This incredibly beautiful model is a scale-replica of the CSS Virginia. Incredibly detailed, this model is hand-crafted, featuring museum-level quality and detailing that render this item a functional work of art, rather than a simple ship model. The CSS Virginia was nothing short of absolutely breathtaking in its day and this model recreates that feeling, thanks to its incredibly details: among which are included a planked deck, metal anchors, brass cannons, cloth flags and a meticulously accurate coloration. No detail was spared on this model; extensive research was done to ensure as much historical accuracy as possible and extensive amounts of timeamounting to over 100 hourswas put into the creation of this model by master artisans to ensure an utterly astounding final product. And of course, such a gorgeous model corresponds to a ship with a real history: read more about the CSS Virginia below.
Key Features Museum Quality Hand-Crafted Ship Built From High-Quality Materials Rests On A Large Wooden Base Built using Resources Such As Drawings, Copies of Blueprints, and Photos of the Actual Ship Measurements Overall Length: 34 Inches Overall Width: 7 Inches Overall Height: 9 Inches Overall Scale: 1:96 A Brief History of the CSS Virginia On 20 April 1861, when Virginia authorities took over the Norfolk Navy Yard after its evacuation by Federal forces, they found, among other valuable items, the hulk of the steam frigate USS Merrimack. Though burned to the waterline and sunk, the big ship's lower hull and machinery were intact. During the remainder of 1861 and the first two months of 1862, the Confederate States Navy raised, dry-docked, and converted her into a casemate ironclad ram, a new warship type that promised to overcome the Union's great superiority in conventional warships. Placed in commission as CSS Virginia in mid-February 1862, the ship's iron armor made her virtually invulnerable to contemporary gunfire. She carried ten guns of her own, a seven Inch pivot-mounted rifle at each end and a broadside battery of two six Inch rifles and six nine Inch smoothbores. Affixed to her bow was an iron ram, allowing the ship herself to be employed as a deadly weapon.
Virginia made her first combat sortie on 8 March 1862, steaming down the Elizabeth River from Norfolk and into Hampton Roads. In a historic action that dramatically demonstrated the superiority of armored steam-powered warships over their wooden sailing counterparts, she rammed and sank the big U.S. Navy sloop of warCumberland and shelled the frigate Congress into submission. In Washington, D.C., many of the Federal Government's senior officials panicked, convinced that Virginia posed a grave threat to Union sea power and coastal cities. They were unaware that her serious operational limitations, caused by her deep draft, weak power plant and extremely poor sea-keeping, essentially restricted her use to deep channels in calm, inland waterways.
However, their worries were relieved the next day. When Virginia returned to Hampton Roads to attack the grounded steam frigate Minnesota, she found the Union's own pioneer ironclad, USS Monitor, waiting. A second historic battle ensued, with the two opponents firing away, without mortal effect, until the action ended in a tactical draw in the early afternoon of 9 March 1862.
Over the next two months, the two ironclads kept each other in check. Virginia, repaired and strengthened at the Norfolk Navy Yard, reentered the Hampton Roads area on 11 April and 8 May, but no further combat with the Monitor resulted. As the Confederates abandoned their positions in the Norfolk area, Virginia was threatened with the loss of her base. After a futile effort to lighten the ship enough to allow her to move up the James River, on 11 May the South's formidable i