![]() ![]() ![]() A number of ships, including the USS Merrimac, were scuttled, purposely sunk so as not to be of any value to the Confederates. When Virginia seceded from the Union in the spring of 1861, the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia was abandoned by federal troops. ![]() Library of CongressĪn abandoned Union warship converted into an ironclad by the Confederacy was lethal to wooden warships. The Attack By the Confederate Ironclad Made Wooden Warships Obsolete A lithograph depicting the devastating attack on the USS Cumberland by the CSS Virginia. Navy had been building steam-powered ships for some time when the Monitor was designed, but naval contracts still required ships to use sail if for some reason the steam engines failed.Īnd the contract to build the Monitor, which was signed in October 1861, contained a clause which Ericsson ignored and the Navy never insisted upon: it required the builder to "furnish masts, spars, sails, and rigging of sufficient dimensions to drive the vessel at the rate of six knots per hour in a fair breeze of wind." About 60 officers and men served as the ship's crew, in very tight quarters. The ship was also cramped, even by Navy standards. And thanks to its construction of iron, the interior was very cold in cold weather, and in hot weather it was like an oven. The ship was very difficult to ventilate. The ship would not handle well in open water, as waves could swamp the low deck.Īnd for sailors serving on the Monitor, life was an ordeal. While the low profile made sense for defensive reasons, it also created a number of very serious problems. It was an innovation that shattered centuries of naval strategy and tradition.Īnother novel feature of the Monitor was that much of the ship was actually below the waterline, which meant that only the turret and the low flat deck presented themselves as targets for enemy guns. The most startling innovation in Ericsson's plan for the Monitor was the inclusion of a revolving gun turret.Ī steam engine on the ship powered the turret, which could spin to allow its two heavy guns to fire in any direction. ![]() The Monitor's revolving turret meant the ship's guns could fire in any direction. Getty Imagesįor centuries, warships maneuvered in the water to bring their guns to bear on an enemy. Nearly everything on the ship was designed by Ericsson, who was busily designing parts at his drawing table as the work progressed.Īmazingly, the entire ship, which was mostly made of iron, was nearly finished within 100 days.Ī Revolving Turret Changed Centuries of Naval Tradition Ericsson's innovative plan for the Monitor included a revolving gun turret. The Navy gave Ericsson a contract to build the ship, and construction soon began at an ironworks in Brooklyn, New York.Įricsson had to rush the construction, and some features he would have liked to have included had to be set aside. It didn't look like any ship afloat, and there were serious questions about the practicality of the design.Īfter a meeting at which he was shown a model of the proposed boat, President Abraham Lincoln, who was often fascinated by new technology, gave his approval in September 1861. When the Navy became interested in obtaining an armored warship, Ericsson submitted a design, which was startling: a revolving armored turret was placed on a flat deck. John Ericsson, who had been born in Sweden in 1803, was known as a highly innovative inventor, though his designs were often met with skepticism. President Lincoln took the idea of Ericsson's armored warship seriously, and construction began on the USS Monitor in late 1861. These images show how the unusual warships made history. The age of ironclad warships dawned during the American Civil War, when the Union's USS Monitor and the Confederacy's CSS Virginia clashed in March 1862. The USS Monitor Battled the CSS Virginia in 1862 Navy Reluctantly Accepted Ericsson's Innovative Design John Ericsson, designer of the USS Monitor. ![]()
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