Tecumseh when she turned into the minefield, Collins would have known immediately if the ship was not answering the helm. However, a quote from Collins does appear to settle the question. In the 4 October 1864 issue of the New York Commercial Advertiser he is quoted warning Craven that he was too near the torpedoes. Craven raised his arm, pointed at the Tennessee and said "damn the torpedoes, I am after that fellow; take me alongside." (Letter from Thornton Jenkins, Naval Microfilm, Area 6, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.)

At 142 years distance no one can absolutely say that the loss of the Tecumseh occurred as Jack Friend proposes. However, his use of supporting documentation dating from the period as well as incorporation of modern studies of the wreck of this monitor make a much more convincing case as to how she came to meet her fate.