The Stevens Battery was an early design for a type of ironclad , proposed for use by the United States Navy before the American Civil War . One full-sized example was begun but never completed due to lack of funding.
188-686: USS Monitor was an ironclad warship built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, the first such ship commissioned by the Navy. Monitor played a central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March under the command of Lieutenant John L. Worden , where she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia (built on the hull of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack ) to
376-476: A torpedo , with less vulnerability to quick-firing guns. The armament of ironclads tended to become concentrated in a small number of powerful guns capable of penetrating the armor of enemy ships at range; calibre and weight of guns increased markedly to achieve greater penetration. Throughout the ironclad era navies also grappled with the complexities of rifled versus smoothbore guns and breech-loading versus muzzle-loading . HMS Warrior carried
564-532: A 225-pound (102-kilogram) shell 5 miles (8.0 kilometers), soon proved that 4.5-inch (114-millimeter) armor was insufficient. In March 1845, Robert Stevens' health failed and he spent the next two years recuperating in Europe. His absence and the need to rethink the ship's armor scheme led to little work being done on her for several years. In 1851, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft ordered work on
752-509: A board to inquire into the various designs proposed for armored ships. The Union Navy advertised for proposals for "iron-clad steam vessels of war" on 7 August and Welles appointed three senior officers as the Ironclad Board the following day. Their task was to "examine plans for the completion of iron-clad vessels" and consider its costs. Ericsson originally made no submission to the board, but became involved when Cornelius Bushnell ,
940-473: A breech, adopted by the French in 1873. Just as compellingly, the growing size of naval guns and consequently, their ammunition, made muzzle-loading much more complicated. With guns of such size there was no prospect of hauling in the gun for reloading, or even reloading by hand, and complicated hydraulic systems were required for reloading the gun outside the turret without exposing the crew to enemy fire. In 1882,
1128-407: A circular pattern. Because of Virginia ' s weak engines, great size and weight, and a draft of 22 ft (6.7 m), she was slow and difficult to maneuver, taking her half an hour to complete a 180-degree turn. During the engagement, the controls of the machinery driving Monitor ' s turret spindle began to malfunction, making it extremely difficult to turn and stop the turret itself at
1316-496: A claim to the title of the first ironclad warships but they were capable of only 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) under their own power: they operated under their own power at the Battle of Kinburn, but had to be towed for long-range transit. They were also arguably marginal to the work of the navy. The brief success of the floating ironclad batteries convinced France to begin work on armored warships for their battlefleet. By
1504-495: A draw, though it could be argued Virginia did slightly more damage. Monitor did successfully defend Minnesota and the rest of the Union blockading force, while Virginia was unable to complete the destruction she started the previous day. The battle between the two ironclads marked a turning point in the way naval warfare would be fought in the future. Strategically, nothing had changed: the Union still controlled Hampton Roads and
1692-569: A few rounds. Smoke and the general chaos of battle only added to the problem. As a result, many naval engagements in the 'Age of the Ironclad' were still fought at ranges within easy eyesight of their targets, and well below the maximum reach of their ships' guns. Another method of increasing firepower was to vary the projectile fired or the nature of the propellant. Early ironclads used black powder , which expanded rapidly after combustion; this meant cannons had relatively short barrels, to prevent
1880-522: A few shots ineffectively at very long range while Monitor returned fire, remaining near Fort Monroe, ready to fight if Virginia came to attack the Federal force congregated there. Furthermore, Vanderbilt was in position to ram Virginia if she approached the fort, but Virginia did not take the bait. In a further attempt to entice Monitor closer to the Confederate side so she could be boarded,
2068-407: A given position, so the crew simply let the turret continuously turn and fired their guns "on the fly" as they bore on Virginia . Monitor received several direct hits on the turret, causing some bolts to violently shear off and ricochet around inside. The deafening sound of the impact stunned some of the crew, causing nose and ear bleeding. However, neither vessel was able to sink or seriously damage
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#17327722580512256-431: A great increase in the ship's size and capabilities. She was now to be 420 feet (130 m) long, 53 feet (16 m) in beam, and displace 4,683 tons. She was to be proof against 125-pound (56.7-kilogram) shells, with armor made up of 6.75-inch (171-millimeter) iron plates sloping upwards from 1-foot (0.30 m) below the waterline to the main deck and running along the entire side of the ship from stem to stern . She
2444-508: A greater distance, while the other gunboats were unable to overcome the fortifications on their own. After Monitor received only a few hits, without incurring any damage, the Confederates, many of whom were former crew members of Virginia well aware of her ability to withstand cannon shot even at close range, concentrated their guns on the other ships, especially Galena , which sustained considerable damage and moderate casualties. After
2632-479: A high rate of fire. Water was to be injected into each gun automatically after it fired, to cool the gun and prevent it from being damaged by extended, rapid firing. The ship was to have eight steam engines generating 8,600 ihp (6,400 kW) to drive two propellers and give the ship a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h), breathtakingly fast for the time. She would have consumed a lot of coal , and her 1,000-ton coal capacity suggests that she would have had
2820-591: A historic confrontation, against each other at the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia . Their performance demonstrated that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat. Ironclad gunboats became very successful in the American Civil War. Ironclads were designed for several uses, including as high-seas battleships , long-range cruisers , and coastal defense ships. Rapid development of warship design in
3008-618: A large increase in the size of the U.S. Navy in order to defend the coast. A like-minded U.S. Congress authorized the use of $ 8,500,000 ( USD ) to fund the expansion. In this environment, Robert L. Stevens and Edwin Augustus Stevens , the sons of Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey , proposed to the Department of the Navy on August 13, 1841, the construction of a revolutionary steam-powered ironclad vessel of high speed, with screw propellers and all machinery below
3196-421: A large ship (the sidewheeler USS Vanderbilt ) and reinforced her bow with steel specifically to be used as a naval ram , provided Virginia steamed far enough out into Hampton Roads. On 11 April, Virginia , accompanied by a number of gunboats, steamed into Hampton Roads to Sewell's Point at the southeast edge, almost over to Newport News , in a challenge to lure Monitor into battle. Virginia fired
3384-457: A maximum pressure of 40 psi (276 kPa ; 3 kgf/cm ). The 320- indicated-horsepower (240 kW ) engine was designed to give the ship a top speed of 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph), but Monitor was 1–2 knots (1.9–3.7 km/h; 1.2–2.3 mph) slower in service. The engine had a bore of 36 inches (914 mm) and a stroke of 22 inches (559 mm). The ship carried 100 long tons (100 t) of coal. Ventilation for
3572-545: A mixture of 110-pounder 7-inch (178 mm) breech-loading rifles and more traditional 68-pounder smoothbore guns. Warrior highlighted the challenges of picking the right armament; the breech-loaders she carried, designed by Sir William Armstrong , were intended to be the next generation of heavy armament for the Royal Navy, but were shortly withdrawn from service. Breech-loading guns seemed to offer important advantages. A breech-loader could be reloaded without moving
3760-426: A model of his own design, the future Monitor , derived from his 1854 design. Bushnell got Ericsson's permission to show the model to Welles, who told Bushnell to show it to the board. Upon review of Ericsson's unusual design, the board was skeptical, concerned that such a vessel would not float, especially in rough seas, and rejected the proposal of a completely iron laden ship. President Lincoln , who had also examined
3948-424: A movement away from the ships mounting many guns broadside, in the manner of a ship-of-the-line, towards a handful of guns in turrets for all-round fire. From the 1860s to the 1880s many naval designers believed that the ram was again a vital weapon in naval warfare. With steam power freeing ships from the wind, iron construction increasing their structural strength, and armor making them invulnerable to shellfire,
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#17327722580514136-572: A near four-hour artillery duel and sustaining numerous hits overall, the flotilla was unable to neutralize the fortification and had to turn back. Not a single Union ship reached Richmond until near the end of the war, when the city was finally evacuated by the Confederates. After the battle at Drewry's Bluff Monitor remained on the James River providing support, along with the Galena and other gunboats, to McClellan's troops at various points along
4324-618: A period of ten years, but the United Kingdom soon managed to take the lead in production. Altogether, France built ten new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older ships of the line, while the United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41. The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, more powerful naval guns. In the 1820s and 1830s, warships began to mount increasingly heavy guns, replacing 18- and 24-pounder guns with 32-pounders on sailing ships-of-the-line and introducing 68-pounders on steamers. Then,
