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USS Monitor
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USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy. ‘‘Monitor’’ was the first in a long line of Monitor-class U.S. warships and the term "monitor" describes a broad class of European harbor defense craft.
Ironclads were only a recent innovation, started with the 1859 French battleship La Gloire.
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USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy. ‘‘Monitor’’ was the first in a long line of Monitor-class U.S. warships and the term "monitor" describes a broad class of European harbor defense craft.
Ironclads were only a recent innovation, started with the 1859 French battleship La Gloire. Afterwards, the design of ships and the nature of naval warfare changed dramatically.
Design
Monitor was one of three ironclad warships ordered by the U.S. Navy, after Galena and New Ironsides.
Designed by the Swedish engineer John Ericsson, Monitor was described as a "cheesebox on a raft," consisting of a heavy round revolving iron gun turret on the deck, housing two Dahlgren guns, paired side by side. The original design used a system of heavy metal shutters to protect the gun ports while reloading. However, the operation of the shutters proved so cumbersome, the gun crews simply rotated the turret away from potential hostile fire to reload. Further, the momentum of the rotating turret proved to be so great that a system for stopping the turret to fire the guns was only implemented on later models of ships in the Monitor class. The crew of Monitor solved the turret momentum problem by firing the guns on the fly while the turret rotated past the target. While this procedure resulted in a substantial loss of accuracy, given the close range at which Monitor operated, the loss of accuracy was not critical.
The armored deck was barely above the waterline. Aside from a small boxy pilothouse, a detachable smokestack and a few fittings, the bulk of the ship was below the waterline to prevent damage from cannon fire. The turret comprised 8 layers of plate, bolted together, with a ninth plate inside to act as a sound shield. A steam donkey engine turned the turret. The heavily armored deck extended beyond the waterproof hull, only thick. The vulnerable parts of the ship were completely protected. Monitors hull was built at the Continental Iron Works in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York, and the ship was launched there on January 30, 1862. The steam engines and machinery were constructed at the DeLamater Iron Works in Manhattan where 13th Street meets the Hudson River There is a statue in Monsignor McGolrick park in Greenpoint, facing Monitor Street, commemorating the ship.
Monitor was innovative in construction technique as well as design. Parts were forged in nine foundries and brought together to build the ship; the whole process took less than 120 days. Portions of the heavy iron armor plating for the vessel were made at a forge in Clintonville, New York. In addition to the "cheesebox", its rotating turret, Monitor was also fitted with Ericsson's novel marine screw, whose efficiency and reliability allowed the warship to be one of the first to rely exclusively upon steam propulsion. Ericsson anticipated some aspects of modern submarine design by placing all of Monitors features except the turret and pilothouse underwater, making it the first semi-submersible ship. In contrast, Virginia was a conventional wooden vessel covered with iron plates and bearing fixed weapons.
Although John Ericsson was the designer of the ship itself, Saratoga Springs resident Theodore Timby is credited with the design of the revolving gun turret. After showing his model to officials at the White House, a naval commission recommended Ericsson's ironclad be built with Timby's turret. Timby was paid a $13,500 commission for his contribution. This is equivalent to $ in present day terms.
Battle of Hampton Roads
At the Battle of Hampton Roads Virginia attacked the Union blockading squadron in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 8, 1862, destroying USS Cumberland and Congress and forcing Minnesota aground before withdrawing. That night, Monitor, under command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, arrived under tow from Brooklyn. When Virginia returned the next day, March 9, to finish off Minnesota and the rest of the blockaders, Monitor sortied to stop her. The ironclads fought for about four hours, neither one sinking or seriously damaging the other. Tactically, the battle between these two ships was a draw—neither ironclad did significant damage to the other. However, it was a strategic victory for Monitor: Virginia's mission was to break the Union blockade; that mission failed. Monitor's mission was to defend the U.S. fleet, but she arrived too late to save Cumberland, Congress, or Minnesota, resulting in heavy losses for the Federal Navy. Virginia continued to occupy the 'battlefield' following the retreat of Monitor, after the captain of the Monitor was hit in the eyes with gunpowder. The two ironclads never again fought each other, although Virginia occasionally steamed out to Hampton Roads in an unanswered challenge to Monitor. Monitor stood by as eventually the Confederate Navy sent Lieutenant Joseph N. Barney in command of CSS Jamestown, along with Virginia and five other ships in full view of the Union squadron, enticing them to fight, but Monitor refused to engage. When it became clear the U.S. Navy ships were unwilling to fight, the Confederate squadron moved in and captured three merchant ships, the brigs Marcus and Sabout and the schooner Catherine T. Dix. Their flags were then hoisted "Union-side down" to further taunt Monitor into a fight, as they were towed back to Norfolk, with the help of the CSS Raleigh. In all, two ships were destroyed, one wrecked, and three seized, and Monitor never engaged in combat again.
