The Day Before The Battle Of The Ironclads Part Two. Virginia Vs Minnesota, or 'Ya Don't Mess With Minnesota'

Map of HAmpton Roads with positions of all the combatants on Mrch 8th and 9th 1862

 Map courtesy Wikipedia

Remember USS Minnesota? Last heard from steaming west from Fortress Monroe to do battle with Virginia and hopefully save USS Cumberland's and USS Congress' bacon? Didn't quite work out that way, though.

USS Minnesota was named after the Minnesota river, not the state. (In fact, there was no State of Minnesota yet when USS Minnesota was launched) She was one of five steam screw frigates of the same class built in mid 1850s, all of which were named after rivers. The others were Roanoke, Wabash, Colorado, and Merrimack. Hmmmmm...That last one sounds kinda familiar....

Very accurate Model of USS Minnesota, built by Phillip LaVoie. 

PHOTO From:

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/usn/minn-350-pl/pl-index.html

This meant that Minnesota was a near identical sister ship of The USS Merrimack AKA CSS Virginia. This, of course, also meantMinnesota was gunning for her old sister ship (As was USS Roanoke, Minnesota's squadron mate.). More importantly, this also meant that Minnesota drew the very same 24 feet that Merrimack had drawn and that Virginia still drew...bet ya see where this is heading don't ya?

According to official documents and action reports the crews of Minnesota, Roanoke and St Lawrence spotted Virginia and her escorts at about 12:45PM and immediately started making preparations to get under way...lighting off boilers, singling up mooring lines, readying guns, etc. Minnesota got under way between 1:10 PM and 2 PM, followed closely by Roanoke , the latter under tow as her engines were disabled. St Lawrence followed closely behind them, also under tow by USS Cambridge.

Minnesota was making her best speed when she came abreast of Sewall's Point, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. The Confederate battery there immediately opened fire on her, putting one shell through her main mast, and Minnesota answered them with a broadside as well as her bow pivot gun. At the same time she was swinging into Hampton Roads' North Channel for the final run to Newport News Point. The tide was heading out at this point and she was apparently hugging the north edge of the channel to get out of range of the battery at Sewall's Point .The water depth at channel's edge during low tide was 18 feet or less. The inevitable happened...Minnesota shoved herself onto the bottom mud at channel's edge, hard aground, a mile and a half from Newport News Point. Her Captain knew the bottom was soft mud and tried every maritime trick to to free her...backing her off, forcing her forward over the shoal into deeper water. Rocking her (Exact same concept as freeing a stuck car...going form reverse to full ahead, to reverse). As often happens with that same stuck car, it didn't work...all he managed to do was to force her further onto the mud bank

For their efforts, they got to sit by helplessly and watch as Virginia rammed Cumberland, then attacked and burned Congress.

Meanwhile Roanoke and St Lawrence were towed past the grounded frigate. To add insult to injury, both of them also grounded, but were pulled off by their tugs. It was after 5PM by the time Roanoke and St Lawrence were floated, too late to assist either Cumberland or Congress. St Lawrence was towed back towards Fortress Monroe, Roanoke dropped anchor and sent her tugs to assist Minnesota. (NOTE: Though I saw no source stating this, it also sounds as if her engineers and engine room crew worked their buns off getting her engines back up and running as she apparently made it back to Fortress Monroe under her own power)

Having finished with Cumberland and Congress and seeing Minnesota grounded, Flag Officer Buchanan ordered Virginia to approach and engage USS Minnesota, accompanied by Jamestown and Patrick Henry. The tide was out and at it's lowest ebb preventing Virginia from getting any closer than a mile from Minnesota due to her deep draft. On the flip side, Minnesota wasn't going anywhere for awhile.

Virginia's guns opened up at their maximum range, and Minnesota also opened up on Virginia with a couple of full broadsides as well as her ten inch pivot gun.. Between the two of them they created clouds of powder smoke, lots of noise and towering water columns but little actual damage. One of Virginia's shells passed through Minnesota's bow without inflicting major damage, the few Minnesota shells that made it to Virginia bounced off like pebbles, and Minnesota's broadsides managed to push her even further up on the mud bank. Her commanding officer noted that she created a cradle for herself in the mud. She was there until she could be pulled off

Jamestown and Patrick Henry, drawing only 13 feet apiece, were able to get in closer to Minnesota and took positions off of her port bow and port stern quarter, firing on her and causing some casualties as well as inflicting more damage, but Minnesota (Which, unlike Congress, had grounded parallel to the channel), was able to bring her bow and stern pivot guns to bear. The pivot guns were big 10 inch guns fired rapidly (For that era) and accurately by their crews and they quickly drove the two gunboats off.

(A quick note about the gunboats Jamestown and Patrick Henry. While both were classified as gunboats neither were small. Both had originally been built as passenger steamers and were sister ships. They were 250 feet long with a beam of 35 feet...Only 25 and 2 feet less than Virginia respectively. Both were fast for that era and well handled by their crews. . They weren't intended to be major warships, but jacks of all trades that could defend themselves and trade blows with the enemy...tasks both excelled at during their short careers)

Virginia steamed back and forth for a bit, searching for a way to close on Minnesota as the grounded frigate fired on her with her pivot guns to little or no effect. When it became obvious that she could get no closer to Minnesota because of shoal water, she retired back to Sewall's Point at about 7PM accompanied by her two escorts. Minnesota would still be there in the morning when the tide was in...they could finish her off then. By sheer luck Minnesota had, technically at least, fought Monitor and her escorts to a draw. She had done so, at any rate, until the tide flooded again the next morning. If she was still on this mud bank when Virginia steamed back out during flood tide...well Cumberland’s masts and Congress' smoldering remains were mute testimony to what would happen to her.

The tide turned and started coming back in at about 10PM. Minnesota's crew, along with a couple of tugs, took advantage of the flood tide and worked tirelessly through the night to float her off of the mud bank but for all intents and purposes she was part of the bottom...in fact had the bottom been rocky rather than soft sand and mud, Minnesota would have probably ripped her own bottom out. Between four and six feet of her hull was embedded in the mud, locking her in place with a vice grip. Captain Van Brunt finally gave up around 4AM. He had some back-up now anyway. About 2AM a strange looking craft slipped in along side of her and dropped anchor. Kinda looked like a Cheese Box on a Raft. USS Monitor had arrived.

