US Civil War movie

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

For those of you interested in such things, I can recommend this Utube movie, "Ironclads" It is an extremly good movie concerning the building and subsequently battle between the US Civil War ironclads Merrimac and Monitor in Hampton Roads. Very realistic, and tends to send shivers up the spine when the Confederate ironclad is seen approaching the anchored Union frigates.

Bob

**LINK**

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Will watch that later Bob, looks good.

One film I have seen (and I cant remember which) starts off with some chaps escaping on a confederate ironclad, and the sound of the cannon balls bouncing off the hull was very spine tingling. The scene inside was also very good, as you heard the clanging of said balls on the inside….and it was all dark and gloomy. Must have been frightening stuff.

Ashley

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Ashley

It was a very impressive film, probably because it would not have cost them much to build the authentic replica ironclads, especially the Monitor that just appeared as a gun turret flat on the sea with the decks awash. The other was like a house roof with a tall funnel belching black smoke. The inside shots were excellent as well, especially in the engine-room of Merrimac when they ran aground, and had to increase steam pressure well beyond danger level to get off! The story that they wove into the film was also very good. The film you mention may well have been Sahara, by Clive Cussler where they found the ironclad Texas in the Sahara desert 100 years after it escaped from Richmond . Very far-fetched, but still excellent entertainment.

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Good film with some authentic looking technical detail of the inner workings of both vessels. All that crude machinery by our standards.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Have you just watched it, or did you see it some time ago? We just stumbled on it when browsing Utube, and thought it looked interesting. Found it very gripping.

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Just watched it this afternoon. Hadn't heard of it previously.

Colin

[Ian JopsonParticipant @ianjopson21383]

Ashley, that sounds like 'Sahara', a realy dire take on the Clive Cussler book. A long time since I read it, and can't remember why the ship ended up in the Sahara dessert so far from home.

I used to have the VHS of 'Ironclads' and found it a great film, apart from the strange introduction of a female spy and subsequent romantic interest. The scenes of building and battle made up for it.

 

Beaten to it by Bob Wilson. Posted as I typed.

Edited By Ian Jopson on 03/09/2017 19:23:09

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

The Texas was supposed to have sailed up an African river with the kidnapped Abraham Lincoln aboard, and then the river dried up and disappeared in the intervening 100 years – very far fetched, but quite entertaining. Don't know why I never heard of the Ironclads movie though. I did build one once, the Tuscaloosa, to illustrate an article where it attacked the American clipper Snowsquall, but after I built it, I found it was a different Tuscaloosa, so I never put it in sea or case, and it is still lying around. I climbed aboard the last mortal remains of the Snowsqulal in Port Stanley, Falklands, in 1982! Here is my Tuscaloosa model. It took all of an hour to build!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 03/09/2017 21:43:38

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

And here is the Snowsquall in 1982.. Since then, the Americans have taken the remains back to the US, and re-assembled them on shore

Bob

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