Battle of Craney Island Weekend

Editor's Note: HRNM summer intern Brian Sagedy composed this article
Over the weekend, the 200^th Anniversary of the Battle of Craney Island was celebrated in Norfolk and Portsmouth. The event took place inside of Fort Norfolk which included officer quarters and Civil War ordinance building. Other events were held at Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The weekend included reenactments in period uniform by both American and British soldiers. The reenactors fired cannons and muskets to demonstrate how the battle would have been fought back in 1813. The big event of the weekend was the Victory Ceremony with a twenty-one gun salute, three minute victory bell peal from Norfolk and Portsmouth churches, wreath laying, and mayoral Victory Proclamation. There were exhibits by the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, National Museum of Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Army Corps of Engineers.

The Hampton Roads Naval Museum exhibit was a fun, exciting, and interactive exhibit that appealed to all ages. It included puzzles with questions on the back that people could find the answer by using a spy scope to find the answer in the exhibit. The exhibit also covered the War of 1812, the Battle of Craney Island, Craney Island today, and what the Army Corps of Engineers plans to do with it today. The exhibit also included a small cannon that people could practice swabbing out. Parent, kids, and the boy scouts all enjoyed the exhibit and the festivies that were on Fort Norfolk on June 21 and 22. The bicentennial of the Battle of Craney Island represented the collaborative efforts of the Portsmouth History Commission and the Norfolk Historical Society. Both cities that were saved by the forces on Craney Island joined together to celebrate the 200^th Anniversary. It was a great weekend with high spirits that celebrated the Battle of Craney Island.

Battle of Craney Island Exhibit

As a final follow up to the 200th commemoration of the Battle of Craney Island, we've posted the three panels that made up the traveling exhibit that museum staff have taken to different regional events.  The panel discuss the participants in the battle, the battle itself, the future of Craney Island, and interesting little pieces of trivia (like why Craney Island is called Craney Island?).Click to enlarge each panel.

We would like to thank the Royal Marine Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Norfolk District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Society for the War of 1812 in Virginia for their assistance with this exhibit.

Battle of Craney Island Watercolor

(click image to enlarge)

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Craney Island is this Saturday.  We invite you to both read the very good articles on the War of 1812 in Hampton Roads by Mark Erickson of the Daily Press and attend this weekend's live festivities.

Shown above is a modern day watercolor by Gerry Embleton, a veteran artist who has illustrated many military history publications.  The Maryland Historical Society commissioned this work for its book The Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake and have given us permission to use it here.

The watercolor is among the most accurate illustrations of the battle ever produced.  It shows the British assault barges attempting to launch an amphibious attack on Craney Island.  This attack was in conjunction with a land assault force headed up by General Syndey Beckwith that attacked Craney Island from the west.

In the forefront is the green  hulled assault barge called Centipede .  The illustration accurately portrays the moment in the battle when the British sailors on the barges realized that the water was too shallow to row with oars.  While under deadly accurate fire from cannons manned by Constellation's sailors and Virginia militia at Carney Island (in the distance, right) and Isle of Wight County riflemen wading out from shore to engage the enemy (in the distance, center), the barges began to withdraw. 

In the forefront of the illustration is a  man standing at the back of the boat with an umbrella in one hand and pointing out orders with his other hand.  This is Royal Navy Captain J.M. Hanchent.  He carried the umbrella into combat because he believed the climate was too hot.  He also brought along his small dog into the battle. Hanchent came from royal stock as he was one of King George III's many illegitimate children.  His status forbade him from ever claiming the throne, but it still allowed him be an officer of high status in the Royal Navy.  Hanchent was one of the few casualties in this engagement.  A piece of shrapnel struck him the thigh.  He later died from blood loss.

Another loss was Centipede.  Unable to get free of the muddy, shallow flats, the militia captured the boat and all of the sailors manning it.  Hanchent's dog was among the prisoners. 

USS Constellation-Ship Model

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Craney Island is this Saturday.  We invite you to both read the very good articles on the War of 1812 in Hampton Roads by Mark Erickson of the Daily Press and attend this weekend's live festivities.

One of the central reasons for the battle was the presence of the frigate USS Constellation.  Shown here is the museum's model of the frigate.  Assembled by Sea Classics, the museum acquired the 1/8" to a foot scale model in 1982.

The warship was one of the "original six" frigates authorized by Congress in 1794.  Originally designed by Joshua Humphreys and Josiah Fox, Colonel David Stodder and Captain Thomas Truxtun altered the plans during her construction in Baltimore at Sterret Shipyard. Launched on September 7, 1797, her final dimensions were 164 feet in length and had a 13-foot draft. The Navy armed with her 18-pounders long guns and 24-pounder cannonades (though this varied based on captain's preference and available weapons). 

The warship made a name for herself under Truxtun's leadership during the Quasi-War With France. During this conflict, she defeated two French frigates, L'Insurgent and La Vengence.  During the War of 1812, Constellation attempted to break out in to the Atlantic Ocean via the Virginia Capes, only to find several British warships in her path.

Captain Charles Stewart took the "Yankee Racehorse," as she was nicknamed, to Hampton Roads and down the Elizabeth River.  The ship anchored below the guns of Fort Norfolk and where she remained for the rest of the war. 

Shown above is a contemporary British map of South Hampton Roads.  It shows where the enemy believed Constellation to be at anchor and their plans to either capture or destroy the American frigate. This map comes courtesy of the Barrie Papers at Duke University's Rubenstein Library.