**************************NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF**********************

Warning...Rob's thinking and conjecturing again! Did the Confederate Navy have a a bit of early warning that USS Monitor had arrived? I guess it depends on whose action report you believe.

There are a couple of sources that report that Confederate gunners and even the crew of the Virginia spotted Monitor coming alongside Minnesota. If you believe Captain Van Brunt's action report, they couldn't have seen her because the Confederate gunners reported seeing Monitor's distinctive shape silhouetted by the burning USS Congress. The problem was, Congress magazines exploded just after midnight, and according to Van Brunt's action report, Monitor didn't arrive at Minnesota until about 2AM.

She had been burning for close to 10 hours when her magazines finally cooked off so there couldn’t have been but so much solid structure left before the explosion, which would have likely taken down what was left , finishing the job of taking Congress all the way to the waterline. The only large more or less intact mass would have been below the surface, flooded and not burning.

BUT! The Monitor's executive officer reported in his action report that Monitor arrived at the grounded USS Minnesota at about 11:30PM. If that was indeed the case, Congress still had about a half hour to burn brightly before she exploded. If this was the case, someone may have indeed seen her slipping across Hampton Roads, silhouetted by the flaring bright orange slash that Congress was throwing across the water.

* * * *

Hampton Roads Channel had been dredged to a maximum of about 30 feet by the Civil War...25 feet was about the deepest draft you were going to find back then. The problem was, the maximum depth was only found at mid channel, and shoaling both mid channel and at the edges of the channel was a very common occurrence (Hence Minnesota running aground just inside the channel.

Today the channel's dredged to a minimum of 50 feet pretty much edge to edge, but shoaling can still be a problem. For example, the 18^th April 2011 the MV Petalon a 750 foot collier displacing nearly 100,000 tons and drawing 47 feet ran aground mid channel on the outbound side when she should have had at least 3 feet of water beneath her keel. The culprit? Minor shoaling in an area about half again the size of a football field . Quick work by the Army Corp of Engineers and The Coast Guard freed the big Collier within five hours and had the channel dredged to a shade more than 50 feet in the affected area within forty eight.

The problem is nowhere near as prevalent as it was 150 years ago...but it still happens on the rare occasion. The big difference is, of course, now the only hazard they face is loss of revenue to both the port and the shipping company while the ship 's delayed and the channel's blocked.

* * * *

USS Roanoke was towed into battle due to her engines being out of service. As she was also one of Merrimack's sister ships I can't help but wonder if engine problems were common to that class of ship and type of engine. If this is true it would just be another case of 'The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same'. There have been numerous case over the decades of problems common to every vehicle in a series...think of all the recalls you've heard about. Designed in problems are not a new phenomenon.

LINKS:

This link will probably show up on every article about The Battle Of Hampton Roads.

http://cssvirginia.org/

Click on any link in the menu to the left on the home page and you'll get tons of info about all facets of the battle.

* * * *

http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/civilwar/hamptonroads.htm#roanoke

The above link's a treasure trove. Click on it to find the official action reports of every major participant in The Battle of Hampton Roads over both days of the battle.

The Day Before The Battle of the Ironclads Part 1...Virginia Kicks Butt and Takes names

This is going to be a long entry, gang. In fact I've decided to split the events of March 8^th, 1862 into two separate posts, because that was one very busy day on the waters of Hampton Roads, let me tell ya!

Also, there's here's a reason I didn't title this post 'The Day Before The Battle of Hampton Roads'. When the majority of people think about 'The Battle of Hampton Roads', they think about only one part of it...The Monitor and the Virginia. (And lets be honest...when they think about that epic battle, most think of it as the battle between The Monitor and the Merrimack. They may or may not remember that pesky terminal 'K'.) The point is, of course, that the battle between the two ironclads was just a small part of The Battle of Hampton Roads. That battle started when the U.S. Navy blockaded the CSA's Atlantic ports, Hampton Roads among them.

The US Navy had sent a formidable blockade fleet to Hampton Roads, deploying several major warships between the mouth of the James River and the Chesapeake Bay,along the north shore of Hampton Roads. Riding point at Newport News point, at the mouth of the James (Straddling the strip of water that The Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel would occupy 140 years later ), were USS Cumberland and USS Congress.

Both ships were conventional broadside warships, big sailing frigates powered by sail only. Either warship would have been a formidable adversary against a conventional warship. Cumberland displaced 1726 tons, had a length of 175', a beam of 45', and drew just over 21'. She was armed with twenty-two 9” Dahlgrens as well as a pair of 10” Dahlgren pivot guns mounted on her deck (Likely one forward and one aft).

Congress was slightly larger at 179' in length, with a beam of just under 48' and a draft of 22' 6” She mounted four 8” Dahlgrens and forty eight 32 pounders (6.5 inchers). Both frigates could deliver a devastating broadside that would have decimated a wooden hulled ship of similar size. They were manned by dedicated, motivated, well trained crews who were spoiling for a fight with the contraption that the 'Rebs' had thrown together. And they were doomed.

Their impending doom had to wait, though. The Confederate Navy's super weapon was having a few teething pains of her own. CSS Virginia, from all accounts, had even less time for sea trials than Monitor. She was commissioned on Feb 17^th (Almost a week before the Monitor) and on the 24^h Franklin Buchanan was named as commander of the Confederate James River defenses with Virginia as his flagship. One day later the Virginia's crew found out that that their first sortie against the blockade fleet was going to be delayed by a lack of gunpowder. While waiting for the gunpowder and a few other necessities to be delivered, Buchanan grilled Virginia’s chief engineer about the readiness, condition, and reliability of her engines (He'd heard about their near-legendary crappyness) and how sturdy their foundations and those of her boilers were. As in would the engines and boilers stay put if subjected to the kind of shock that would result from ramming another ship. (The Virginia was, after all, classified as an ironclad ram). Buchanan was already formulating a game plan.

