USS Cairo 1862
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | USS Cairo | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1862 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | gunboat, military museum | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | United States | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | United States Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 32.3758, -90.8667 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
USS Cairo is the lead ship of the City-class casemate ironclads built at the beginning of the American Civil War to serve as river gunboats.
Cairo is named for Cairo, Illinois. In June 1862, she captured the Confederate garrison of Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, enabling Union forces to occupy Memphis. As part of the Yazoo Pass Expedition, she was sunk on 12 December 1862, while clearing mines for the attack on Haines Bluff. Cairo was the first ship ever to be sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand.
The remains of Cairo can be viewed at Vicksburg National Military Park with a museum of its weapons and naval stores.
Diving & visiting
Over the years, the gunboat was forgotten and slowly covered by silt and sand. Impacted in mud, Cairo became a time capsule in which her unique, historical artifacts were preserved against corrosion and biological degradation. Her whereabouts became a matter of speculation, as members of the crew had died and local residents were unsure of the location.
Studying Civil War maps, Edwin C. Bearss of Vicksburg National Military Park set out to search for the lost ship using a simple magnetic compass. With the assistance of Don Jacks and Warren Grabau, the ship was found in 1956.
Hopes of lifting the ironclad and her cargo of artifacts intact were crushed in October 1964, when the 3-inch cables being used to lift Cairo cut deeply into its wooden hull. It then became a question of saving as much of the vessel as possible. A decision was made to cut Cairo into three sections. By the end of December, the battered remains were put on barges and towed to Vicksburg, Mississippi. In the summer of 1965, the barges carrying Cairo were towed to Ingalls Shipyard on the Gulf Coast in Pascagoula, Mississippi. There the armor was removed, cleaned, and stored. The two engines were taken apart, cleaned and reassembled.
Location
- Recorded position: 32.3758, -90.8667 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article USS Cairo (revision 1373461733), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Discovery of the wreck”, “Salvage and museum”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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