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USS Monitor (1862)

USS Monitor (1862) History

Northern spies report to the US War Department that the Merrimack is being converted into an ironclad. Then Navy Secretary Gideon Wells admitted he feared the reborn Merrimack would break through the blockade imposed by Hampton Roads, Virginia, and bomb the White House along the Potomac River. Minister Wells was a multi-talented statesman who was able to raise funds for the construction of the Northern Ironclad within a few days and then set up the Ironclad Commission to oversee the construction.

Secretary Wells directed the committee to review the ironclad plans and propose the most promising of these designs to the Admiralty. Three were chosen: a turret design like the French Gloire, which would eventually become the USS New Ironsides; a small armoured gunship called the USS Galena; and the turret armour that would become the USS Monitor, a design produced by a certain John Ericsson . Ericsson maintains contacts with the Admiralty and believes he has been deceived by work done in the past. He was considered a formidable man, but he earned respect as the documented inventor of the propeller. The board members themselves were a combination of shipbuilders and engineers, who were unsure that the radical design Ericsson submitted for the blueprint represented no other ship built in history.

A board member suggested Ericsson add masts and sails to increase propulsion. Erickson refused because he understood that warship construction was undergoing a revolution, eliminating masts and sails in favor of self-propelling. Many shipbuilding companies at the time were still associated with timber construction and canvas rigging. Wells spoke to Ericsson to support his all-iron design, and was told "the sea would pass over her and she would live in it like a duck".

Still, many other naval professionals disapprove of the unconventional design. However, current U.S. President Abraham Lincoln put all of these designs on hold, and Wells funded all three, and work began immediately.

So far, nothing like the USS Monitor at sea - the ship alone contains about 47 patentable inventions. She is a small flat armored ship with a rotating turret that looks like a hat box. The tower is protected by eight layers of one-inch curved iron plates. The hull consists of two parts: the upper deck.

05 inch flat iron plates are bolted to the iron beams. This deck is attached to the lower hull like a raft. The freeboard used to reduce the waves that washed the deck was only 18 inches high and proved so ineffective that a sea watch could be dangerous to the crew.

Deck armor provides only minimal protection from falling fire from above, but it was built in response to Confederate CSS Virginianot a defensive, missile-throwing coastal battery. The hull sides have 5" iron plates bolted to 24" oak beams.

USS Monitor showed a shallow draft that allowed her to operate in less than 11 feet of water. Ericsson developed the monitor's motor, which it calls a "vibration lever" and provides enough power for the ship to reach 6 knots.

The 120-ton, 20-foot-diameter turret was Monitor's most ingenious invention, using a separate little "donkey" motor to rotate 360 ??degrees in 24 seconds. The tower is supported by a central pillar or spindle several inches above the main deck.

Ericsson designed the turret to support two 15" Dahlgren smoothbore guns, but eventually had to accept the 11" Dahlgren type due to availability.

The New York Times called the monitors "Ericsson's folly," but a hundred days later, on January 30, 1862, thousands flocked to witness the launch of the iron ship at Green Point, Brooklyn ( or sunk, as some have suggested), New York Watch Field. Ericsson's monitors were launched in Manhattan's East River before two of her competing designs were completed.

The hull was floating, and she looked like gravel floating on the river. At this point she is firing without the turret, as the turret will be installed some time later. Her maiden voyage in brown waters officially began after the tower was raised and the crew boarded.

She sailed to the New York River, turned to Brooklyn, and walked back and forth like a drunk; her crew found her unresponsive to the rudder controls. Adjustments were made on board and further excursions from Green Point were made until Lt.

John Worden, the commander of the US Navy Monitor, was fully satisfied.