The final shipment of gunpowder from Richmond arrived on March 6th, and her first sortie against the blockade fleet was set for that night, and...well, things still didn't go exactly as planned. As a contemporary first hand account written by Virginia's Executive Officer noted, her pilots pointed out that there were no lighted navigation aids that would allow them to stay in the deep water channel. They also pointed out that, with Virginia's deep draft and the aforementioned lack of visible navigational aids they couldn't guarantee a safe trip...'Safe' meaning a sortie that didn't include her keel becoming deeply embedded in the soft mud and sand bottom of either the Elizabeth River or Hampton Roads. The sortie was pushed back about a day and a half to the late morning of Saturday March 8^th. 

Map of Hampton Roads showing ship positions on March 6th and 9th, 1862

And Virginia's Adversaries for the day:

USS Cumberland at sea.

 

USS Congress At sea, 1842

Another shot of  Cumberland...This one an actual photograph...at Portsmouth Navy yard
It's been a long LONG time since the Hampton Roads area was this uncongested!Add caption

Virginia left the navy yard and headed up the Elizabeth River at 11AM on the 8^th, during the last thirty or so minutes of flood (Incoming) tide to give her as much water beneath her keel as possible. She was accompanied by CSS Raleigh and CSS Beaufort, a pair of small iron hulled former tugs converted to gunboats. The gunboats, being smaller, faster and far more nimble than the Virginia, acted as her tenders.
The Virginia's appearance, of course, was not unexpected by either the US Navy or the local citizens. She'd barely cleared Gosport Naval Yard with her two escorts before word started spreading like the proverbial wildfire (This in an era 150 years before cell phones and text messaging!) and by the time Virginia cleared the mouth of The Elizabeth River crowds were forming on the shoreline to watch the fight.

Due to her deep draft The Virginia had to follow the Elizabeth River Channel nearly due north, to Sewell's Point, then swing to port into the main channel of Hampton Roads. (The Beaufort still had to assist her with a tow when The Virginia's bottom dragged on the bottom opposite Craney Island . Keep Craney Island in mind by the way...that place would come back to haunt CSS Virginia in a big way a couple of the mouths down the road).

The U S Navy didn't have the advantage of the civilian grape vine of course, but they did have look-outs. By 12:30PM, lookouts on Both USS Congress and USS Cumberland spotted the Virginia and her escorts steaming across Hampton Roads with smoke boiling from their stacks and bones in their teeth. The two gunboats, being shallow draft, swung Northwest, straight across Hampton Roads while the Virginia followed the channels. Aboard the two Union frigates gun crews were called to battle stations, The Congress unfurled her top sails, and shot, shell and powder was laid out on the gun deck.

Across the Roads, at Old Point Comfort, just off Fortress Monroe the crews of USS Minnesota and the USS Roanoke had also spotted the trio of Confederate vessels and smoke started drifting from the funnels as their engine room crews lit off their boilers to get heads of steam up. Virginia probably hadn't made the turn into the South Channel good when Minnesota and Roanoke slipped their mooring cables and headed out to engage her. But Virginia and her escorts had been five or six miles away when they were spotted, had about a ten mile run to Newport News, and both U.S. Navy ships were sister ships of Merrimack...the Frigate whose burned out hull the Virginia had been built on. They had the same draft and performance as Virginia and by the time the two Union frigates got under way, Virginia was setting up to engage Cumberland

With Virginia's county-sized turning radius (Buchanan estimated it would take her 30 minutes to make a 180 degree turn, and he was just about dead on) any battle plan had to be pretty well thought out before the mooring lines were even slipped. When Virginia's helmsman swung her into the main channel, Buchanan already had a pair of goals in mind...Ramming Cumberland, then sinking Congress with gun fire. The Virginia had been fitted with a 1500 pound ram extending several feet from her bow, just below the waterline, and it was about to get's its baptism by fire. Cumberland would be their first target. Virginia reached her and Congress at about 3PM, opening up on Cumberland with her bow gun (A big rifled 7 inch pivot gun which could be fired through any of three gun ports...straight ahead across her bow and about 30 degrees to either side of the bow. The stern gun emplacement was identical)
 Both Cumberland and Congress opened up on her, as did shore batteries, and solid shot clanged off of her armor, riddling her stack, and taking away boats, stanchions, and other deck hardware. Virginia's broadside guns answered the shore batteries and the guns of Congress as she bore straight for Cumberland.

The incoming tide had swung the Cumberland on her anchor chain so her starboard side was towards Virginia. As Cumberland's hull became a wooden wall filling the pilot's view port, shot pounded off of her armor and near misses blew water columns skyward. Buchanan ordered all stop (2 bells in the engine room) then all reverse full (Three bells). The first order so Virginia wouldn't rip into Cumberland under full power, which would have driven her entire bow deeply into the Frigate's hull, dooming both ships; the second so she would be backing off as soon as she holed Cumberland's hull. At least that's how it was supposed to work...Virginia almost did too good of a job of holing Cumberland.

This is the view that Cumberland's crew may have had of Virginia as she bore down on them. This alos illustrates how Virginia rode, with her decks awash, very clearly

Virginia rams Cumberland

Virginia smashed through the heavy timber protective obstacles surrounding the frigate's bow before ramming her prow into Cumberland's starboard bow, heeling Cumberland far over to port. Virginia was stuck fast for a moment as Cumberland righted herself and started down by the bow, threatening to drag the Virginia with her. Meanwhile gunners tried to either elevate or depress their guns enough to hit each other, depending on which of the ships they were aboard and sharp shooters on Cumberland fired gallantly but ineffectually on the ironclad. Cumberland's gunners got couple of hits in, one of which exploded inside Virginia's stack, creating lots of noise and bedlam but no damage or casualties in the engine room. Another blanged loudly off of the muzzle of one of the Virginia's big Dahlgrens, taking a couple of feet of the muzzle with it.

Virginia's engines pounded in full reverse. (Try and imagine what it was like in her engine room, as The Virginia began to go down perceptibly by the bow herself while the connecting rods for those two big horizontal engines slammed back and forth, spinning the propeller shaft for all they were worth as the battle raged loudly above them). A well timed wave helped out after a couple of minutes that probably seemed like a day or so, rocking the Cumberland, then lifting Virginia. Virginia popped out like a cork, leaving her ram behind as she swung parallel to Cumberland. While all of this was going on, the crew of Virginia's stern gun were lobbing shots at Congress, whose gunners couldn't fire back for a couple of minutes for fear of hitting the doomed Cumberland.

