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| The world changed forever with the advent of 'ironclad' warfare. Timewatch producer Tim Robinson tells the story of two remarkable ships. |  Sailors onboard the 'USS Monitor'
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On 9 March 1862, an inconclusive battle in the American Civil War transformed the face of naval warfare forever. It was the world's first combat between ships with iron hulls. The 'ironclads' were born. Fighting for the South was a weapon shaped like a huge metal covered barn roof, the 'USS Merrimack'. Fighting for the North was an even stranger contraption, the 'USS Monitor'. Neither could sink the other.
For nine months the crew of the 'USS Monitor' ruled the seas until disaster struck. They left behind poignant photographs and letters that painted a vivid picture of a world poised on the brink of a new kind of war. One sailor on board wrote: 'I think we get more credit for the mere fight than we deserve. Anyone could fight behind impenetrable armour.' This is the story of the lives and deaths of the men who sailed on the first modern warship.
Less than a year after their epic battle, both ironclads lay on the seabed. More than 100 years after the 'USS Monitor' disappeared, her wreckage was suddenly discovered. Inside the gun turret, a most momentous discovery was made: the remains of two sailors. The search for their identities has been ongoing ever since.
But the North's largest naval yard at the mouth of the James River in Virginia soon came under threat. As the South closed in, Northern troops fled, torching whatever they could not take - including the enormous frigate the 'USS Merrimack'.
Historian Professor David Mindell, who has been fascinated by the 'Monitor' for many years, said: 'The Merrimack' was one of the largest steam frigates in the Union Navy at the time and the Union burned it and it sank right at its dock in the navy yard in Newport News. Rather than taking it out of action however it merely caused the South to innovate.'
When the South pulled up the wreckage of the 'USS Merrimack', the designers decided not to rebuild this wooden frigate. Instead they covered all 275 feet of her with thick plates of iron, added metals spikes and a 40 foot iron ram on her prow.
'The 'Merrimack' was one of the largest steam frigates in the US Navy at the time'
A monster had arisen from the ashes to threaten Lincoln’s blockade. Rumours of the South’s terrible new weapon sent a shiver of fear through the Union, even touching the heart of the president.
As Professor David Mindell wrote: 'One of the observers commented on Lincoln going to the window and actually looking out the window of the Oval office, trying to see down the Potomac, whether the 'Merrimack' wasn't steaming up the Potomac here to shell Washington into submission.'
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.
One by one, the 'Merrimack' destroyed the Union's outdated wooden vessels, as Union cannon balls helplessly bounced off. Two great frigates were destroyed and only oncoming darkness prevented her from finishing off the whole fleet.
In little over four hours the Union Navy had suffered the most humiliating defeat it had ever endured. The 'USS Monitor', racing towards Hampton Roads, represented the Union's last hope of saving the blockade.
The 'Monitor' arrived just in time to witness, from a few miles away, the full force of her foe's destructive powers. For one night the Confederate Navy ruled the seas - unaware that the 'Monitor' was heading their way. As dawn arrived on 9 March, those on board the 'Merrimack' saw a strange new contraption emerging from behind one of few remaining frigates - dwarfed by the massive wooden dinosaur which had concealed her. As the 'Merrimack' approached the 'Monitor', no-one knew what to expect.
In theory the 'Monitor' had the advantage over her opponent because, while the 'Merrimack' had to keep repositioning, the rotating gun turret of the 'USS Monitor' meant she could fire from whatever position she was in. In practice whatever advantage the gun turret’s rotation gave was negated by the considerable time it took to reload her two guns. Once again, design flaws thwarted the crew of the 'Monitor' as they couldn't fire directly forwards or backwards for fear of damaging their own ship.
'The rotating gun turret of the 'USS Monitor' meant she could fire whatever position she was in'
At 12 noon, after four hours of fighting, the 'Merrimack' made a lucky hit straight onto the viewing slit of the pilot house while the captain of the 'Monitor' looked out. The 'Monitor' now withdrew to change command. After four and a half hours of fighting neither ship was in a position to finish off the fight. The 'Merrimack', afraid of being trapped by the changing tide, decided to retreat also. The battle was over.
'The 'Monitor' dragged both the lantern and 16 men to the bottom of the sea.'
On Christmas Day 1862, the 'Monitor' received what would turn out to be her last orders, she had to undertake a perilous journey to North Carolina through waters notorious for their turbulent weather and sudden storms, known inauspiciously as 'the graveyard of the Atlantic'.
As the 'Monitor' began to sink, another ship turned up to rescue her crew. Seventy men managed to clamber onto the rescue boat. From here, they watched as the red lantern of the 'Monitor' bobbed up and down, until with one last terrible movement the great ship dragged both the lantern and 16 men to the bottom of the sea.
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Published on BBC History: 2006-01-12
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