The Monitor-class warship
Monitor became the prototype for the monitor class of warship. Many more were built, including river monitors and deep-sea monitors, and they played key roles in Civil War battles on the Mississippi and James rivers. Some had two or even three turrets, and later monitors had improved seaworthiness.
Just three months after the famous Battle of Hampton Roads, the design was offered to Sweden, and in 1865 the first Swedish monitor was being built at Motala Wharf in Norrköping; she was named John Ericsson in honor of the engineer. She was followed by 14 more monitors. One of them, Sölve, is still preserved at the marine museum in Gothenburg.
The last U.S. Navy monitor-class warship was stricken from the Navy List in 1937; however, the term remains in use as a generic term to describe an armored river patrol vessel.
Loss at sea
While the design of Monitor was well-suited for river combat, her low freeboard and heavy turret made her highly unseaworthy in rough waters. This feature probably led to the early loss of the original Monitor, which foundered during a heavy storm. Swamped by high waves while under tow by Rhode Island, she sank on December 31, 1862 in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 of 62 crewmen were lost in the storm.
The name Monitor was given to the troop carrier USS Monitor (LSV-5), commissioned late in World War II. She served primarily in the Pacific theater, and was later scrapped.
Rediscovery
In 1973, the wreck of the ironclad Monitor was located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about 16 nautical miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The wreck site was designated as the United States' first marine sanctuary. Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is the only one of the thirteen national marine sanctuaries created to protect a cultural resource, rather than a natural resource.
In 1986, Monitor was designated a National Historic Landmark. It is one of only four accessible monitor vessels in the world, the others being the Australian vessel HMVS Cerberus, and the wreck of the Norwegian KNM Thor, which lies at about off Verdens Ende in Vestfold county, Norway, and the British vessel Hellman.
In 1998 the warship's propeller was raised to the surface. On July 16, 2001, divers from the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and the US Navy brought to the surface the steam engine. Due to the depth of the wreck, the divers utilized surface supplied diving techniques while breathing heliox. In August 2002, after 41 days of work, the revolutionary revolving gun turret was recovered by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a team of U.S. Navy divers. Before removing the turret, divers discovered the remains of two trapped crew members. The remains of these sailors, who died while on duty, are at the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, awaiting positive identification.
The site is now under the supervision of NOAA. Many artifacts from Monitor, including her turret, propeller, anchor, engine and some personal effects of the crew, have been conserved and are on display at the Mariners' Museum of Newport News, Virginia. Artifact recovery from the site has become paramount, as the wreck has become unstable and will decay over the next several decades; this fate also awaits many other commonly-dove wrecks of iron and steel ships, such as Titanic.
Campaign to honor Monitor
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable is mounting a grassroots campaign to persuade the United States Congress and the Navy to name a Virginia class submarine after Monitor. Despite the enduring fame of the original, innovative ironclad, there has not been a warship named Monitor listed in the Naval Vessel Register since 1961.
See also
Bibliography
Military Heritage magazine did a feature on the USS Merrimack (CSS Virginia), the USS Monitor, and the Battle at Hampton Roads (Keith Milton, Military Heritage, December 2001, Volume 3, No. 3, pp.38 to 45 and p. 97). Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, Stackpole books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, various issues, 1902
Publications
The Monitor and the Navy under Steam (Boston, 1900) Johnson and C. C. Buel (editors), Battles and Leaders of the Civil War volume i, (New York, 1887) Wilson, Ironclads in Action (London, 1896) Hill, Twenty-six Historic Ships (New York, 1903)
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