CSS Texas was the third and last Columbia-class (or Tennessee-class according to some sources[1]) casemate ironclad built for the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

[1] Columbia was launched but incapacitated while being completed, never seeing operational duty in the Civil War, despite later being captured, repaired, and appraised by the Union Navy.

She was one of only two vessels (the other being the small iron-hulled gunboat CSS Beaufort) which escaped destruction by retreating Confederate forces,[5] because attempts to set her ablaze proved unsuccessful.

[6] Captured when Richmond fell the following day, both ironclad and gunboat were appropriated "for use in the Navy", as per Union Admiral David D. Porter (not related to the Texas designer).

[5] In his official report of April 12, 1865, Porter mentioned that he was informed that the engines and parts of her armor were not yet installed, residing undamaged but completed in the warehouses of the Richmond naval yard.

[7] She was eventually laid up at the Norfolk yard until 15 October 1867, when she was sold at auction for scrapping to J. N. Leonard & Co.[8] of New Haven, Connecticut, having originally cost $218,068 to construct.

[7][2] The casemate of Texas was roughly octagonal, rather than being a sloped, rectangular, armored box, as on earlier Confederate ironclads and including her class sisters; during construction, it was shortened and reshaped due to critical war materials shortages, accounting for the substantially reduced number of crew needed, when compared to her class sister CSS Tennessee II.

Tennessee II's armor was three layers of 2-inch (51 mm) iron plate, and instead of being bolted to her deck, the pilot house formed a seamless extension of her sloped side-armor.

She was a twin-engined vessel, each driving a separate propeller, powered by two 22'(L)×8.4'(W)×9.1'(H) boilers, heated by a 7'(L)×3.6'(W) furnace, with a grate surface area of 96.8 sq.

Texas and its historic contents are remanded into the custody of the Smithsonian Institution, but not before the adventurers have successfully removed the Confederate bullion to another African location, under the watchful, guarding eyes of others...