Existing comment:
[Charles B Sedgwick, House Chairman of Naval Affairs]:
"There is no difficulty whatever in obtaining all the materials for the construction of these vessels save the iron for their protection. These plates are to be very large, of the best quality of hammered iron, and so bent as to fit the model of a vessel. I repeat what I have said, that unless the Department if at liberty to procure the iron wherever it may be found, the vessels cannot be constructed, and you cannot find men in the country who... will undertake to clothe a single one of these gunboats with such an armor."
-- Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, December 10 [???], 1861, p 148 |