Existing comment:
USS Monitor:
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles called for plans for ironclad ships that would counter the one that the Confederacy was building. Famed naval engineer John Ericsson submitted one of three accepted plans, promising that his design could be built in 90 days. It took 100.
Monitor was unlike anything ever seen before, "a cheese box on a raft." Its rotating turret mounted only two guns on a hull that was barely above water. This design was ideal for river combat, but not for rough seas. The Monitor sank in December 1862 off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Duel of the Ironclads:
Lacking manpower and resources, the Confederacy relied on superior ships. Burned when the Union abandoned Gosport Navy Yard, Merrimack's machinery and hull laid the foundation of a new class of warship. Rebuilt as Virginia, the ship was armored with 24 inches of wood and four inches of iron plates. On March 8, the ironclad steamed from Gosport toward the Union fleet at Hampton Roads.
Virginia sank the sloop Cumberland, and forced frigates Congress and Minnesota aground -- a good day's work. But that night, a new, more radical, vessel entered the Roads. The clash between Monitor and Virginia on March 9, 1862, marked the end of the supremacy of [the] wooden battleship.
CSS Virginia:
When the Union abandoned Gosport Navy Yard, the steam frigate Merrimack was set afire to keep her out of rebel hands. Though she burned to the waterline, her lower hull and machinery were salvageable. She was raised and rebuilt as an ironclad ram, according to the plans of Lieut. J. M. Brooke. The ship's upper works were covered with iron rolled at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. It was hoped that Virginia, alone but impregnable, could break the Union blockade of the Chesapeake Bay. |