Virginia backed away from the sinking frigate then turned, bringing herself back into position to lob broadsides at the Cumberland as well as the shore batteries that were firing on her. Cumberland took forty minutes to sink, and her gun crews stayed at their posts, exchanging broadsides with Virginia just about the whole time.. One of Cumberland's shells hit another of Virginia's guns, breaking it off short (It's been suggested that this round may actually been fired by Congress). Another hit the bow gun port while the gun was run in for loading and exploded, killing two of Virginia's crew and injuring several others. Cumberland kept up a valiant and merciless rate of fire until her gun ports were all but taking on water...only then did her crew abandon ship. They never surrendered, her colors were never struck. As Buchanan noted in his report on the action 'Cumberland was destroyed, but not conquered...never before has a crew fought more gallantly'

As far as Buchanan and the rest of Virginia's crew was concerned, it was now Congress' turn. Had Frank Buchanan known one little fact about Congress' crew I can't help wondering if he'd have had a few mixed feelings about attacking her. The Congress' paymaster was one McKean Buchanan...Franklin Buchanan's brother. Neither of the Buchanans knew the other was involved in the battle until much later.

Before Virginia attacked Congress she had to get turned around so her gun crews could actually bring her guns to bear.. The sunken Cumberland's masts were between Virginia and Congress and Virginia’s deep draft and wide turning radius wouldn't allow her to just swing around Cumberland's wreck to get in position. She had to head up river, swing around, and return. Buchanan reported that Virginia had very little water beneath her keel for most of this maneuver, and they came under fire from shore batteries on both legs of the turn. They returned fire, silencing a couple of the batteries and doing considerable damage to the waterfront as well

Congress' crew thought that Virginia had quit the fight when she headed up the James River, and let out a trio of cheers to celebrate chasing off the Rebel. The cheers died quickly as they watched Virginia reach a wide portion of the channel and execute a long, slow, sweeping 180, then watched white water curl from her bow as she pounded back down river. It became obvious that Congress was in for the same manner of pounding Cumberland had just received, and the decision was made to get the hell outa Dodge, so to speak. Congress slipped her moorings and started to come about (A seriously tricky maneuver in a big sailing vessel). Her bows came around smartly and she was on her way to making her own 180 to head for the protection of Fortress Monroe, at Old Point Comfort. She never made it around...She ran hard aground just outside of the channel, bow toward the shoreline. Worse, because of the position she was in relative to the shoreline and the Virginia, Virginia could stand off and lob broad side after broad side into her while Congress couldn't bring anything but her stern pivot guns guns to bear.

As if the Union Navy wasn't having enough trouble, as Cumberland settled to the bottom of The Roads, he Confederates gunboats Patrick Henry (1300 ton walking beam side-wheeler, former passenger and freight steamer converted into a 12 gun gunboat), Teaser (Former tug, converted to a 2 gun gun boat) and Jamestown (Sister ship of CSS Patrick Henry, but armed with only 2 guns) steamed out to assist Virginia. Union shore batteries immediately heavily engaged them, taking some of the heat from that direction off of Virginia and allowing her to concentrate on Congress. The gunboats didn't come out entirely unscathed...Patrick Henry took a hit in one of her boilers, scalding four of her crew to death. She was towed out of action until temporary repairs could be made.

The steam frigates Minnesota (4830 tons, 2 × 10 in guns, 28 × 9 in guns, 14 × 8 in guns) and Roanoke(4770 tons, 2 × 10 in guns, 28 × 9 in guns, 14 × 8 in guns) were enroute to engage Virginia of course, their crews hoping to save Congress in the bargain. They were accompanied some time later by the sail frigate St Lawrence,(1726 tons, 8 8' guns, 42 6.5' guns) which was under tow by the gun boat Cambridge. The fact that these three ships were on the way to assist Congress would have a bearing on both Congress fate, and the next day's events...but back to the the one sided battle between Congress and Virginia.

After turning around Virginia positioned herself off of Congress' stern quarter and proceeded to lob broadside after broadside into her. Navel guns were sighted just like huge rifles in that era, firing solid or explosive round shot, canister shot or grape shot on straight, flat trajectories at close range. Virginia's gun crews probably had the range down to perfection after the second broad side if not the first, every broadside slamming into the Congress and wreaking devastating havoc on her. Congress' officers were neither ignorant, foolhardy, or suicidal, and with none of her guns able to bear on Virginia and broad side after broadside tearing into her, it was quickly obvious where things were heading. A pair of white flags was run up...one on the main mast and one on the gaff. Virginia immediately ceased fire as the able bodied remaining of Congress' crew took to the boats and pulled for shore. Beaufort was signaled to come within hailing distance and her CO...Lt Parker...was sent to board Congress, take her officers prisoner while allowing the crew to land, and set fire to the ship prevent it from being pulled off of the shoal and repaired. Keep in mind she had white flags flying...things were about to get real interesting!

Parker took Beaufort alongside Congress and accepted the surrender of her officers (Commander William Smith and Lieutenant Pendergrast) both of whom were allowed to return to Congress and assist in transferring the injured to Beaufort.. Neither of them returned to Virginia..Maybe letting them return to Congress wasn't that hot of an idea after all!

Virginia engages Congress.  Note that Congress is aground, bow in to shore, and that Virginia is off of her stern quarter, where Congress' guns couldn't be brought to bear. This was a seaborne Turkey Shoot

Raleigh had also gone alongside Congress to assist with removing prisoners and burning the frigate. With white flags flying on Congress, shore batteries opened up on the two gunboats (Some sources state that some of the fire came form Congress as well) and the two gunboats withdrew. Parker never reported to Buchanan, who was waiting to see smoke start rolling up from Congress. Virginia was receiving heavy and sustained fire form the shore batteries (And giving it back to 'em just as heavily)

With Minnesota, Roanoke, and St Lawrence on the way from fortress Monroe, the Congress still not burning, and her salvage and repair a definite possibility, Buchanan mentioned to one of his lieutenants that Congress needed to be burned...like NOW. The Lieutenant...Lt. Minor by name...volunteered to to take a boat over to Congress and burn her. Buchanan agreed, a boat was launched, and Teaser was signaled to cover the boat and it's crew. As the boat was approaching Congress, the shore batteries opened up with accurate and withering fire, injuring Lt Minor and several of his men and causing the quick retreat of the boat and crew. Buchanan had had enough at this point...he ordered Congress destroyed using hot shot. (Solid shot heated in a furnace until it was red hot). Very shortly after this order was given, Buchanan himself was injured, he transferred command over to her Executive Officer, Lt Catesby Jones.