4512-485: A plan by which the James River Squadron would swarm Monitor with a party of men to board and capture the vessel, and disable her by using heavy hammers to drive iron wedges under and disable the turret, and by covering the pilothouse with a wet sail effectively blinding the pilot. Others would throw combustibles down the ventilation openings and smoke holes. At one point Jones made such an attempt to board
4700-469: A revolutionary design with potential capabilities far beyond the norm for her times. But her first design proved inadequate in the face of the advance of gun technology, her second design took too long to build and never found favor with the U.S. Navy, and her third design, although modernized, came too late to salvage the project before it ran out of money. Had the Stevens Battery ever put to sea in
4888-500: A set of gears; a full rotation was made in 22.5 seconds during testing on 9 February 1862. Fine control of the turret proved to be difficult; as there was no brake the steam engines would have to be placed in reverse if the turret overshot its mark, or another full rotation would have to be made. The only way to see out of the turret was through the gun ports ; when the guns were not in use, or withdrawn for reloading during battle, heavy iron port stoppers would swing down into place to close
5076-470: A sign of contempt, anchored off Sewell's Point. Later, when Confederate forces abandoned Norfolk on 11 May 1862, they were forced to destroy Virginia . After the destruction of Virginia , Monitor was free to assist the Union Army and General McClellan's campaign against Richmond. As the Navy always gave command to officers based on seniority, Greene was replaced with Lieutenant Thomas O. Selfridge
5264-429: A significant departure from the dominant naval vessels of the time. Ericsson's innovative turret design, although not without flaws, facilitated the widespread adoption of rotating guns on warships in navies worldwide. Because Monitor was an experimental craft, urgently needed, hurriedly constructed, and almost immediately put to sea, a number of problems were discovered during her maiden voyage to Hampton Roads and during
5452-465: A small oak table and chair, an oil lamp, shelves and drawers and a canvas floor covering covered with a rug. The entire crew were given goat-skin mats to sleep on. Lighting for each living area was provided by small skylights in the deck above, which were covered by an iron hatch during battle. The officer's wardroom was located forward of the berth deck where officers would eat their meals, hold meetings or socialize during what little spare time they had. It
5640-401: A smaller target for enemy gunners. Her steam engines were to produce 900 indicated horsepower (ihp) and give her an estimated top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h)r), and this very high speed for the era combined with good maneuverability were intended to make her a hard target to hit as well. Experiments by John Ericsson with his 12-inch (305-mm) wrought iron gun Oregon , which could fire
5828-556: A stalemate. The design of the ship was distinguished by its revolving turret , which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby ; it was quickly duplicated and established the monitor class and type of armored warship built for the American Navy over the next several decades. The remainder of the ship was designed by Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson , and built in only 101 days in Brooklyn , New York, on
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6016-421: A standard pattern and designated as battleships or armored cruisers . The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in the first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian J. Richard Hill : "The (ironclad) had three chief characteristics: a metal-skinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells. It
6204-412: A state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the naval ram , the torpedo , or sometimes both (as in the case with smaller ships and later torpedo boats), which several naval designers considered the important weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but toward the end of the 1890s, the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to
6392-413: A steam-powered ironclad warship, Stevens Battery , but work was delayed and the designer, Robert Stevens , died in 1856, stalling further work. Since there was no pressing need for such a ship at the time, there was little demand to continue work on the unfinished vessel. It was France that introduced the first operational armored ships as well as the first shell guns and rifled cannons. Experience during
6580-480: A tactic never arose. There are conflicting accounts as to whether such an anti-personnel provision was installed. Commodore Joseph Smith , Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks , sent Ericsson formal notice of the acceptance of his proposal on 21 September 1861. Six days later, Ericsson signed a contract with Bushnell, John F. Winslow and John A. Griswold which stated that the four partners would equally share in
6768-402: A tonnage of 776 tons burthen and displaced 987 long tons (1,003 t). Her crew consisted of 49 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by a single-cylinder horizontal vibrating-lever steam engine , also designed by Ericsson, which drove a 9-foot (2.7 m) propeller, whose shaft was nine inches in diameter. The engine used steam generated by two horizontal fire-tube boilers at
6956-487: A very short operating range. She was to be the first ship equipped with fan -driven ventilation , to increase crew comfort by extracting fumes and hot air from below decks. The Stevens brothers made significant progress on the newly designed ship between January 1854 and September 1855, but then work slowed again. When Robert Stevens died in April 1856, worked stopped entirely, and did not resume until 1859. The Navy by then
7144-545: A victory, as crowds of spectators gathered along the banks of the Elizabeth River , cheering and waving flags, handkerchiefs and hats as Virginia , displaying the captured ensign of Congress , passed along up the river. The Confederate government was ecstatic and immediately promoted Buchanan to Admiral. Both the Union and Confederacy soon came up with plans for defeating the other's ironclad. Oddly, these did not depend on their own ironclads. The Union Navy chartered
7332-509: A warship that would demonstrate to the U.S. Navy some of the principles he had in mind for the Stevens Battery, including high maneuverability, a respectable top speed, a semisubmersible capability, and a large gun on the main deck capable of a high rate of fire and loaded from below the deck by gun crews protected by armor. The resulting vessel, Naugatuck , went into service with the United States Revenue-Marine in
7520-509: A wooden hull. Encouraged by the positive reports of the iron hulls of those ships in combat, the Admiralty ordered a series of experiments to evaluate what happened when thin iron hulls were struck by projectiles, both solid shot and hollow shells, beginning in 1845 and lasting through 1851. Critics like Lieutenant-general Sir Howard Douglas believed that the splinters from the hull were even more dangerous than those from wooden hulls and
7708-481: Is only when all three characteristics are present that a fighting ship can properly be called an ironclad." Each of these developments was introduced separately in the decade before the first ironclads. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, fleets had relied on two types of major warship, the ship of the line and the frigate . The first major change to these types was the introduction of steam power for propulsion . While paddle steamer warships had been used from
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7896-428: The Battle of Sinop , spelled the end of the wooden-hulled warship. The more practical threat to wooden ships was from conventional cannon firing red-hot shot, which could lodge in the hull and cause a fire or ammunition explosion. Some navies even experimented with hollow shot filled with molten metal for extra incendiary power. The use of wrought iron instead of wood as the primary material of ships' hulls began in
8084-621: The Crimean War of 1854–1855 showed that armored ships could withstand repeated hits without significant damage when French ironclad floating batteries defeated Russian coastal fortifications during the Battle of Kinburn . Ericsson claimed to have sent the French Emperor Napoléon III a proposal for a monitor-type design, with a gun turret, in September 1854, but no record of any such submission could be found in
8272-460: The East River beginning in late 1861. Monitor presented a new concept in ship design and employed a variety of new inventions and innovations in ship building that caught the attention of the world. The impetus to build Monitor was prompted by the news that the Confederates had raised the scuttled Merrimack and were building an iron-plated armored vessel named the Virginia on her hull in
8460-584: The Gloire and her sisters had full iron-armor protection along the waterline and the battery itself. The British Warrior and Black Prince (but also the smaller Defence and Resistance ) were obliged to concentrate their armor in a central "citadel" or "armoured box", leaving many main deck guns and the fore and aft sections of the vessel unprotected. The use of iron in the construction of Warrior also came with some drawbacks; iron hulls required more regular and intensive repairs than wooden hulls, and iron
8648-547: The Mariners' Museum in Virginia. Other crew members were interviewed later in life, like Louis N. Stodder , one of the last crew members to abandon Monitor minutes before she sank in a storm at sea, who was the last surviving crew member of Monitor and lived well into the 20th century. On 6 March 1862, the ship departed New York bound for Fort Monroe , Virginia, towed by the ocean-going tug Seth Low and accompanied by
