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The USS Monitor — looking like a "heesebox on a raft", this United States Civil War ship, engineered by John Ericsson, is most famous for its participation in the first ever naval battle between two ironclad ships when it battled the CSS Virginia (perhaps more commonly known, in the North at least, by its former designation, the Merrimack) near Hampton Roads, Virginia on March 9, 1862. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Monitor trapped the Virginia in the James River. Neither ship played much of a subsequent part in the war.
The ship consisted of a heavy, round iron turret on the deck, which housed two large cannon. The armored deck was barely above the water line. Aside from a smoke stack and a few fittings, the bulk of the ship was below the water line to prevent damage from cannon fire (torpedoes, that is, anchored naval mines, were a concern, though self-propelled torpedoes would not be a worry for another 50 years). Monitor was launched on January 30, 1862.
Monitor was one of the most innovative naval vessels of all time. It was the first ship made almost entirely out of iron. Parts were forged in nine foundries and brought together to build the ship. The entire process took less than 120 days. Other innovations included the "cheesebox", which was the first rotating turret, it was the first naval vessel fitted with Ericsson's marine screw and it even anticipated some aspects of submarine design by placing all facilities but the pilot station and turret under water, making it the first semi-submersible watercraft. In contrast, Virginia, was a conventional wooden vessel covered with iron plates and with fixed weapons.
Monitor was lost at sea during a heavy storm, swamped by high waves and sunk on December 30, 1862.
Already three months after the famous battle the design was offered to Sweden and in 1865 the first Swedish monitor was being built at Motala Warf in Norrköping. The first one was named John Ericsson in honour of the constructor. It was followed by 14 more monitors. One of them, Sölve, is preserved at the marine museum in Gothenburg.
In 1974, the wreck of Monitor was located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The wreck site was designated as the United States' first marine sanctuary. The Monitor Sanctuary is the only one of the thirteen national marine sanctuaries created to protect a cultural (as opposed to a natural) resource.
External links
- Monitor in the news - Its 'revolutionary' gun turret has been raised from the ocean floor.
- Online exhibition of the Monitor
- The Monitor Centre at the Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia