USS Monitor was an ironclad warship built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, becoming 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 , built on the hull of the scuttled steam frigate , to 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 101 days in Brooklyn, New York, on 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 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 the sail frigates and and had run the steam frigate 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 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 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 the last day of the year. Monitors 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.
Conception
While the concept of ships protected by armor existed before the advent of the ironclad Monitor,Bennett, 1900, pp. 212–213. the need for iron plating on ship arose only after 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.Baxter, 1933, pp. 3–9.
In response, the United States began construction in 1854 of a steam-powered ironclad warship, Stevens Battery,Gardiner, 1992, pp. 50–55. 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.Konstam, 2002, p. 12. It was France that introduced the first operational armored ships as well as the first shell guns and rifled cannons.Bennett, 1900, p. 64.
Experience during 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 the archives of the French Ministry of the Navy (Ministre de la Marine) when they were searched by naval historian James Phinney Baxter III.Baxter, 1933, pp. 184–185. The French followed those ships with the first ocean-going ironclad, the armored frigate in 1859, and the British responded with .
The Union Navy's attitude towards ironclads changed quickly when it was learned that the Confederates were converting the captured to an ironclad at the naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. Subsequently, the urgency of Monitors 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 the Confederates' progress in converting the Merrimack to an ironclad; this prompted the Union Navy to complete and deploy Monitor as soon as possible.Clancy, 2013, p. 55.
Word of Merrimacks 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,CIA: Historical Document: Black Dispatches. made her way through Confederate lines with news that 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.Davis, 1996, pp. 214–215. 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 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 ...".Allen, 2008, pp. 115–116.Tomblin, 2009, p. 161
Approval
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 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.Roberts, 1999, p. 5
Ericsson originally made no submission to the board, but became involved when Cornelius Bushnell, the sponsor of the proposal that became the armored sloop , 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 armorRoberts, 1999, p. 7 and Cornelius H. DeLamater of New York City recommended that Bushnell consult with his friend Ericsson.Baxter, 1933, p. 253 The two first met on 9 September and again on the following day, after Ericsson had time to evaluate Galena design.
During this second meeting, Ericsson showed Bushnell 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 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".Ward, Burns and Burns, 1990, p. 99 On 15 September, after further deliberations, the board accepted Ericsson's proposal.Thompson, 1990, p. 224 The Ironclad Board evaluated 17 different designs, but recommended only three for procurement on 16 September, including Ericsson's Monitor design.Roberts, 1999, pp. 7, 16–17
The three ironclad ships selected differed substantially in design and degree of risk. Monitor 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.Roberts, 1999, pp. 7–11
Design and description
Monitor was an unusual vessel in almost every respect and was sometimes sarcastically described by the press and other critics as "Ericsson's folly", "cheesebox on a raft"Thulesius, 2007, pp. 108, 113Bushnell, Ericsson, Welles, 1899, pp. 17, 41 and the "Yankee cheesebox".McCordock, 1938, p. 103 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 was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow. 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 long overall, had a beam of and had a maximum draft of . Monitor had a tonnage of 776 tons burthen and displaced . Her crew consisted of 49 officers and enlisted men.Silverstone, p. 4
The ship was powered by a two-cylinder horizontal vibrating-lever steam engine, also designed by Ericsson, which drove a propeller,Thompson, 1990, p. 228. whose shaft was nine inches in diameter.Broadwater, 2012, p. 128 The engine used steam generated by two horizontal fire-tube boilersCanney, 1993, p. 30 at a maximum pressure of .Thompson, 1990, p. 227 The engine was designed to give the ship a top speed of , but Monitor was slower in service.Campbell, 1979, p. 119 The engine had a bore of and a stroke of . The ship carried of coal. Ventilation for the vessel was supplied by two centrifugal blowers near the stern, each of which was powered by a 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 the ship if the pumps could not get enough steam to work.