Hardluck Ironclad: The Sinking and Salvage of the Cairo

Do you want to know how to salvage a Civil War ironclad from a fast moving river? Then Bearss' book is a must read if you are having the problem of salvaging a 140 year wreck. Hardluck Ironclad was engrossing and kept this reader reading. It is a short book but packed with information. If you have heard Bearss (Ken Burns' Civil War or History Channel's Civil War Journal) speak; his passion for the Civil War is readily apparent and translates well into the book. The first part of the book is a well constructed but brief History of the war on the Upper Mississippi and construction of the City Class Ironclad Gunboats or the Pook Turtles. Other books discuss this time period in exhaustive (meaning minute details that just bore the reader) details but Bearss' pacing and focus is a great example for other Historians or amateur historians attempting to write a history of a ship. The second half of the book is the salvage which he was a major part of. Bearss doesn't make himself the topic or focus of the salvage but the ship remained his focus. Bearss brings interesting facts about the ship and the people involved that made the salvage less technical and more human interest. Truly a great book about an note worthy ship.

Ed Bearss is both one of the most knowledgeable Civil War historians of the present day AND one of the men who found the gunboat Cairo. "Hardluck Ironclad" is both Civil War history and modern archaeology... it details the history of the first warship in the world to be sunk by a mine and the story of the people who worked to raise her and display her at Vicksburg. Outstanding.