8836-697: The armor-piercing shell was developed. Stevens Battery In 1841, the United States was in the midst of a war scare with the United Kingdom over the American boundary with Canada, among other issues. Americans remembered the British invasion of the United States by sea during the War of 1812 and, to avoid its recurrence, President John Tyler and Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur called for
9024-506: The 1830s onward, steam propulsion only became suitable for major warships after the adoption of the screw propeller in the 1840s. Steam-powered screw frigates were built in the mid-1840s, and at the end of the decade the French Navy introduced steam power to its line of battle . Napoleon III 's ambition to gain greater influence in Europe required a sustained challenge to the British at sea. The first purpose-built steam battleship
9212-678: The 1830s; the first "warship" with an iron hull was the gunboat Nemesis , built by Jonathan Laird of Birkenhead for the East India Company in 1839. There followed, also from Laird, the first full-sized warship with a metal hull, the 1842 steam frigate Guadalupe for the Mexican Navy . The latter ship performed well during the Naval Battle of Campeche , with her captain reporting that he thought that there were fewer iron splinters from Guadalupe ' s hull than from
9400-423: The 1880s has been criticized by historians. However, at least until the late 1870s, the British muzzle-loaders had superior performance in terms of both range and rate of fire than the French and Prussian breech-loaders, which suffered from the same problems as the first Armstrong guns. From 1875 onwards, the balance between breech- and muzzle-loading changed. Captain de Bange invented a method of reliably sealing
9588-538: The 81-ton, 16-inch guns of HMS Inflexible fired only once every 11 minutes while bombarding Alexandria during the Urabi Revolt . The 102-long-ton (104 t), 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns of the Duilio class could each fire a round every 15 minutes. In the Royal Navy, the switch to breech-loaders was finally made in 1879; as well as the significant advantages in terms of performance, opinion
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#17327722580519776-492: The British Admiralty agreed to build five armored floating batteries on the French plans. The French floating batteries were deployed in 1855 as a supplement to the wooden steam battle fleet in the Crimean War . The role of the battery was to assist unarmored mortar and gunboats bombarding shore fortifications. The French used three of their ironclad batteries ( Lave , Tonnante and Dévastation ) in 1855 against
9964-729: The British to equip ships with muzzle-loading weapons of increasing power until the 1880s. After a brief introduction of the 100-pounder or 9.2-inch (230 mm) smoothbore Somerset Gun , which weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t), the Admiralty introduced 7-inch (178 mm) rifled guns, weighing 7 long tons (7 t). These were followed by a series of increasingly mammoth weapons—guns weighing 12 long tons (12 t), 18 long tons (18 t), 25 long tons (25 t), 38 long tons (39 t) and finally 81 long tons (82 t), with caliber increasing from 8 inches (203 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm). The decision to retain muzzle-loaders until
10152-575: The Confederacy ;– especially in Russia, the only country to openly support the Union through the war. Only CSS Stonewall was completed, and she arrived in Cuban waters just in time for the end of the war. Through the remainder of the war, ironclads saw action in the Union's attacks on Confederate ports. Seven Union monitors, including USS Montauk , as well as two other ironclads,
10340-452: The Confederate ironclad and for "saving the day". No sooner than Monitor had weighed anchor, numerous small boats and spectators on shore flocked around the ship to congratulate the crew for what they regarded as their victory over Virginia . Assistant Secretary Fox, who observed the entire battle from aboard Minnesota , came aboard Monitor and jokingly told her officers, "Well gentlemen, you don't look as though you just went through one of
10528-472: The Confederates still held several rivers and Norfolk, making it a strategic victory for the North. The battle of the ironclads led to what was referred to as "Monitor fever" in the North. During the course of the war improved designs based on Monitor emerged; 60 ironclads were built. Immediately following the battle Stimers telegraphed Ericsson, congratulating and thanking him for making it possible to confront
10716-665: The Confederates were building an ironclad warship. Concealed in her dress was a message from a Union sympathizer who worked in the Navy Yard warning that the former Merrimack , renamed Virginia by the Confederates, was nearing completion. Upon her arrival in Washington Louvestre managed to meet with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and informed him that the Confederates were nearing the completion of their ironclad, which surprised Welles. Convinced by
10904-496: The Confederates were converting the captured USS Merrimack to an ironclad at the naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. Subsequently, the urgency of Monitor ' s completion and deployment to Hampton Roads was driven by fears of what the Confederate ironclad, now renamed Virginia , would be capable of doing, not only to Union ships but to cities along the coast and riverfronts. Northern newspapers published daily accounts of
11092-570: The Confederates' progress in converting the Merrimack to an ironclad; this prompted the Union Navy to complete and deploy Monitor as soon as possible. Word of Merrimack ' s reconstruction and conversion was confirmed in the North in late February 1862 when Mary Louvestre of Norfolk, a freed slave who worked as a housekeeper for one of the Confederate engineers working on Merrimack , made her way through Confederate lines with news that
11280-556: The Crimean War, Emperor Napoleon III ordered the development of light-draft floating batteries, equipped with heavy guns and protected by heavy armor. Experiments made during the first half of 1854 proved highly satisfactory, and on 17 July 1854, the French communicated to the British Government that a solution had been found to make gun-proof vessels and that plans would be communicated. After tests in September 1854,
11468-584: The James River Squadron moved in and captured three merchant ships, the brigs Marcus and Sabout , and the schooner Catherine T. Dix . These had been grounded and abandoned when they sighted Virginia entering the Roads. Their flags were then hoisted " Union-side down " to taunt Monitor into a fight as they were towed back to Norfolk. In the end, both sides had failed to provoke a fight on their terms. The Confederate Navy originally had devised
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#173277225805111656-524: The Navy rejected his attempt to amend the contract. The contract was finally signed on 4 October for a price of $ 275,000 to be paid in installments as work progressed. Preliminary work had begun well before that date, however, and Ericsson's consortium contracted with Thomas F. Rowland of the Continental Iron Works at Bushwick Inlet (in modern-day Greenpoint, Brooklyn ) on 25 October for construction of Monitor ' s hull. Her keel
11844-424: The Stevens Battery now was to have her guns in a revolving turret like that of USS Monitor , although the type and caliber of guns were never determined. Her machinery was removed and replaced by ten large-diameter boilers and two Maudsley and Field vertical overhead-crosshead steam engines which were to give the Stevens Battery a top speed of 15 knots (28 km/h). By 1874, all the money for her completion
12032-511: The Stevens plan was approved on April 14, 1842. The ship, which became known as the "Stevens Battery," was to be the first such ship ever to be built under government authorization. She was intended to serve as a fast, powerful, heavily armored, mobile battery, reinforcing the coastal fortifications of New York City. The Stevens brothers selected their family estate in Hoboken , New Jersey , as
12220-663: The Union Army during the Peninsula Campaign under General-in-Chief George B. McClellan . The ship participated in the Battle of Drewry's Bluff later that month, and remained in the area giving support to General McClellan's forces on land until she was ordered to join the Union Navy blockaders off North Carolina in December. On her way there, she foundered while under tow during a storm off Cape Hatteras on
12408-467: The Union blockading squadron in Hampton Roads, Virginia, destroying the sail frigates Cumberland and Congress . Early in the battle, the steam frigate USS Minnesota ran aground while attempting to engage Virginia , and remained stranded throughout the battle. Virginia , however, was unable to attack Minnesota before daylight faded. That day Buchanan was severely wounded in the leg and
12596-478: The Union, but they were adequate for their intended use. More Western Flotilla Union ironclads were sunk by torpedoes (mines) than by enemy fire, and the most damaging fire for the Union ironclads was from shore installations, not Confederate vessels. The first fleet battle, and the first ocean battle, involving ironclad warships was the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Waged between the Austrian and Italian navies,
12784-464: The archives of the French Ministry of the Navy ( Ministre de la Marine ) when they were searched by naval historian James Phinney Baxter III . The French followed those ships with the first ocean-going ironclad, the armored frigate Gloire in 1859, and the British responded with HMS Warrior . The Union Navy 's attitude towards ironclads changed quickly when it was learned that
12972-576: The armored frigate New Ironsides and a light-draft USS Keokuk , participated in the failed attack on Charleston ; one was sunk. Two small ironclads, CSS Palmetto State and CSS Chicora participated in the defense of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay , the Union assembled four monitors as well as 11 wooden ships, facing the CSS ; Tennessee , the Confederacy's most powerful ironclad, and three gunboats . On
