Heel plates

[navygunner]

I have a question about having heel plates aboard naval vessels during the civil war period. Remembering my own naval days 1960's-70's they would never have marred a quarterdeck. I have slipped on some terra cotta floors and polished cement and I can't help but feel a wet slippery iron sheathed deck would have been an accident in the waiting. I haven't found anything in my research.

Geo. Dailey
Actng. Ship's Gunner
U S Naval Landing Party
www.usnlp.org
Pvt. Battery D 1st Michigan light artillery

[USNTar]

It tends to make sense to not have heel irons on a wood deck for the very reasons above. I wouldn't want to make a sweeping argument based on this, but here is one source of documentation, the shoes recovered off of the U.S.S. Cairo do not appear to have heel irons.

A second source I can think of offhand, though a rather over used picture, is the group shot of sailors on board the U.S.S. Hunchback with a black banjo player in the foreground. It clearly shows that at least he did not have heel irons.



Jon Isaacson