Congress just starting to burn after Virginia fired on her using 'Hot Shot'

Congress Burning with herehr crew swimming for shore. I have to wonder if the artist didn't add a little drama to this one as most if not all of Congress' crew had already abandoned ship before she was set on fire.

This time they were successful in lighting up Congress...in minutes the crackle of flames could be heard at Newport News Point and a column of smoke was roiling skyward as flames ate into her hull. She burned brightly throughout the night until just after midnight, when fire reached her magazines and she exploded with a 'Whoom' that shook windows throughout the area...

Hey...wait a minute here! What happened to Minnesota, Roanoke, and St Lawrence???

******************NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF*********************

The interesting thing about digging into Civil War history is that detailed accounts of both sides of just about every battle are available for the reading. The sometimes frustrating thing about that is that those accounts can be radically different (I ran into that a bit with this, in fact. ). You have to read the accounts, and see which facts seem to be repeated the most. For example some eyewitnesses on the Minnesota and the Roanoke thought that Virginia was under tow (They probably saw her being assisted when she dragged bottom off of Craney Island) I figured Buchanan's account would be the most accurate if possibly a little skewed...it came right out of the official report he submitted to Confederate Naval Headquarters.

This one bears repeating...the battle between Virginia and Congress illustrates one of the most chilling aspects of The Civil War, Brother fighting Brother. Franklin Buchanan's brother McKean Buchanan was the paymaster on Congress

Everyone's heard the colorful description bestowed upon USS Monitor 'Cheese Box on a Raft, or a similar variation, Tin Can on A Shingle. Less well known are the descriptions US Crews gave to Virginia. 'A floating barn roof belching smoke from a chimney' and more sinister sounding 'A partially submerged, crocodile stalking it's prey'

Both navies used the same types of guns...Dahlgrens...extensively. The name was derived from the designer rather than a manufacturer (And much as the residents of Dahlgren Va would like to dispute this, they were not designed in that very beautiful little town. Interestingly enough, though, the U S Navel Surface Warfare Center is located in Dahlgren). The guns were designed and built with a distinctive bottle shape...thickest at the breech...to prevent them from bursting when in use. It worked...not a single one of them ever burst while being fired. Due to their distinctive shape, they were all but inevitably nick named 'Soda Bottles'
 Among the casualties aboard Cumberland was Caotain John D. Lenhart, the ships Chaplain. He was the first Navel chaplain killed in action and the only Chaplain killed in action until Pearl Harbor a bit over 80 years later.

And now for some links:

http://www.wtj.com/archives/acwnavies/buchanan.htm

Franklin Buchanan's official report on the action against Cumberland and Congress

http://cssvirginia.org/

Again, Excellent site on the Virginia. Click on 'Ironclad Battle on the left for links and time lines for both the 8^th and 9^th.

http://www.history.navy.mil/museums/hrnm/files/daybook/pdfs/volumexiissue3.pdf

PDF format issue of The Daybook, The Hampton Roads Navel Museum's newsletter with several excellent articles about Cumberland including one articledetailing the battle from Cumberland's crew's point of view.

The Infamous Cheesebox On A Raft

Before we talk about the hows and whys of the battle, we need to talk about the OTHER ironclad...the infamous 'Cheese Box on a Raft' as the USS Monitor was known.

The Monitor was the very first steam powered, armored warship equipped with a powered, enclosed, rotating gun turret. And she was built because of The Virginia.

Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy at the time, found out about the Virginia almost before the Merrimack’s gutted hull was towed into the graving dock at the former Gosport Navy yard and the source of his information provides us with another interesting little tidbit of historical-type trivia.

The conversion of The Merrimack to the ironclad ram Virginia was apparently one of the worst kept secrets in military history and by the time she was launched she was as highly anticipated by the general public in the Hampton Roads area as the premiere of the latest 'Twilight' installment would be today.

Security at military installations wasn’t anywhere near as tight back in the 1860s as it is today. It couldn't have been, because over a period of eight months or so a woman who was loyal to the U.S. Government made her way into Gosport numerous times and closely observed the Merrimack’s conversion into the Virginia, taking copious notes while she was there. AHH...but it gets better! After filling a couple of journals with notes and diagrams and such, she then, at great risk to herself, made her way across the Union lines to Washington in order to pass said information to the Secretary of the Navy. She made this trip, by the way, not just once but several times.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if you walked up to the main gate at, say, Norfolk Naval Base or Portsmouth Naval Shipyard today and mentioned to the SP on duty that you’d like to get some pics of their latest and preferably most secret vessels so you can send said pics to some…er…friends overseas, life would get real interesting for you real quick in a very memorable and unpleasant way!

Knowing about the Virginia and being able to do something about her were two entirely different things. Gideon Welles very likely freaked more than a little as he considered the havoc an ironclad could wreak upon a fleet of conventional wooden hulled warships. Upon finding out about the Virginia he wisely decided that the U S Navy needed an Ironclad to go up against her and as the old saying goes, meetings were held and committees were formed. In actuality, a 3 member board was formed and designs were solicited in northern newspapers. Several designs were submitted and two were selected. And neither of them was built to engage the Virginia.

The Monitor's building actually resulted from several instances of good timing, some political wrangling, and just a dash or so of good old fashioned luck. Cornelius Bushnell, one of the selected designers, took his plans (A iron armored but otherwise conventional broadside warship to be named The Galena) to a Swedish born engineer named John Ericsson for an evaluation of the design's stability...a good move considering she was to have an additional 400 tons of armor added to her when she was built.

Now Ericsson, unfortunately, was not held in high regard by The Navy due to a a fatal mishap that occurred in 1844 while testing a new type of gun aboard the U.S.S. Princeton. This mishap killed then President John Tyler's Secretary Of The Navy Thomas Gilmer and Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, and the fact that Ericsson actually had nothing to do with gun's explosion mattered little to the powers that be. He was declared Persona non gratis by the Navy, and this left Ericsson just as leery of The Navy as they were of him. This also left the Navy highly reluctant to accept anything Ericsson had designed.