13160-603: The autumn of 1861, but soon was loaned to the Navy. In action in May 1862, her main gun burst. Her armor protected the gun crew from the explosion as Stevens intended, but the Navy was not won over by the design, and Naugatuck soon went back to the Revenue-Marine. Although the Navy had a large ironclad program during the Civil War for which the Stevens Battery seemed a logical fit, a Navy board found numerous deficiencies in
13348-564: The barges should only be sunk if and when Virginia was able to make her way up the Potomac. About 9:00 pm, Monitor finally arrived on the scene only to discover the destruction that Virginia had already wrought on the Union fleet. Worden was ordered upon reaching Hampton Roads to anchor alongside USS Roanoke and report to Captain John Marston where Worden was briefed of the situation and received further orders to protect
13536-403: The barrel itself slowing the shell. The sharpness of the black powder explosion also meant that guns were subjected to extreme stress. One important step was to press the powder into pellets, allowing a slower, more controlled explosion and a longer barrel. A further step forward was the introduction of chemically different brown powder which combusted more slowly again. It also put less stress on
13724-407: The battle between the two ironclads which harmlessly deflected off the Confederate ironclad. During the battle Monitor fired solid shot, about once every eight minutes, while Virginia fired shell exclusively. The ironclads fought, generally at close range, for about four hours, ending at 12:15 pm, ranging from a few yards to more than a hundred. Both ships were constantly in motion, maintaining
13912-573: The battle pitted combined fleets of wooden frigates and corvettes and ironclad warships on both sides in the largest naval battle between the battles of Navarino and Tsushima . The Italian fleet consisted of 12 ironclads and a similar number of wooden warships, escorting transports which carried troops intending to land on the Adriatic island of Lissa. Among the Italian ironclads were seven broadside ironclad frigates, four smaller ironclads, and
14100-503: The battle there. Yet she was still able to challenge Virginia and prevent her from further destroying the remaining ships in the Union flotilla blockading Hampton Roads. During the "boom time" of the Civil War, Ericsson could have made a fortune with his inventions used in Monitor , but instead gave the U.S. government all his Monitor patent rights saying it was his "contribution to the glorious Union cause". The original officers at
14288-404: The belts for the ventilation and boiler fans loosened and fell off and the fires in the boilers were nearly extinguished over the course of the next day; this created a toxic atmosphere in the engine room that knocked out most of the engine-room crew. First Assistant Engineer Isaac Newton ordered the engine room abandoned and had the able-bodied crew drag the afflicted engine room hands to the top of
14476-419: The broadside-firing, masted designs of Gloire and Warrior . The clash of the Italian and Austrian fleets at the Battle of Lissa (1866), also had an important influence on the development of ironclad design. The first use of ironclads in combat came in the U.S. Civil War . The U.S. Navy at the time the war broke out had no ironclads, its most powerful ships being six unarmored steam-powered frigates. Since
14664-544: The bulk of the Navy remained loyal to the Union, the Confederacy sought to gain advantage in the naval conflict by acquiring modern armored ships. In May 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $ 2 million dollars for the purchase of ironclads from overseas, and in July and August 1861 the Confederacy started work on construction and converting wooden ships. On 12 October 1861, CSS Manassas became
14852-409: The city into surrender if possible. Without any assistance, the task force got within 8 mi (13 km) of the Confederate capital but could not proceed further because of sunken vessels and debris placed in the river that blocked further passage. There were also artillery batteries at Fort Darling overlooking and guarding the approach, along with other heavy guns and sharpshooters positioned along
15040-461: The commander of the Army of the Potomac early in the Civil War, became engineer -in-chief. McClellan redesigned the ship yet again. The 1866 Battle of Lissa , in which ramming had proven an important tactic , was influential in ship design for 40 years, and his 1869 design called for the ship to have an iron spur ram bow . She also was to have a heavier hull. Instead of guns mounted in casemates,
15228-477: The construction site for the ship. They had to have a drydock dug out of solid rock there, and then install large pumps to keep the drydock from flooding, and delays occurred from the very beginning of the project. The budget for the ship was set at $ 600,000 (USD), based on vaguely similar earlier ships, but in fact the new ship was revolutionary in concept and design that no one really knew how to build her or how much she would cost. The Stevens' original design for
15416-488: The crew, he remained aboard her as an inspector during her maiden voyage and battle. Construction progressed in fits and starts, plagued by a number of short delays in the delivery of iron and occasional shortages of cash, but they did not delay the ship's progress by more than a few weeks. The hundred days allotted for her construction passed on 12 January, but the Navy chose not to penalize the consortium. The name "Monitor", meaning "one who admonishes and corrects wrongdoers",
15604-532: The critics and ordered that the four iron-hulled propeller frigates ordered by the Tories be converted into troopships . No iron warships would be ordered until the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854. Following the demonstration of the power of explosive shells against wooden ships at the Battle of Sinop , and fearing that his own ships would be vulnerable to the Paixhans guns of Russian fortifications in
15792-479: The day after the battle. Two days later, Selfridge was in turn relieved by Lieutenant William Nicholson Jeffers on 15 May 1862. Monitor was now part of a flotilla under the command of Admiral John Rodgers aboard Galena , and, along with three other gunboats, steamed up the James River and engaged the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluff . The force had instructions to coordinate their efforts with McClellan's forces on land and push on towards Richmond to bombard
15980-582: The day was that wrought iron begins to become brittle at temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F). Many of the tests were conducted at temperatures below this while the battles were fought in tropical climates. The early experimental results seemed to support the critics and party politics came into play as the Whig First Russell ministry replaced the Tory Second Peel Ministry in 1846. The new administration sided with
16168-407: The deck above an armored casemate . The 15-inch (380 mm) guns were to fire 425-pound (193-kilogram) shells. The gun crews, protected by the casemates, would load the 15-inch (380 mm) guns from below through holes in the deck protected by armored hoods; the gun's muzzle would be pointed into the hole, and a steam-powered cylinder would use a ramrod to load the gun for the next shot, allowing
16356-480: The deck that was intended to form a watertight seal. In service, however, this proved to leak heavily, despite caulking by the crew. The gap between the turret and the deck proved to be a problem as debris and shell fragments entered the gap and jammed the turrets of several Passaic -class monitors , which used the same turret design, during the First Battle of Charleston Harbor in April 1863. Direct hits on
16544-675: The defenses at the Battle of Kinburn on the Black Sea , where they were effective against Russian shore defences. They would later be used again during the Italian war in the Adriatic in 1859. The British floating batteries Glatton and Meteor arrived too late to participate to the action at Kinburn. The British planned to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against the well-fortified Russian naval base at Kronstadt. The batteries have
16732-489: The design, overruled them. Ericsson assured the board his ship would float exclaiming, "The sea shall ride over her and she shall live in it like a duck". On 15 September, after further deliberations, the board accepted Ericsson's proposal. The Ironclad Board evaluated 17 different designs, but recommended only three for procurement on 16 September, including Ericsson's Monitor design. The three ironclad ships selected differed substantially in design and degree of risk. Monitor
16920-594: The early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells . The first ironclad battleship, Gloire , was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy . However, Britain built the first completely iron-hulled warships. They were first used in warfare in 1862 during the American Civil War , when ironclads operated against wooden ships and, in
17108-468: The end of August, Monitor was ordered back to Hampton Roads and dropped anchor nearby the sunken Cumberland at Newport News Point on 30 August, much to the approval of the crew. Monitor ' s sole purpose now was to blockade the James River from any advances made by the newly constructed Virginia II , an ironclad ram. Ironclad warship An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to
17296-431: The end of the 1850s it was clear that France was unable to match British building of steam warships, and to regain the strategic initiative a dramatic change was required. The result was the first ocean-going ironclad, Gloire , begun in 1857 and launched in 1859. Gloire ' s wooden hull was modelled on that of a steam ship of the line, reduced to one deck, and sheathed in iron plates 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. She
17484-436: The end of the engagement, Worden directed Williams to steer Monitor around the stern of the Confederate ironclad; Lieutenant Wood fired Virginia ' s 7-inch Brooke gun at Monitor ' s pilothouse , striking the forward side directly beneath the sight hold, cracking the structural "iron log" along the base of the narrow opening just as Worden was peering out. Worden was heard to cry out, My eyes—I am blind! Others in
