Battle of the Ironclads

Page 3 of 7

• 1. Development of the Ironclads
• 2. USS Merrimack
• 3. USS Monitor
• 4. Challenge to the northern blockade
• 5. Meeting of the Ironclads
• 6. Last orders
• 7. Find out more
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USS Monitor

Looking around anxiously for a solution, Lincoln turned to the eccentric Swedish engineer John Ericsson who had lived at the sharp edge of technical innovation for over 30 years, real success always just one step away.

In 1861, amidst howls of derision from competitors, Ericsson produced the design for a ship even more audacious than the 'Merrimack'. The South had merely covered a wooden frigate with metal - his design would be made entirely of iron. The 'Merrimack' still had hundreds of guns, while Ericsson's ship would have only two because her gun turret would be designed to rotate 360 degrees, so that, unlike any ship before, she could remain stationary during a battle and still aim shots at any angle.

Ericsson named her the 'USS Monitor', and with a one hundred day deadline for completion, the frantic construction began on 25 October 1861. In only 118 days, the 'Monitor' was completed. Her crew had come from every corner of the globe but their experience had not prepared them for what they first saw on a freezing 30 January in 1862. Gone were the traditional wooden frigate's tall masts, clouds of sail and gun decks bristling with cannon. Instead, in stunned disbelief, they beheld a metal tube, just 179 feet long, with only a circular gun turret and square pilot house protruding above the water.

'In only 118 days, the 'Monitor' was completed.'

While the luxury and space formerly afforded the officers had vanished, the crew were now subject to new and unwelcome surveillance from their superiors. At one fell stroke, swashbuckling heroes had been transformed into little more than automatons. The 58 man crew was not only far smaller but different in skills from that of earlier ships. Where there had been dozens of gunners there were now only four, mechanics replaced carpenters, boiler men replaced sail-makers, and the all important presence of the engineers replaced riggers.

But there were dangers, new ones resulting from the very innovations designed to protect the crew of the 'Monitor'. Confined there below the waterline, with no daylight, the crew depended on the machinery for the very air they breathed. If the machine broke down, they would die. Her lethal potential was soon to become clear as she hit rough seas.

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Published: 2006-01-12