CSS Gaines

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CSS Gaines
Career Confederate Navy Jack
Name: CSS Gaines
Laid down: 1861
Launched: 1862
Commissioned: 1862
Decommissioned: August 5, 1864
Fate: Destroyed to prevent capture
General characteristics
Displacement: 863 tons
Length: 202 ft (62 m)
Beam: 38 ft (12 m)
Draft: 6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 10 knots
Complement: 130 officers and men
Armament: 1 8" rifled cannon, 5 32-pounder cannons

CSS Gaines was hastily constructed by the Confederates at Mobile, Alabama during 1861-62, from unseasoned wood which was partially covered with 2-inch iron plating. Gaines resembled CSS Morgan except that she had high pressure boilers. Operating in the waters of Mobile Bay, under the command of Lieutenant John W. Bennett, CSN, she fought gallantly during the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864 until finally run aground near Fort Morgan and destroyed by her own officers to avoid surrender to the Union forces.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.