17672-457: The entire time of Monitor ' s service provide many details and insights into every chapter of the ironclad's short-lived history, offering a rare perspective of a sailor's experience on the naval front during the Civil War. The letters of Acting Paymaster William F. Keeler to his wife Anna also corroborate many of the accounts of affairs that took place aboard Monitor . The letters of Geer and Keeler are available for viewing and are housed at
17860-424: The explosive shell -firing Paixhans gun was introduced to naval warfare in the 1820s. The use of heavy iron plating on the sides of warships was not practical until steam propulsion matured enough to carry its great weight. Developments in gun technology had progressed by the 1840s so that no practical thickness of wood could withstand the power of a shell. In response, the United States began construction in 1854 of
18048-422: The explosive conversion of a solid propellant into gas. This explosion propels the shot or shell out of the front of the gun, but also imposes great stresses on the gun-barrel. If the breech—which experiences some of the greatest forces in the gun—is not entirely secure, then there is a risk that either gas will discharge through the breech or that the breech will break. This in turn reduces the muzzle velocity of
18236-403: The fire of Monitor and other ships. Neither ship had sustained any significant damage. In the opinion of Virginia ' s commander Jones and her other officers, Monitor could have sunk their ship had she hit the vessel at the waterline. Strategically, the battle between these two ships was considered the most definitive naval battle of the Civil War. The battle itself was largely considered
18424-597: The first shell guns firing explosive shells were introduced following their development by the French Général Henri-Joseph Paixhans . By the 1840s they were part of the standard armament for naval powers including the French Navy , Royal Navy , Imperial Russian Navy and United States Navy . It is often held that the power of explosive shells to smash wooden hulls, as demonstrated by the Russian destruction of an Ottoman squadron at
18612-648: The first ironclad to enter combat, when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi during the Battle of the Head of Passes . She had been converted from a commercial vessel in New Orleans for river and coastal fighting. In February 1862, the larger CSS Virginia joined the Confederate Navy, having been rebuilt at Norfolk . Constructed on the hull of USS Merrimack , Virginia originally
18800-584: The greatest naval conflicts on record". A small tug soon came alongside and the blinded Worden was brought up from his cabin while crew members and spectators cheered. He was taken to Fort Monroe for preliminary treatment, then to a hospital in Washington. Stimers and Newton soon began repairing the damage to the pilot house, and reconfigured the sides from an upright position to a slope of thirty degrees to deflect shot. During this time, Mrs. Worden personally brought news of her husband's progress and recovery and
18988-525: The grounded Minnesota . By midnight, under the cover of darkness, Monitor quietly pulled up alongside and behind the Minnesota and waited. The next morning at about 6:00 am Virginia , accompanied by Jamestown , Patrick Henry and Teaser , got underway from Sewell's Point to finish off Minnesota and the rest of the blockaders, but were delayed sailing out into Hampton Roads because of heavy fog until about 8:00 am. In Monitor Worden
19176-508: The gun's designer Dahlgren himself. They could fire a 136-pound (61.7 kg) round shot or shell up to a range of 3,650 yards (3,340 m) at an elevation of +15°. The top of the armored deck was only about 18 inches (460 mm) above the waterline . It was protected by two layers of 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (13 mm) wrought iron armor. The sides of the "raft" consisted of three to five layers of 1-inch (25 mm) iron plates, backed by about 30 inches (762 mm) of pine and oak. Three of
19364-442: The gun's designer, who lacked the "preliminary information" needed to determine what amount of charge was needed to "pierce, dislocate or dislodge iron plates" of various thicknesses and configurations. During the battle Stodder was stationed at the wheel that controlled the turning of the turret, but at one point when he was leaning against its side the turret received a direct hit directly opposite to him which knocked him clear across
19552-434: The gun, a lengthy process particularly if the gun then needed to be re-aimed. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns also had the virtue of being lighter than an equivalent smoothbore and, because of their rifling, more accurate. Nonetheless, the design was rejected because of problems which plagued breech-loaders for decades. The weakness of the breech-loader was the obvious problem of sealing the breech. All guns are powered by
19740-409: The gunboats Currituck and Sachem . Worden, not trusting the seal between the turret and the hull, and ignoring Ericsson's advice, wedged the former in the up position and stuffed oakum and sail cloth in the gap. Rising seas that night washed the oakum away and water poured underneath the turret, as well as through the hawsepipe , various hatches, ventilation pipes, and the two funnels , so that
19928-405: The gunports. Including the guns, the turret weighed approximately 160 long tons (163 t); the entire weight rested on an iron spindle that had to be jacked up using a wedge before the turret could rotate. The spindle was 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter which gave it ten times the strength needed in preventing the turret from sliding sideways. When not in use, the turret rested on a brass ring on
20116-419: The handling of the vessel and operation of guns during battle, while the engineering officers were considered a class unto themselves. In Monitor 's turret, Greene and Stodder supervised loading and firing of the two eleven-inch (280 mm) Dahlgrens. Each gun was crewed by eight men. In Worden's report of 27 January 1862 to Welles, he stated he believed 17 men and 2 officers would be the maximum number in
20304-595: The heaviest calibers of gun ever used at sea. HMS Benbow carried two 16.25-inch (413 mm) breech-loading guns , each weighing 110 long tons (112 t). A few years afterwards, the Italians used 450 mm (17.72 inch) muzzle-loading guns on the Duilio class ships. One consideration which became more acute was that even from the original Armstrong models, following the Crimean War, range and hitting power far exceeded simple accuracy, especially at sea where
20492-437: The inside, rendering him unconscious. He was taken below to recover and relieved by Stimers. The two vessels were pounding each other at such close range that they collided five times. By 11:00 am Monitor ' s supply of shot in the turret had been exhausted. With one of the gun port covers jammed shut, she hauled off to shallow waters to resupply the turret and repair the damaged hatch, which could not be fixed. During
20680-413: The insides of the barrel, allowing guns to last longer and to be manufactured to tighter tolerances. The development of smokeless powder , based on nitroglycerine or nitrocellulose, by the French inventor Paul Vielle in 1884 was a further step allowing smaller charges of propellant with longer barrels. The guns of the pre-Dreadnought battleships of the 1890s tended to be smaller in caliber compared to
20868-403: The largest fired by U.S. Navy guns at the time. To achieve this, she was to be armored with 4.5-inch-thick (110 mm) thick iron plate reinforced by 14 inches (360 millimeters) of locust timber , a thickness of iron and wood believed by the Stevens to be sufficient to resist any gun then known. Furthermore, she was to be semisubmersible, able to submerge herself to her gunwales to make her
21056-501: The last day of the year. Monitor ' s wreck was discovered in 1973 and has been partially salvaged. Her guns, gun turret , engine, and other relics are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia , a few miles from the site of her most important military action. While the concept of ships protected by armor existed before the advent of the ironclad Monitor , the need for iron plating on ship arose only after
21244-430: The last hope to make something out of the project was to sell the ship. A possible sale to Prussia fell through, and there were no other potential buyers. Most of the ship's machinery was sold in 1874 and 1875, and the ship was sold for scrap at public auction in 1881. The scrappers had to use blasting to dismantle her hull. The Stevens Battery in many ways was far ahead of her time when proposed in 1841, and remained
21432-526: The late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel that carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships, and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in ferrous metallurgy that made steel shipbuilding possible. The quick pace of change meant that many ships were obsolete almost as soon as they were finished and that naval tactics were in
21620-445: The line, but was determined that the first British ironclad would outmatch the French ships in every respect, particularly speed. A fast ship would have the advantage of being able to choose a range of engagement that could make her invulnerable to enemy fire. The British specification was more a large, powerful frigate than a ship-of-the-line. The requirement for speed meant a very long vessel, which had to be built from iron. The result
21808-418: The lull in the battle, Worden climbed through the gun port out onto the deck to get a better view of the overall situation. Virginia , seeing Monitor turn away, turned her attention to the Minnesota and fired shots that set the wooden vessel ablaze, also destroying the nearby tugboat Dragon . When the turret was resupplied with ammunition, Worden returned to battle with only one gun able to fire. Towards
21996-399: The main naval armament by the ram. Those who noted the tiny number of ships that had actually been sunk by ramming struggled to be heard. The revival of ramming had a significant effect on naval tactics. Since the 17th century the predominant tactic of naval warfare had been the line of battle , where a fleet formed a long line to give it the best fire from its broadside guns. This tactic
22184-561: The melée which followed both sides were frustrated by the lack of damage inflicted by guns, and by the difficulty of ramming—nonetheless, the effective ramming attack being made by the Austrian flagship against the Italian attracted great attention in following years. The superior Italian fleet lost its two ironclads, Re d'Italia and Palestro , while the Austrian unarmored screw two-decker SMS Kaiser remarkably survived close actions with four Italian ironclads. The battle ensured
22372-589: The morning of 27 February the ship entered the East River preparatory to leaving New York, but proved to be all but unsteerable and had to be towed back to the navy yard. Upon examination, the steering gear controlling the rudder had been improperly installed and Rowland offered to realign the rudder, which he estimated to take only a day. Ericsson, however, preferred to revise the steering gear by adding an extra set of pulleys as he believed it would take less time. His modification proved to be successful during trials on 4 March. Gunnery trials were successfully performed
22560-408: The newly built Affondatore – a double-turreted ram. Opposing them, the Austrian navy had seven ironclad frigates. The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy, so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram them. The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line, charging at the Italian ironclad squadron. In
22748-612: The old Federal naval shipyard at Gosport , near Norfolk , that could effectively engage the Union ships blockading Hampton Roads harbor and the James River leading northwest to Richmond (capital of the Confederacy). They could ultimately advance unchallenged on Washington, D.C. , up the Potomac River and other seacoast cities. Before Monitor could reach Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad had already destroyed
22936-399: The other with close-range cannon fire, although neither ship could destroy or seriously damage the other. This was the first battle fought between armored warships and marked a turning point in naval warfare. The Confederates were forced to scuttle and destroy Virginia as they withdrew in early May 1862 from Norfolk and its naval shipyard, while Monitor sailed up the James River to support
23124-407: The other. At one point, Virginia attempted to ram, but only struck Monitor a glancing blow and did no damage. The collision did, however, aggravate the damage to Virginia ' s bow from when she had previously rammed Cumberland . Monitor was also unable to do significant damage to Virginia , possibly because her guns were firing with reduced charges, on advice from Commander John Dahlgren ,
23312-403: The outer plates were bolted to the inner ones. A ninth plate, only 3 ⁄ 4 inch (19 mm) thick and 15 inches (381 mm) wide, was bolted over the butt joints of the innermost layer of armor. Glass portholes in the deck provided natural light for the interior of the ship; in action these were covered by iron plates. After the duel between the two ironclads at Hampton Roads there
23500-400: The papers Louvestre was carrying, he had production of Monitor sped up. Welles later recorded in his memoirs that "Mrs. Louvestre encountered no small risk in bringing this information ...". After the United States received word of the construction of Virginia , Congress appropriated $ 1.5 million on 3 August 1861 to build one or more armored steamships. It also ordered the creation of
23688-444: The pilothouse and the turret had broken early in the action so Keeler and Toffey had to relay commands from Worden to Greene. As Virginia approached, she began firing at Minnesota from more than a mile away, a few of her shells hitting the vessel. When the firing was heard in the distance, Greene sent Keeler to the pilot house for permission to open fire as soon as possible where Worden ordered, "Tell Mr. Greene not to fire till I give
23876-399: The pilothouse had also been hit with fragments and were also bleeding. Temporarily blinded by shell fragments and gunpowder residue from the explosion, and believing the pilothouse to be severely damaged, Worden ordered Williams to sheer off into shallow water, where Virginia with her deep draft could not follow. There Monitor drifted idly for about twenty minutes. At the time the pilothouse
24064-406: The plates extended the full 60-inch (1,524 mm) height of the side, but the two innermost plates did not extend all the way down. Ericsson originally intended to use either six 1-inch plates or a single outer 4-inch (100 mm) plate backed by three 3 ⁄ 4 -inch (19 mm) plates, but the thicker plate required too much time to roll. The two innermost plates were riveted together while
24252-471: The popularity of the ram as a weapon in European ironclads for many years, and the victory won by Austria established it as the predominant naval power in the Adriatic . The battles of the American Civil War and at Lissa were very influential on the designs and tactics of the ironclad fleets that followed. In particular, it taught a generation of naval officers the (ultimately erroneous) lesson that ramming
24440-418: The previous day, although Stimers twice nearly caused disasters as he did not understand how the recoil mechanism worked on Ericsson's carriage for the 11-inch guns. Instead of tightening them to reduce the recoil upon firing, he loosened them so that both guns struck the back of the turret, fortunately without hurting anybody or damaging the guns. Monitor employed over forty patented inventions and marked
24628-405: The profits or the losses incurred by the construction of the ironclad. There was one major delay, however, over the signing of the actual contract with the government. Welles insisted that if Monitor did not prove to be a "complete success", the builders would have to refund every cent to the government. Winslow balked at this draconian provision and had to be persuaded by his partners to sign after
24816-457: The project. It was not clear when the ship would be completed, and in 1862 Edwin Stevens estimated that it would take another $ 730,484 (U.S.) just to complete the ship enough for to be launched . When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Edwin Stevens claimed that a completed Stevens Battery would have a decisive impact against Confederate forces. Hoping to prove his point, he purchased an iron- hulled steamer and modified her greatly into
25004-504: The ram seemed to offer the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. The scant damage inflicted by the guns of Monitor and Virginia at Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d'Italia at Lissa gave strength to the ramming craze. From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as
25192-423: The river banks. The fort was strategically situated on the west bank of the James River atop of a bluff some 200 ft (61 m) above and overlooking the bend in the river. Monitor was of little help in the assault because the confinement and small gun ports of her turret would not allow her to elevate her guns sufficiently to engage the Confederate batteries at close range, so she had to fall back and fire at
25380-510: The river including Harrison's Landing which ended in August. However most of the time spent on the river was marked with inactivity and hot weather which had a negative effect on the morale of Monitor ' s crew. During the long, hot, summer, several crew members became sick and were transferred to Hampton Roads while various officers were replaced including Newton, while Jeffers was replaced by Commander Thomas H. Stevens, Jr. on 15 August. By
25568-422: The rivers, the first two of which differed from the ocean-going monitors in that they contained a paddle wheel ( USS Neosho and USS Osage ). The Union ironclads played an important role in the Mississippi and tributaries by providing tremendous fire upon Confederate forts, installations and vessels with relative impunity to enemy fire. They were not as heavily armored as the ocean-going monitors of
25756-441: The roof plates in place. The turret was intended to mount a pair of 15-inch (380 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns , but they were not ready in time and 11-inch (280 mm) guns were substituted, weighing approximately 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg) each. Monitor ' s guns used the standard propellant charge of 15 pounds (6.8 kg) specified by the 1860 ordnance for targets "distant", "near", and "ordinary", established by
25944-560: The rough seas. Monitor was now in danger of foundering , so Worden signaled Seth Low for help and had Monitor towed to calmer waters closer to shore so she was able to restart her engines later that evening. She rounded Cape Charles around 3:00 pm on 8 March and entered Chesapeake Bay , reaching Hampton Roads at 9:00 pm, well after the first day's fighting in the Battle of Hampton Roads had concluded. On 8 March 1862, Virginia , commanded by Commander Franklin Buchanan ,
26132-431: The sail frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress and had run the steam frigate USS Minnesota aground. That night, Monitor arrived and, just as Virginia set to finish off Minnesota and St. Lawrence on the second day, the new Union ironclad confronted the Confederate ship, preventing her from wreaking further destruction on the wooden Union ships. A four-hour battle ensued, each ship pounding
26320-544: The ship and the Navy decided not to spend any more money on her. On July 17, 1862, Congress voted to turn all ownership of and rights to the Stevens Battery over to the Stevens family, and the ship spent the Civil War in her drydock. Edwin Stevens died in 1868, leaving the Stevens Battery and $ 1,000,000 (USD) with which to finish her to the State of New Jersey . New Jersey Governor Theodore F. Randolph appointed an oversight commission, and Major General George B. McClellan ,
26508-414: The ship if the pumps could not get enough steam to work. Monitor ' s turret measured 20 ft (6.1 m) in diameter and 9 ft (2.7 m) high, constructed with 8 inches (20 cm) of armor (11 inches in front at the gun ports) rendering the overall vessel somewhat top heavy. Its rounded shape helped to deflect cannon shot. A pair of steam-powered donkey engines rotated the turret through
26696-409: The ship stopped because of her inadequate armor, and Commodore Charles W. Skinner , chief of the Navy's Bureau of Construction announced his intention to scrap the incomplete ship and sell her materials. The Stevens brothers succeeded in getting Congress to overrule Bancroft and Skinner, and set about radically redesigning the Stevens Battery. The new design was ready by January 1854. It called for
26884-417: The ship was completed in 1844 and called for a 250-foot-long (76-meter) ship 40 feet (12 m) in beam and displacing 1,500 tons. She was to be armed with six large-caliber muzzle-loading cannons in open casemates on decks, loaded from below the main deck by gun crews protected by armored casemates employing sloped armor to further improve protection. She was to be proof against 64-pound (29-kilogram) shells,
27072-421: The ships of the 1880s, most often 12 in (305 mm), but progressively grew in length of barrel, making use of improved propellants to gain greater muzzle velocity. The nature of the projectiles also changed during the ironclad period. Initially, the best armor-piercing projectile was a solid cast-iron shot. Later, shot of chilled iron , a harder iron alloy, gave better armor-piercing qualities. Eventually
27260-469: The slightest roll or pitch of the vessel as 'floating weapons-platform' could negate the advantage of rifling. American ordnance experts accordingly preferred smoothbore monsters whose round shot could at least 'skip' along the surface of the water. Actual effective combat ranges, they had learned during the Civil War, were comparable to those in the Age of Sail—though a vessel could now be smashed to pieces in only
27448-449: The smaller USS Galena . The first battle between ironclads happened on 9 March 1862, as the armored Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the ironclad ram Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , the two ironclads tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that
27636-504: The spar deck to find the gun crews not returning fire. Jones demanded to know why and was briefed by Lieutenant Eggleston that powder was low and precious, and given Monitor ' s resistance to shot after two hours of battle, maintained that continued firing at that point would be a waste of ammunition. Virginia soon managed to break away and headed back towards Norfolk for needed repairs, believing that Monitor had withdrawn from battle. Greene did not pursue Virginia and, like Worden,
27824-529: The sponsor of the proposal that became the armored sloop USS Galena , needed to have his design reviewed by a naval constructor . The board required a guarantee from Bushnell that his ship would float despite the weight of its armor and Cornelius H. DeLamater of New York City recommended that Bushnell consult with his friend Ericsson. The two first met on 9 September and again on the following day, after Ericsson had time to evaluate Galena 's design. During this second meeting, Ericsson showed Bushnell
28012-429: The temperamental Stanton learned that Monitor had only two guns he expressed contempt and rage as he paced back and forth, further increasing the anxiety and despair among members of the meeting. Assurances from Admiral Dahlgren and other officers that Virginia was too massive to effectively approach Washington and that Monitor was capable of the challenge offered him no consolation. After further deliberations Lincoln
28200-418: The tests partially confirmed this belief. What was ignored was that 14 inches (356 mm) of wood backing the iron would stop most of the splinters from penetrating and that relatively thin plates of iron backed by the same thickness of wood would generally cause shells to split open and fail to detonate. One factor in the performance of wrought iron during these tests that was not understood by metallurgists of
28388-444: The time of Monitor ' s commissioning were: Monitor 's crew were all volunteers and totaled 49 officers and enlisted men. The ship required ten officers: a commander, an executive officer, four engineers, one medical officer, two masters and a paymaster. Before Worden was allowed to select, assemble, and commit a crew to Monitor , the vessel had to be completed. Four of the officers were line officers and responsible for
28576-404: The turret that allowed the crew to work without getting in each other's way. Monitor also required petty officers: among them was Daniel Toffey, Worden's nephew. Worden had selected Toffey to serve as his captain's clerk. Two black Americans were also among the enlisted men in the crew. Living quarters for the senior officers consisted of eight separate well-furnished cabins, each provided with
28764-412: The turret where the fresh air could revive them. Both Newton and Stimers worked desperately to get the blowers to work, but they too succumbed to the noxious fumes and were taken above. One fireman was able to punch a hole in the fan box, drain the water, and restart the fan. Later that night, the wheel ropes controlling the ship's rudder jammed, making it nearly impossible to control the ship's heading in
28952-462: The turret with heavy shot could bend the spindle, which could also jam the turret. To gain access to the turret from below, or to hoist up powder and shot during battle, the turret had to rotate to face starboard , which would line up the entry hatch in the floor of the turret with an opening in the deck below. The roof of the turret was lightly built to facilitate any needed exchange of the ship's guns and to improve ventilation, with only gravity holding
29140-464: The vessel was supplied by two centrifugal blowers near the stern, each of which was powered by a 6-horsepower (4.5 kW) steam engine. One fan circulated air throughout the ship, but the other one forced air through the boilers, which depended on this forced draught. Leather belts connected the blowers to their engines and they would stretch when wet, often disabling the fans and boilers. The ship's pumps were steam operated and water would accumulate in
29328-404: The vessel, but she managed to slip away around the stern of Virginia in time. There was a second confrontation on 8 May, when Virginia came out while Monitor and four other Federal ships bombarded Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point. The Federal ships retired slowly to Fort Monroe, hoping to lure Virginia into the Roads. She did not follow, however, and after firing a gun to windward as
29516-547: The water line. Congress passed and President Tyler signed the Stevens Battery Act the same year to authorize funding for the construction of the ship, and the U.S. Navy's Board of Commissioners approved the Stevens brothers' specific proposal for the ship in January 1842. An Act of Congress authorizing Upshur to contract for the construction of a shot- and shell-proof steamer, to be built principally of iron, on
29704-428: The weapon and can also endanger the gun crew. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns suffered from both problems; the shells were unable to penetrate the 4.5-inch (114 mm) armor of Gloire , while sometimes the screw which closed the breech flew backwards out of the gun on firing. Similar problems were experienced with the breech-loading guns which became standard in the French and German navies. These problems influenced
29892-560: The western front, the Union built a formidable force of river ironclads, beginning with several converted riverboats and then contracting engineer James Eads of St. Louis , Missouri to build the City-class ironclads. These excellent ships were built with twin engines and a central paddle wheel, all protected by an armored casemate. They had a shallow draft, allowing them to journey up smaller tributaries, and were very well suited for river operations. Eads also produced monitors for use on
30080-556: The wooden warship was now out of date, with the ironclads destroying them easily. The Civil War saw more ironclads built by both sides, and they played an increasing role in the naval war alongside the unarmored warships, commerce raiders and blockade runners. The Union built a large fleet of fifty monitors modeled on their namesake. The Confederacy built ships designed as smaller versions of Virginia , many of which saw action, but their attempts to buy ironclads overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for
30268-412: The word, to be cool and deliberate, to take sure aim and not waste a shot." Monitor , to the surprise of Virginia ' s crew, had emerged from behind Minnesota and positioned herself between her and the grounded ship, preventing the Confederate ironclad from further engaging the vulnerable wooden ship at close range. At 8:45 am Worden gave the order to fire where Greene fired the first shots of
30456-611: Was a conventional warship made of wood, but she was converted into an iron-covered casemate ironclad gunship, when she entered the Confederate Navy . By this time, the Union had completed seven ironclad gunboats of the City class , and was about to complete USS Monitor , an innovative design proposed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson . The Union was also building a large armored frigate, USS New Ironsides , and
30644-473: Was aboard and inspected Monitor after the battle responded in a letter of 30 April 1862: "With reference to the Monitor, the moment I jumped on board of her after the fight I saw that a steam tug with twenty men could have taken the upper part of her in as many seconds ... I hear that hot water pipes are arranged so as to scald the assailants when they may dare to set foot on her." The chance to employ such
30832-522: Was already at his station in the pilot house while Greene took command of the turret. Samuel Howard, Acting Master of Minnesota , who was familiar with Hampton Roads with its varying depths and shallow areas, had volunteered to be the pilot the night before and thus was accepted, while Quarter Master Peter Williams steered the vessel throughout the battle (Williams was later awarded the Medal of Honor for this act). The speaking tube used to communicate between
31020-491: Was commissioned, she ran an unsuccessful set of sea trials on 19 February. Valve problems with the main engine and one of the fan engines prevented her from reaching the Brooklyn Navy Yard from Bushwick Inlet and she had to be towed there the next day. These issues were easily fixed and Monitor was ordered to sail for Hampton Roads on 26 February, but her departure had to be delayed one day to load ammunition. On
