CSS Palmetto State was one of six casemate ironclad rams built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Completed in 1862, she defended Charleston, South Carolina and was burnt in 1865 to prevent her capture by advancing Union troops. Background and description The ship was built to a design by the Chief Naval Constructor, John L. Porter, based on his earlier work on the ironclad , retaining the traditional curving ship-type hull, but with flat ends to the casemate. As usual for Confederate ships, dimensions vary slightly between sources. The plan showed an overall length of and a length between perpendiculars of with a maximum beam of , a moulded beam of and a depth of hold of . The ship's draft was 12 feet, although Canney says that Palmetto State drew of water. She was fitted with a hatch for the pilot above the steering wheel for ease in issuing orders to the helmsman and engine room abaft the funnel even though it blocked the pilot's forward vision. The propulsion systems of the Richmond-class ironclads were different for each of the ships, often depending on what could be sourced locally. Palmetto States pair of single-cylinder, direct-acting steam engines were taken from the gunboat serving in Charleston. They used steam provided by a pair of horizontal fire-tube boilers built by the locally based Cameron & Company to drive a propeller. The boilers were probably tall, long, and wide. The ironclad had a speed of and a crew of 120. Palmetto State was initially armed with one Brooke rifle on a pivot mount at the bow, a Brooke rifle on a pivot mount in the stern, with two muzzle-loading smoothbore guns on the broadside. The ship was later equipped with a spar torpedo on her bow in 1863. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships merely states that her armament consisted of two rifled guns and two smoothbore guns. Naval historian Raimondo Luraghi states that the ship was armed with two Brooke rifles and two smoothbores, Naval historian Donald Canney says that a January 1865 report shows the ship equipped with ten 7-inch Brooke rifles, four on each broadside and one each in the bow and stern. He does not believe that it is accurate because the addition of so many additional guns would require rebuilding the casemate and would strain the ship's hull with so much extra