Unfortunately, while the ship was at anchor, somebody helped themselves to the ship's stores.  When Captain Charles Gordon came to Norfolk take command of the frigate, he found that "the ship is entirely stripped and everything landed with a swept hold." Missing were over 200 pieces of the ship's dinning and cooking ware, along with all the ship's furniture.  He also found the ship in a general state of disrepair.  Thus, even if the British lifted the blockade of Hampton Roads, it is possible that Constellation never could have put to sea.

HRNM intern Brian Sagedy contributed to this article.

USS Gunboat 135-Ship Model

Editor's Note: HRNM summer intern Brian Sagedy composed this article.

Shown here is the museum model of USS Gunboat 135. It is located in the museum’s War of 1812 gallery.   Built by Tom Hershey, he formerly worked for Department of the Navy as a master ship model builder. Specifically, his job was to build models of proposed new Navy ships and also built models as a hobby.

Gunboats were to be the mainstay of the U.S. Navy from 1803 to 1812.  Rather than spend money on frigates and sloops, President Thomas Jefferson believed that gunboats were more economical to build and maintain.  He also believed that it fit his agrarian outlook of the United States.  This outlook was decidedly against a large, permanent fleet. 

Congress authorized the construction of over 180 gunboats beginning in February 1803.  They were built at various points along the Atlantic Coast and Lakes Ontario and Champlain. Naval officers oversaw construction of the gunboats, and Naval agents dispersed funds and supplies. Most gunboats were form 45’ to 70’ in length, 16’ to 18’ in beam, and sloop- or schooner-rigged and were designed more for fighting not for sailing. They relied on sails or oars for propulsion in the water.

Master ship designer Josiah Fox designed 135 and workers in Philadelphia constructed her.  She was a small galley fitted with a sloop rig and two guns. The type of guns varied, between two 24-pounders and/or 32-pounder smooth bore cannons.  The gunboat's hull dimensions were sixty feet on deck, sixteen feet, six inches at the beam, and six feet, six inches in depth. 

Once finished, the Navy stored 135 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, since gunboats deteriorated quickly once put into service. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton in 1809 reported to Congress saying, “the sails, and standing and running rigging, at present belonging to those laid up will, probably, at the end of one year, be so much injured as to be unfit for use.” Naval officers and men aboard them disliked gunboats. They were sluggish in their movements and utterly useless except in perfectly calm waters.

The Navy commissioned the vessel for the upcoming war with Britain and assigned her to join the gunboat flotilla already present in Hampton Roads. During the War of 1812's Battle of Craney Island , the Navy’s sixteen gunboats placed themselves across the Elizabeth River, with 135 anchoring the line on the far right side. 

A Large Refueling Station: Craney Island Fuel Depot

Craney Island as it looked in 1930

This is a 1949 aerial image of the U.S. Naval Fuel Depot at Craney Island.  Still in use today, Craney Island serves as the Navy's primary fuel storage and distribution point for ships docked at Naval Station Norfolk.  At the time of the picture, fuel entered the depot through a combination of interstate pipelines that reached all the way to the oil fields of Texas and frequent arrivals of Virginia railroad tanker cars.  The picture shows the Navy's pre-World War II expansion of the depot.

The Navy acquired the property in 1918 as part of its expansion efforts for World War I (of which the construction of Naval Operating Base Hampton Roads/Naval Station Norfolk was the primary project).  At the time of the property's acquisition, the island looked no different than when the British launched their ill-fated assault on the island's defenses in June 1813.  Upon acquiring the island, the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers "reclaimed" hundreds of acres and expanded the island into a major fuel facility. The Navy constructed twenty tanks, each capable of holding 2,100,000 gallons of fuel (or one fill-up of an Iowa-class battleship).  It also built a pipeline underneath the Elizabeth River to fuel thirsty warships at the base.

 
With the Navy's major draw down in the 1920s and early 1930s, far less fuel was needed and many of the tanks went unused.  Seeing the surplus tanks, the Philadelphia-based Publicker Alcohol Company, nominally a mass producer of whisky, acquired a few of them to store molasses in 1930.   At the time, the company imported millions of gallons of  molasses from Cuba with its fleet of thirteen tankers to manufacture industrial alcohol. 

With the election of the pro-Navy Franklin Roosevelt as President, the Navy began to rebuild its fleet and the demand for fuel skyrocketed.  In 1938, the Navy bought the storage tanks back from Publicker, cleaned them up, and began to use them again as fuel storage. Today Craney Island is the Navy's primary fuel depot for Atlantic-based ships.  The facility stores F-76 military diesel and JP-5 jet fuel.  According to the Navy Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP), the depot can store over 35 million gallons of diesel fuel and 38 millions gallons of JP-5.

USS Constellation's 18-pounder

A few months ago, the museum acquired on loan from its parent command an 18-pounder cannon used on the frigate USS Constellation. The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab restored and conserved the weapon before turning it over to us.

The weapon itself was typical of U.S. Navy ordnance in the early 19th century. It weighs over 4,700 pounds. Of note is that it is not an American made weapon. Inscribed on the cannon are the letters "P WG 1798," which are the marks of the British arms dealer Wiggin and Graham. The "P" means that it was intended for merchant ship duty.

The cannon is an important artifact for the upcoming commemoration of the War of 1812. British warships forced Constellation into Norfolk during the war. The ship's company used the frigate's 18-pounders in assisting the Virginia militia defend Craney Island during a major British assault in 1813.

We are currently having a carriage made and hope to have it on display soon.