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USS Romeo

[edit]

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Nominator(s): Hog Farm (talk)

USS Romeo (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

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Another tinclad. I brought this article to GA status in December 2022, but I've spent the last couple months overhauling this article to get it to A-Class standard (and hopefully FAC) to follow. This would be a potential Four Award candidate for me if I can get this through FAC. Hog Farm talk 20:09, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support by Pickersgill-Cunliffe

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  • "who was bought" > "which was bought"
  • "August 1862" year unnecessary
  • "by a total of two boilers"
  • The date for armament in the infobox is not reflected in main text
  • "It then" You use both "it" and "she", suggest sticking to one or the other
  • "It then spent through January 3, 1863..." this is worded a little confusingly when the following sentences discuss distinct actions prior to this date, and say she was withdrawn a day before that
  • "upstream" upriver would make more sense, unless the geography is changing
  • "where they captured two cannon" can you confirm whether this is the two cannon, etc, that had evacuated St. Charles?
    • Smith makes the connection which I've added, although Tomblin and Christ do not (both of those sources mention the pieces taken from St. Charles as 8-inch guns and the cannon picked up at Devall's Bluff as 8-inch guns in short succession but do not explicitly draw the conclusion). Smith has a bizarre date error referencing April 14 for some reason in the middle of this description, but the rest of the dates in that part refer to January dates consistent with the dates in other sources and it's clearly the same event. Hog Farm Talk 02:50, 3 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • "under the command of Smith" we've got two Smiths involved with Romeo at this point, so suggest using their first name once here to clarify which is being referred to
  • Suggest a slight rewording to avoid two sentences in a row beginning "The path..."
  • "Through the rest of the Vicksburg campaign" Is this separate to the Yazoo Pass Expedition/Fort Pemberton operations?
  • Where's Young's Point and what's the relevance to the other operations described?
  • "Mississippi Squadron" This hasn't been mentioned before as a unit, was Romeo already in this?
  • "having evidently been repaired by this time" The source actually says that the repairs were completed by October, while your wording makes it more suggestive
  • Link Master
  • Four of the final five paragraphs begin with a date, suggest switching this up somewhat to avoid this becoming a little diary-like
  • "to support the other vessel" Should this be a plural?
  • "On February 4" this has a capitalised "On" in the middle of a sentence, and uses the phrase "On February 4" twice within that one sentence
  • "In May, she" As this is a new paragraph, suggest starting with the name rather than "she"
  • "in the same area" Which area? You haven't stipulated where these actions are happening
  • "In late April" Add the year here
  • If Romeo was "earmarked" for these patrols, did she actually participate in them?
    • The source gives me a description of the perceived need for patrols and then lists Romeo as "Among the boats transferred to the pursuit ..." - I'm opening to alternative phrasing ideas. DANFS and Encyclopedia of Arkansas don't include really anything on this. Hog Farm Talk 02:50, 3 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Do we know if Baldwin was replaced or just reprimanded as you describe?
    • The Official Records contain negative commentary about Baldwin by Samuel Phillips Lee related to a minor incident in which some sailors were captured in March 1865. He was still in command as late as May 2, 1865, when Lee reassigned which district Romeo was attached to. An Acting Volunteer Lieutenant was put in command of Romeo for the final pre-sale days, but there's no clear disposition of Baldwin in the Official Records. The only mention of him after Lee's May 2 order is related to the haggling over prize dispositions of cotton captured during the 1864 Yazoo City excursion. Hog Farm Talk 02:50, 3 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • I've had a look to see if there's anything else out there to possibly assist the article:
  • [1] This source has Baldwin's forename as Thomas
  • I've tacked on a page to the citation from Smith 2010 where Baldwin's first name is also given; here's too hoping that nobody accuses me of SYNTH for that in the future. Hog Farm Talk 02:43, 6 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • [2] This source says that rather than escorting Empress away, Romeo actually towed her
  • Smith says that Romeo only towed Empress for five miles, after which Empress' crew was able to get the machinery in working order. With Empress in running order again, Romeo provided the escort for 25 miles. I've added a brief summarization of this. Hog Farm Talk 02:43, 6 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • [3] This source has more details on the Empress action which I found interesting
  • I actually own a print copy of this book but didn't check it because I assumed it wouldn't have any coverage of Romeo. I've added a sentence for what is more focused on Romeo rather than the steamer - here's one good source about Empress but it would take something in addition to this and the brief entry in Way's Packet Directory to create an article that would comfortably survive AFD I think. Hog Farm Talk 02:43, 6 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Hog Farm: That's all I have for now. Another interesting article! Amazing how much these ships got up to in a relatively small and short theatre. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 14:36, 29 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Pickersgill-Cunliffe: - Thanks for your review! I've tried to respond as best as possible above. Hog Farm Talk 02:43, 6 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Hog Farm: Sorry for the horribly delayed response! Happy with your changes. A few further points:
  • "Young's Point was a Union supply based" word missing here
  • "The importance of the Young's Point" Young's Point or the Young's Point?
Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 20:43, 3 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Pickersgill-Cunliffe: - the first example should have been base instead of base and I've added a couple words to the other one. Hog Farm Talk 02:23, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support by Hawkeye7

