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Michael Comer
one of the moderator guys -
Re: Hunley Crewmen Search Leads to Old World
I guess I find it surprising that this researcher was "lured in" by the thought that the crew were all American, and "shocked" to find out that up to half were European. Looks again like some one researching Naval/Maritime subjects with no real basic grasp of the Naval/Maritime culture of the times. In the US Navy at the time, 47% of Enlisted Sailors were Irish Imagrents (I think the Army had 9%). You literaly could not sling a dead cat without hitting an Irishman. Toss into the mix the English, Scotts, Germans, French and on and on, and you have a pretty "diverse" Navy. A Classic example is Monitor. She had an Enlisted Crew of 40. Of that, only 8 were native born Americans.
At that time, most professional Sailors were just that. during their lives they sailed under many flags. They routinely bounced back and forth between Naval and Merchant service. When ever they needed to work, they would sign on to what ever ship was fitting out, that seemed to be offering the best chances for good pay, good food, good treatment and finially, going where they wanted to go.
During the ACW, changing sides was not uncommon. For example, Alabama started life with a crew that was all English. Along the way, she picked up a few french and germans. There were several Sailors from captured Northern ships that signed on after they were captured.
In Charleston and other Southern ports, "Confederate" Sailors (both Naval and Civilian) routinely deserted and signed on with the Federal Navy. Du Pont and later Dahlgren were able to fill out the crews of several ships and get them operational with these men. Both sides being chronically short of man ower (the Southern Blockading Squadron maintained a shortage of about 1,400 men through out the war), If they were skiled Sailors and willing to sign on, take them. The official policy of the Navy was that Blacks could only be enlisted at the rate of "Boy". Eventually this was increased to "Landsman". This was so that no former slave was put in a position of authority over a white Sailor. However, many of these former slaves had needed skills like river pilot, blacksmith, carpenter and such, skills that a Navy runs on. The issue was that these skills automatically rated a Petty Officer Rating. (POs in the Navy then were not the same as NCOs in teh Army. It was a pay grade with temporary authority over other Sailors to do a specific job). The Navy got around this prohibition by declaring many former slaves as "West Indian" or "Jamaican". Appearently, this was OK with the white crews of the day.
There were also Federal Sailors who changed sides. Given a choice between Andersonville and service in the "gray" fleet seems like an easy pick for me.
This does not mean that there were not many "Traditionally" patriotic Sailors in both Navies. But in the ranks of the Enlisted Professional Sailor, Countries and States had long since lost any hold on them.
The book "Union Jacks" has much of detailed information. Although it also is written by someone who isn't all that familure with Naval culture. He mentions things that to him seem like some big mutinious deal, but sound exactly like things that were going on when I first enlisted at the end of the Viet Nam War. But his stats are good.
Steve Hesson
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