In the capacity of overseer, Cooke found himself traveling around North Carolina coordinating the building of ironclads and attempting to locate boat-building materials including iron for plating the gunboats.

    Iron from the railroads became a primary source.  Cooke, for example, managed to secure through negotiations with the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Company the railroad tracks that ran between Kinston and New Bern.  These tracks had become of no use to the Confederates because New Bern had fallen into the hand of Union forces.

    North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance agreed for the railroad iron to be taken and shipped to either Richmond, Virginia or Atlanta, Georgia to be rolled into plate under the stipulation that it be used for the defense of the state.  In particular, the governor noted that the railroad iron should be used on the ironclads being inland on the Neuse and the Roanoke.

    Propellers and propeller shafts for the ironclads were fabricated in the Confederate Navy yard at Charlotte.  Stem engines were obtained wherever they could be found.
Although no one knows for sure, some people claim the engine for the Albemarle was converted from "a large saw mill."

    The Neuse is said to have taken her boiler from a steam locomotive "probably" from the Baltimore and Ohio No. 34 and her engine from a saw mill in New Bern.

    In all, the construction of naval vessels in North Carolina, particularly inland on the Neuse and Roanoke Rivers, was greatly retarded by difficulty in obtaining iron for plating.  Both the Albemarle and the Neuse suffered long delays in construction because of the shortage.
 
    In the case of the CSS Neuse, these delays were fatal.  And although construction of the Neuse had begun at the same time as the Albemarle, the shipbuilders at Whitehall on the Neuse River had to dodge Union troops who were constantly passing through the little town.

    Finally in November of 1863, the unobtrusive wooden vessel was cautiously slipped from her stocks and pulled about 100 yards on long rollers into the river.  Her hull, made water tight with oakum (cotton soaked in tar) and pitch, was polled 18 miles downstream to the Confederate "naval station" at Kinston for transformation into an ironclad.

    When the Neuse finally arrived in Kinston, she was moored near the foot of Caswell Street.  Later, the ship was pulled down river about 100 yards to the foot of King Street in deeper water at a place locals called "cat hole."

    The banks adjacent to the cat hole were steep, which allowed the ship's machinery, engines, cannons and iron plating to be easily lowered onto the hull from the riverbank.

    During the time the ironclad was being fitted, Lt. William Sharp was in command of the ship.  His primary responsibility was to obtain iron so that the vessel could be made ready for service.  Completion of the ironclad was greatly delayed while contractors waited for the arrival of the necessary iron plating.

    Finally in April of 1864, the CSS Neuse was completed.  She had a new captain assigned and was ready for action.

    Lieutenant Benjamin Loyall, the new captain, ordered the ironclad's engines started on the afternoon of April 22, 1864 for her maiden run down the Neuse River to take on the Yankees at New Bern.

    After traveling only half a mile, the Neuse grounded fast on a sandbar.  The crew worked frantically to set her free, but the river continued to fall rapidly.  Over the next four days, it had dropped seven feet.  Finally in late May, a sudden shower allowed the Neuse to break free and return to her mooring at old cat hole.  The crew, still anxious to move their new ironclad down to New Bern to engage the enemy, waited impatiently for the river to rise.

    The Ram Neuse was now facing a new delay.  Much needed troops for ground support had been called up to Virginia by General Robert E. Lee to counter Union General Ulysses S. Grant's troop buildup.  Without ground support, the possibility of the ironclad seeing action any time soon loomed further and further away.  A soldier in Kinston wrote in his journal about the ironclad's dilemma:
    ".....It is a great misfortune that we have managed so badly without the boat at Kinston.  Could it have been completed a month ago and carried down the river....and the Albemarle came come up the river, we would have had easy work taking New Bern and very probably saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of valuable lives."

    On August 24, the Neuse's Commander, Lt. Loyall, received orders to report for duty on the Patrick Henry at Richmond.  On the same day, Lt. Commander Joseph H. Price was assigned as the new captain of the ironclad Neuse.
 
    By November, the river had risen sufficiently to allow the ironclad to descend.  However, because there were still no ground troops, the gunboat was forced to remain idle until March of the following year.

    Before Captain Price could get the Ram Neuse into service, Union troops had advanced within five miles of Kinston and were engaged in the Battle of Southwest Creek.  Price realized his chances of safely journeying 60 miles to New Bern were hopeless.  After shelling the Union troops with grape and canister shot from the cannons of the Neuse, Commander Price ordered his men to place a charge under the bow and to set fire to the ship to prevent capture by the Union.  The explosion blew an eight-foot hole in the port side, and the Neuse settled unceremoniously into the murky deaths of the river.

    Called "the Gunboat" by the local people, the Neuse remained undisturbed for 96 years and provided a favorite swimming hole for youngsters until raised in the Spring of 1963.  Today, what is left of the CSS Neuse is cradled in a shed at the Caswell-Neuse Historic Site on Highway 70 Business in Kinston, where she and a historic museum provide a favorite eastern North Carolina tourist attraction.

    The Neuse is one of three ironclads from the Civil War on display in the nation, and it is deteriorating because of lack of proper shelter.  Bradley Rodgers, a conservation specialist at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, confirmed recently that the Neuse is in danger of being destroyed.  "The ship will rot.  It  will definitely go away if nothing is done," Rodgers said.
 
    North Carolina State officials are preparing to move the gunboat from it's current flood prone cradle in the Caswell park swamp to a higher location on the site.  These officials have come under fire by some in the community for their "half-heartedness" in saving the old gunboat.  State officials have so far refused to commit to providing a proper "climate controlled" facility to house the relic.

    Also, a committee of Seven Springs concerned citizens has recently offered to provide the land and raise money for such a facility if the State will agree to move the relic back to Seven Springs.

    Over $5.9 million is being used to restore and protect the ironclad USS Cairo on display in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and $10 million has been allocated for a facility to house the ironclad CSS Jackson on display in Columbus, Georgia.

    During the Civil War, the Union began construction on 76 ironclads, commissioning 42 of them before May 1, 1865.  On the Confederate side, 59 ironclads were begun, and only 24 were completed.  Of six ironclads begun in North Carolina, four were commissioned.  Very few Civil War ironclads were sunk by gunfire.  Being destroyed to prevent capture by Union forces was the normal fate for Confederate ironclads.  Of the total of 66 ironclads on both side combined, only 12 were actually sunk by the enemy in battle.