Still, before Bushnell's visit, Ericsson had decided to put aside his feelings and wrote a letter directly to President Lincoln, describing a new and revolutionary vessel that would be superior to anything the Confederate Navy could put in the water. The letter, however, was intercepted, redirected, and rejected by the Navy's chief engineers, who were conservative in their ideas about warship design. That's conservative as in 'If it doesn't have a wooden hull, and can't carry a full suit of sails, it's not a warship'. Ericsson had lost the first round without even really making it to the fight. Enter John Bushnell and his visit.

Ericsson had a cardboard model of a very unique and unusual warship on display and Bushnell, intrigued, inquired about it.. The model was the design described in the letter that never made it to President Lincoln, and Ericsson had the plans for the ship available as well. Busnell took a look at the model and the plans and quickly realized that Erricson’s design…compact, lightweight, and very high tech for the time, complete with a revolutionary power plant and the very first revolving gun turret…was far superior to any of the other designs and in fact anything else in service on either side.

Ericsson's plans of the  Monitor. The plans were originally submitted to a guy  named Napoleon in 1854...ten years earlier. He also rejected the design. The monitor was an improved version of the same vessel.

Side detail of The Monitor

A modern model of the monitor...depicted post-battle as her smoke stack's been added, and cowls added to her ventilators. Awesome model...225 bucks from Cottage Industry Models, BTW, and the pic's courtesy of their site.

Reproduction of the Monitor at the Monitor Center at the Mariners Museum. Pic courtesy of The Mariner's Museum

Bushnell wanted Ericsson to submit the design, but the lack of response to his letter, and his checkered past with The U.S Navy had made him reluctant to do so, therefore Bushnell asked for, and received, permission to submit the design himself.

Bushnell promptly submitted the design to the ironclad board, and they took one look and collectively danced in glee, grading it A++++, right? RIGHT??? Errrr...wrong.

Bushnell took the design to Welles, who was a close friend, and the two of them...knowing that the board would possibly be a problem...took the design to President Lincoln. They met with Lincoln on Sept 12^th, and he was suitably impressed with the design. They then met with the Ironclad Board the next day, where The President openly backed it despite negative murmurs and a decidedly split opinion. In fact President Lincoln is said to have remarked about the design 'All I have to say is what the girl said when she stuck her foot in the stocking. It strikes me there's something in it.'

( Note here gang...some sources have Bushnell submitting the plans to the Ironclad Board, and being soundly rejected before the took the plans to Welles, and then to President Lincoln)

One of the board's members, having witnessed the disaster aboard the USS Princeton, was especially reluctant, and had to be persuaded by Ericsson himself, and then only after being shown irrefutable facts and figures. The board put it to a vote, and Welles took Ericsson aside and told him to go ahead and begin setting up to build the Monitor before a formal contract was offered.

The Monitor's construction was approved stipulating a money back clause if she was a failure, that she be provided with masts and sails, and that she be capable of 6 knots under sail and 8 knots under steam. The requirement for masts and sails somehow got...er...lost between the contract being awarded and construction beginning.

 Stern shot of The Monitor under construction showing her rudder and screw. She was built at Continental Iron Works on The East River in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Ericsson was told to go ahead without formal contract in late September, The Monitor was officially ordered on Oct 4 1861, her keel was laid down on Oct 25^th 1861, she was launched 118 days later on Jan 30, 1862 and commissioned on Feb 25, 1862. A grand total of around six months or so between the concept of ‘We Need An Ironclad Warship', with no specific design in mind, and The Monitor slipping down the ways.

Again, things have changed over the last century and a half, and this time not necessarily for the better. This day and time you’re hard pressed to get a new desk for your office in six months. Heck we spent about six months trying to get a door fixed at work ! But I digress! ;)

To meet the deadline, Ericsson subcontracted the work to eight foundries, the completed subassmeblies were then shipped to Continental Ironworks for assembly. Common today, revolutionary back in 1861!

Here's a list of the subcontractors and the assemblies they produced:

Delamater Iron Works of New York City; engines and boilers

Novelty Iron Works of New York City:  rolled the iron plates for the turret and oversaw its
assembly.

Clute Brothers and Company of Schenectady produced the donkey engine
to power the turret. (Believed to actually be an off-the-shelf engine for powering rolling mills)

Holdane and Company of New York City, Albany Iron Works of Troy, and H. Abbot and Son of Baltimore;
All rolled additional iron plate for the turret, as well as rivets, bars, and other structural members.

The Niagara Steam Forge of Buffalo, New York,;  A pair of iron port stoppers.

Information on subcontractors from the archives of The Mariners Museum

As for the Monitor’s Vital Statistics:

Type: Ironclad Armored Turret Gunboat

Construction & configuration: Single deck flat bottom iron hull topped by an armored raft. Single engine, single screw.

Displacement: 987 long tons (1,003 t)

Length: 172 ft (52 m)

Beam: 41 ft 6 in (12.65 m)

Draft: 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)

Boilers: 2 fire tube boilers, coal fired

Installed power: (1) 300 HP 2 cylinder horizontally opposed Vibrating-Lever steam engine

Propulsion: 4 blade Ericsson Screw propeller

Speed: 8 kn (9.2 mph; 15 km/h)

Complement: 59 officers and men

Armament: 2 × 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren guns ( Heaviest navel weapons available at that time), Dual-Mounted in a rotating iron turret powered by a separate donkey engine)

Armor: 8 inches consisting of 8 layers of 1 inch iron plate, overlapped seams.

 The Monitor  at Hampton Roads, with wooden frigates in the background. The canopy above the turret converted the turret into a sundeck of sorts...during the steamy VA summer this became the spot of choice for the officers. Drawing by Oscar Barros.