31208-444: Was concern by some Navy officials who witnessed the battle that Monitor ' s design might allow for easy boarding by the Confederates. In a letter dated 27 April 1862 Lieutenant Commander O.C. Badger wrote to Lieutenant H. A. Wise, Assistant Inspector of Ordnance, advising the use of "liquid fire", scalding water from the boiler through hoses and pipes, sprayed out via the vents and pilothouse window, to repel enemy boarders. Wise who
31396-451: Was finally assured but Stanton remained almost in a state of terror and sent telegrams to various governors and mayors of the coastal states warning them of the danger. Subsequently, Stanton approved a plan to load some sixty canal boats with stone and gravel and sink them in the Potomac, but Welles was able to convince Lincoln at the last moment that such a plan would only prevent Monitor and other Union ships from reaching Washington and that
31584-431: Was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow, however, its position prevented Monitor from firing her guns straight forward. One of Ericsson's prime goals in designing the ship was to present the smallest possible target to enemy gunfire. The ship was 179 feet (54.6 m) long overall , had a beam of 41 feet 6 inches (12.6 m) and had a maximum draft of 10 feet 6 inches (3.2 m). Monitor had
31772-411: Was gone, and the ship was not yet ready for launching even after the Stevens family had spent $ 2,000,000 (USD) on her since proposing her in 1841. McClellan estimated that she would require another $ 450,000 (USD) just to reach a state where she could be launched, with more necessary to fit her out after that. No more money was available from the Stevens family, Robert and Edwin Stevens both were dead, and
31960-715: Was laid the same day. The turret was built and assembled at the Novelty Iron Works in Manhattan , disassembled and shipped to Bushwick Inlet where it was reassembled. The ship's steam engines and machinery were constructed at the DeLamater Iron Works , also in Manhattan. Chief Engineer Alban C. Stimers , who once served aboard Merrimack , was appointed Superintendent of the ship while she was undergoing construction. Although never formally assigned to
32148-404: Was losing interest in the ship. By 1861, it had spent $ 500,000 (U.S.) on the project, and the Stevens family had spent another $ 228,435 (U.S.). That year, Edwin Stevens and his brother John C. Stevens offered to pay for completion of the ship themselves if the Navy would agree to pay for the ship if it was completed and proved successful, but a Navy board rejected the offer, finding deficiencies in
32336-463: Was more susceptible to fouling by marine life. By 1862, navies across Europe had adopted ironclads. Britain and France each had sixteen either completed or under construction, though the British vessels were larger. Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain were also building ironclads. However, the first battles using the new ironclad ships took place during the American Civil War, between Union and Confederate ships in 1862. These were markedly different from
32524-526: Was optimistic, informing the crew his eyesight would soon return but he would be laid up for some time. She also informed them President Lincoln had personally paid Worden a visit extending his gratitude. Worden was later taken to his summer home in New York and remained unconscious for three months. He returned to Naval service in 1862 as captain of USS Montauk , another Monitor -type ironclad. The Confederates were also celebrating what they considered
32712-450: Was propelled by a steam engine, driving a single screw propeller for a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was armed with thirty-six 6.4-inch (160 mm) rifled guns. France proceeded to construct 16 ironclad warships, including two sister ships to Gloire , and the only two-decked broadside ironclads ever built, Magenta and Solférino . The Royal Navy had not been keen to sacrifice its advantage in steam ships of
32900-485: Was proposed by Ericsson on 20 January 1862 and approved by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox . While Ericsson stood on its deck in defiance of all his critics who thought she would never float, Monitor was launched on 30 January 1862 to the cheers of the watching crowd, even those who had bet that the ship would sink straight to the bottom, and commissioned on 25 February. Even before Monitor
33088-460: Was ready to engage the Union flotilla blockading the James River. Virginia was powered by Merrimack ' s original engines, which had been condemned by the US Navy before her capture. The ship's chief engineer, H. Ashton Ramsay, served in Merrimack before the Civil War broke out and knew of the engines' unreliability, but Buchanan pushed forward undaunted. The slow-moving Virginia attacked
33276-691: Was relieved of command by Catesby ap Roger Jones . Days before the battle a telegraph cable was laid between Fortress Monroe, which overlooked Hampton Roads, and Washington. Washington was immediately informed of the dire situation after the initial battle. Many were now concerned Virginia would put to sea and begin bombarding cities such as New York while others feared she would ascend the Potomac River and attack Washington. In an emergency meeting among President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton , Secretary Welles and other senior naval officers, inquiries were made about Monitor ' s ability to stop Virginia ' s prospect of further destruction. When
33464-408: Was sometimes sarcastically described by the press and other critics as "Ericsson's folly", "cheesebox on a raft" and the "Yankee cheesebox". The most prominent feature on the vessel was a large cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships above the low-freeboard upper hull , also called the "raft". This extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped hull. A small armored pilot house
33652-440: Was struck Worden's injury was only known to those in the pilothouse and immediately nearby. With Worden severely wounded, command passed to the executive officer, Samuel Greene . Taken by surprise, he was briefly undecided as to what action to take next, but after assessing the damage soon ordered Monitor to return to the battle area. Shortly after Monitor withdrew, Virginia had run aground, at which time Jones came down from
33840-409: Was swayed by an explosion on board HMS Thunderer caused by a gun being double-loaded, a problem which could only happen with a muzzle-loading gun. The caliber and weight of guns could only increase so far. The larger the gun, the slower it would be to load, the greater the stresses on the ship's hull, and the less the stability of the ship. The size of the gun peaked in the 1880s, with some of
34028-493: Was the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850. Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), regardless of the wind conditions: a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over
34216-418: Was the best way to sink enemy ironclads. The adoption of iron armor meant that the traditional naval armament of dozens of light cannon became useless, since their shot would bounce off an armored hull. To penetrate armor, increasingly heavy guns were mounted on ships; nevertheless, the view that ramming was the only way to sink an ironclad became widespread. The increasing size and weight of guns also meant
34404-427: Was the construction of two Warrior -class ironclads; HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince . The ships had a successful design, though there were necessarily compromises between 'sea-keeping', strategic range and armor protection. Their weapons were more effective than those of Gloire , and with the largest set of steam engines yet fitted to a ship, they could steam at 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h). Yet
34592-432: Was the most innovative design by virtue of its low freeboard , shallow -draft iron hull, and total dependence on steam power. The riskiest element of its design was its rotating gun turret , something that had not previously been tested by any navy. Ericsson's guarantee of delivery in 100 days proved to be decisive in choosing his design despite the risk involved. Monitor was an unusual vessel in almost every respect and
34780-437: Was to have bulwarks to make her more seaworthy when steaming which could be lowered to reduce her freeboard in combat, making her a smaller target. Again, the ship was to be semisubmersible, able to submerge herself down to the gunwales, also to make her a smaller target. Her armament was to consist of two 10-inch (254-millimeter) rifled guns mounted on pivots fore and aft and five 15-inch (381-mm) smoothbore guns mounted on
34968-423: Was totally unsuited to ramming, and the ram threw fleet tactics into disarray. The question of how an ironclad fleet should deploy in battle to make best use of the ram was never tested in battle, and if it had been, combat might have shown that rams could only be used against ships which were already stopped dead in the water. The ram finally fell out of favor in the 1880s, as the same effect could be achieved with
35156-403: Was under orders to stay with and protect Minnesota , an action for which he was later criticized. As a result of the duel between the two ironclads, Monitor had been struck twenty-two times, including nine hits to the turret and two hits to the pilothouse. She had managed to fire forty-one shots from her pair of Dahlgren guns. Virginia had sustained ninety-seven indentations to her armor from
35344-527: Was well furnished with an oriental rug, a large oak table and other such items. Ericsson had personally paid for the costs of all the officer's furnishings. Many details of Monitor ' s history and insights of everyday crew life have been discovered from correspondence sent from the various crew members to family and friends while serving aboard the ironclad. In particular the correspondence of George S. Geer , who sent more than 80 letters, often referred to as The Monitor Chronicles , to his wife Martha during
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