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A map would be nice. None of the places mentioned are marked on the one in the article.

Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:53, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support from Gog the Mild

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FAC level review incoming.

  • "were converted into tinclad warships, a process that involved ..." What follows does not use the word "tin". Why were they called "tinclads"?
  • "a process that involved building a wooden casemate ..." I think "casemate" needs explaining in line per MOS:NOFORCELINK: "Do use a link wherever appropriate, but as far as possible do not force a reader to use that link to understand the sentence. The text needs to make sense to readers who cannot follow links."
  • "generally removing the texas." And "texas".
  • "preparing her for military service occurred at". "occurred" → 'took place'?
  • "a cylinder diameter of 0.30 metres (1 ft) and a stroke of 1.2 metres (4 ft)." Why the two different levels of precision?
  • "Romeo was reported to have a speed of 5 knots". By whom.
  • "Romeo was reported to have a speed of 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) when going upstream. Regardless of the strength of the downstream current?!
    • @Gog the Mild: - I have basically nothing to work with here (although this should have been 5 miles per hour not knots per the sources, which I've corrected). The Official Records 1921 source indicates that her speed was "Upstream; 5 miles" with no other detail; other sources follow this but don't provide any other detail because it doesn't appear that any other detail exists. Hog Farm Talk 18:17, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is anything known about the size of her crew?
  • "Old River". No link?
    • None, and I've struggled to find a good explicit definition of this in a source. From what I can tell this is the name of an old river channel but "Old River" is the name of a very large number of features in that region, with the Old River Control Structure maybe 100 miles down the Mississippi being the most prominent. Hog Farm Talk 18:17, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • "leading to the vessels up the Yazoo River including Romeo being withdrawn ..." Commas either side of "including Romeo"?
  • "and then participated in the Yazoo Pass Expedition." Delete "then".
    • Rephrased to "afterwards"; I think I probably ought to make it clearer that the Yazoo Pass Expedition was a separate operation that never actually entered the Yazoo. Hog Farm Talk 21:35, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • "and assist the coal barges." in what way?
    • Clarified
  • "The path of the Union expedition moved from Moon Lake through Old Pass ..." The path didn't move. Perhaps 'ran'?
  • "she fired on Confederate raiding forces in a stage of the Battle of Goodrich's Landing". "in a stage of" sounds odd to me. 'during'?
  • "the Mississippi River Squadron had been divided into sub-districts for administrative purposes." I struggle to see how a squadron (consisting of boats) can be divided into (geographical) sub-districts.
  • "on January 15 was reported to be commanded by Acting Master Thomas Baldwin." Why "reported"? Is it not known for certain?
  • "USS Exchange, Marmora, USS Prairie Bird, and Petrel." Why does Prairie Bird get a USS prefix and Mamora and Petrel not?
Ah. Ok, I see where you're coming from. Not an issue at ACR. At FAC I would/will press you to dispense with the two USSs: they don't tell a reader anything they don't already know and they make the flow of the prose clunky. IMO :-) .
  • "6 miles (9.7 km)". False precision?
  • "although they had suffered damage to the hull and upper structure." Both of them? In which case perhaps say so?
  • "by May 29, Romeo was one of a number of vessels reported to be surplus." 1. Is the precise date not known? 2. Reported by whom?
    • I've rephrased this. The May 29 date was an old editing relic from when a different source was used for this and I've removed that date and just gave the context that this was part of the postwar demobiliation. Hog Farm Talk 20:54, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A very enjoyable read. Gog the Mild (talk) 19:23, 10 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Lovely stuff. Gog the Mild (talk) 21:29, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
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