With the exception of her beam, she was much smaller than The Virginia as well as faster and far more nimble. The Virginia outgunned her, but The Monitor made up for this disadvantage with her heavy armor, maneuverability, nimble handling, and that pesky rotating gun turret

Let’s hit some interesting points about the Monitor’s turret. The turret was a shade over twenty feet in diameter with a height of nine feet, weighed in at about 120 tons and was held In place by gravity alone. It had to have been cramped inside the turret! The 11 inch Dahlgren gun's overall length was just shy of 13.5 feet, and they had a pretty decent recoil when fired, taken up by the track-mounted carriage, known officially as a 'Friction Carriage'. Also the muzzle loading Dahlgrens had to be run back into the turret to be reloaded. Eleven inch Dahlgrens had a crew of 7, which meant that there were 14 men inside the turret during battle. The gun crews reportedly didn’t use the gun port shutters provided to block the gun ports when the guns were being reloaded (More about those beasts in a minute!) but instead just turned the turret so the gun ports faced away from the Virginia to run the guns in for reloading. Once the gun to be fired was reloaded they rotated back around to fire. This slowed the rate of fire drastically though. It’s reported they could only get one shot off every five to eight minutes and with one source stating that she got off 41 shots during the course of the three and a half hour battle, that's just about right on the money... The Virginia had a higher rate of fire, but her shells couldn’t penetrate the Monitor’s armor. Of course The Monitor had the same problem penetrating the Virginia’ armor, but there's an interesting story about that too! We'll get to that a bit later, too!

Model of the turret with interior detail. There were 14 people inside the turret during the battle. My bet is it would have been just a shade crowded. The grated hatches outboard of the guns led down to the berthing spaces, shot and powder was also passed up through them during the battle.

Crew from The Mariner's Museum working at preserving the Monitor's turret.  The turret's upside down...just as it was recovered...in this pic, Still trying to figure out how they got two gun crews in there during the battle!  Pic courtesy of The Mariner's Museum

While the turret had a pretty rapid rate of turn, (Two full revolutions in one minute) no really effective braking system was provided to stop it at a specific point in that rotation. During the Battle of Hampton Roads her gun crew often fired ‘on the fly’ as the turret was rotating. This didn’t help accuracy a bit, but keep in mind this battle was fought at extremely close range, and The Virginia was a big target.

A system of iron shutters was installed to cover the gun ports and protect the turret and crew from incoming fire when the guns were run back for reloading (Remember these were muzzle loaders). The shutters were mounted in such a way that one gun port was always blocked, so her gun crew could not fire both guns at once. The theory was likely that one gun could be run out and fired while the crew of the other gun was reloading. The recoil would have slammed the just fired gun back, her crew would have swung the shutter over to cover their gun port and started reloading as the other gun was run out and fired. Loading was not the slowing factor...a good gun crew could be ready to roll again in something under two minutes and had the operation been something like that just described The Monitor's gun crews could have gotten off a shot every two to three minutes rather than every five to eight.

As often happens, things didn't work out that way in practice. First, remember again how cramped it was inside the turret, and how big those eleven inch Dahlgrens were. Further defeating the just described theory, the shutters proved to be, to put it bluntly, a bitch. They were heavy, cumbersome, slow to operate, had a tendency to jam, and generally caused problems whenever used. Thus the reason her gun crews generally rotated the turret away from the Virginia in order to reload. What they did likely do is alternate which gun was firing...after about ten shots they had to allow the barrel to cool for several minutes, so one gun was likely fired ten or so times, the gun port shutter pulled across, opening the other gun port, and the second gun took over. Repeat as necessary.

The turret had to be jacked up about an inch and a half or so in order to rotate. The turret was mounted on a 'Y' shaped support truss on the forward side of the Monitor's central bulkhead. The turret shaft was situated in the center of this 'Y' and was lifted using a sliding wedge that was moved by turning a nut on a threaded shaft with a big wrench. (Make that really big wrench!!) This was not a one, or even two or three, man operation.

Backing the nut up when ready to lower the turret didn't slide the wedge out, due to the turret's weight on the wedge...all it did was back the nut off along the threaded rod. The wedge had to be knocked back into the 'Lowered' position with a sledge hammer to lower the turret for travel.

The turret was turned with what's often referred to as two separate donkey engines, but was actually a two cylinder donkey engine arranged in a 'V-twin' configuration. This engine turned a crankshaft that in turn spun 4 gears, the final one actually mounted on the turret's central shaft. This engine is believed to have been an off-the-shelf rolling mill engine. Control of the turret's rotation was achieved through an intricate linkage to the throttle and reversing lever for the engine, located in the turret. The turret engine was actually mounted on the overhead (Marine parlance for ceiling) of the galley, which was almost directly below the turret.

This link:

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=66949&sid=da8f8c544a3238e8685a1a03bd31ae6d

will take you to a thread in a ship modeling forum that describes both the machinery for turning the turret, and the jacking mechanism in intricate detail, with detail drawings.

Now some more little factoids about The Monitor.

The Monitor was one of the first warships designed and built with steam as her sole means of propulsion. She used an extremely efficient screw (Propeller) also designed by Ericsson rather than a paddle wheel and as noted above, a specification for masts and sails was conveniently ignored when she was built. She became one of the first steam powered vessels ever without mast and sails as a secondary means of propulsion...a distinction she of course shared with her soon-to-be rival.

Her engine was an extremely innovative, compact and powerful design for her day, utilizing a two cylinder ‘Reverse Boxer’ design. The two cylinders were horizontally opposed, likely making it the first ‘Boxer’ type engine of any kind, but the connecting rods operated outwards on the vibrating beams that gave the engine its name and converted the twin pistons’ horizontal motion to the prop shaft’s rotational motion. The engine produced 300 HP.

Model of the Monitor's  engine.  To give an idea of scale, the hand wheel lower mid frame, which was the reversing wheel, would have been 28" in diameter on the actual engine. The digital readout guage above and to the left of the reverse wheel is the engine's hour register, which monitored the number of hours the engine was in use. I didn't even know they had digital read out (Mechanical movement, yes, but still digital readout) guages in the mid 1800s!

 Same model from another angle showing the vibrating beams and the propeller shaft. Both of the above pics from http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/carlstedt.htm...site owned by the guy who built the model (And several more operating models) Another site worth a visit!

Click the link for a YouTube video of an accurate (And seriously cool) model of an operating scale model (The model pictured above) of the Monitor’s engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWn8gQ9Ykpk

The actual engine was retrieved from the Monitor’s wreck, off of the NC coast, and presently resides in The Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Va where it's under preservation and ultimately, restoration.

The Monitor's  engine as it appeared when recovered from the wreck site. Courtesy The Mariners Museum

The Monitor was armored with eight inches of armor though the technology of the time didn’t allow for casting of iron plates that thick. Her armor actually consisted of eight layers of 1 inch iron plate,. Her armored deck (Actually a wood framed, armored 'raft') extended well outwards beyond and completely protected her lightweight 5/8 inch thick iron hull. Also significant, she only had 18 inches of free board (Distance between the deck and the water) giving her a very small target profile. The only protrusions above her deck were her turret, a demountable smoke stack, and her pilothouse.

The pilot house was one of her few design flaws. Her gun crew couldn’t fire directly across her own bow due to the location of the pilothouse and the low mounting of the guns in the turret…inattention to aim and the turret’s position, or bad timing during a shoot-on-the-fly evolution could result in blowing her own pilothouse, and her own pilot, away. (A situation that likely didn't fill the Monitor's helmsman with an overabundance of confidence.) Happily her gun crews were well trained and highly competent, and her pilot house and pilot remained intact throughout her short career.

Her low free board, while an advantage tactically, reduced her sea keeping abilities in the open ocean to just about zilch. If any sea at all was running it would wash over her deck and into any opening it could find. This would be a huge factor in her loss.

Another big drawback was her ventilation, or lack there-of. Temperatures below decks could easily rise to 120 degrees in her crew quarters, 150 or so in her engine room. She was not known as a comfortable ship.

While she might have been an oven below decks, at least she was a well appointed oven, for her officers at any rate.. Her hull was divided into fore and aft sections by a bulkhead just about amidships (And directly below her turret). The crew and officer quarters were forward of the bulkhead, her galley and machinery spaces aft. The Captains stateroom and cabin were in the forward-most section of the crew spaces and was lavishly appointed. The Captain had the largest living area and one additional perk. His cabin contained one of the four flushing toilets on board the Monitor...some of the first on any warship and the very first ones designed to flush even though the toilets were located below the waterline.

The eight officer's cabins were arranged off of the Wardroom and were well appointed but tiny...4 of them were about 6' x4', 4 others...against the inner plates of the hull...were about 8x6...but the curve of the hull ate up a lot of that space.

The Wardroom was the dining/meeting/socializing space for the officers and was about 9' by 15', with an oak table and oak chairs dominating the center of the space, the doors to the officer's cabins on either side, and the dispensary and spirit lockers on one end.

A hatchway in a wooden bulkhead on the after end of the wardroom led to the crew's berthing spaces...no where near as well appointed as 'Officers' Country'. The rest of the crew...48 strong...slept in hammocks slung from demountable wooden poles in a space measuring about 27' x 18'. No privacy either, as the passageway between the crew and machinery spaces went right through the middle of the berth deck, and the ladders leading to both the turret and the upper deck were located there as well. OH...did I mention that the powder and shot/shell magazines were also located off of the berth deck?

The crew and Officers' quarters of the Monitor featured a hardwood deck, carpeting, white painted wooden bulkheads (That's walls to you landlubbers, lol) with wainscoting, oak and black walnut furnishings, and all washbasins, shaving mugs, coffee mugs, etc were fine white ware with 'U.S.S. Monitor' inscribed on them in gilt lettering. (Yeah...I'd give just about anything for an original 'Monitor' coffee mug!)

With the exception of a couple of portholes in the overhead of the Captain's stateroom (Obviously closed off with iron shutters during battle), all lighting below decks was artificial lighting using kerosene lanterns for the most part, and all bulkheads were painted white to reflect the light. The crew's and officer's quarters were ventilated via belt driven blowers in the stern that drew air in from the outside and directed it through ducts below the deck. Adjustable floor registers delivered the air to the various crew spaces. Despite a fairly revolutionary ventilation system for the time, it wasn't enough to counteract the Monitor's tendency to become an oven in the summer...Anyone who's experienced Summer in Virginia knows that in mid July, the blowers would be pulling in hot, muggy air and distributing IT throughout the already hot spaces below decks. During the winter, though, the crew spaces were likely nice and toasty...Radiators using hot water from one of the boilers heated the crew quarters.

A pair of oval hatchways in the central bulkhead provided access to the machinery spaces. The galley was located just aft of the central bulkhead and just forward of the boilers. A big iron stove backed up to the boilers and pots, pans and other cooking utensils were stored on shelves or racks. The machinery for rotating the turret was overhead, the jacking mechanism for the turret was located on the central bulkhead, and the 'Heads' (Toilets) for the officers and crew were located on either side of the galley...a pair of them on the starboard side for the crew, and another on the port side for the officers. These were the first toilets designed to be flushed while located beneath the waterline of a ship, as already mentioned. The fire hazards created by coal fired boilers and stoves led to iron decks in the machinery spaces, and these decks were constructed using something else fairly new...A diamond pattern cast iron floor plate. Yep, that's right...one of the first uses of tread plate.

A narrow passage on either side of the Monitor's big Martin boilers led back to the engine room (When I say narrow I mean narrow. The passageways were about 2 feet wide, with hot boilers on one side and the coal bunkers on the other). The fire room...where the fireboxes for the boilers were stoked by firemen, and where the pressure gauges for the boilers and engine were monitored...was located in the forward portion of the engine room, and the engine itself was located on a raised platform, accessed by a short, starboard side stairway.

The after portion of the engine room also contained the two big blowers that provided forced draft to the boilers and ventilation to the ship as well as the small steam engines that ran them, the condenser, feed pumps,and the main bilge pump. Temps in this area of the ship were known to approach 150 degrees in the Summer.

For more on the layout of The Monitor, head over to

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/

This is the companion site to an excellent documentary on the Monitor and includes a virtual tour of the ship (You need the latest Apple Quicktime to view it) as well as detailed descriptions of the various interior compartments.

The Monitor was commissioned on Feb 25, 1862, and her crew took her out on a couple of shakedown cruises to work any kinks out and prove the The Navy that she would indeed float and maneuver. They didn't take much time for the shakedown...She was taken under tow from New York to Hampton Roads on March 6th, and obviously had calm weather for the entire trip (See above RE: Low free board and High Seas). She arrived in Hampton Roads on March 9th.

And that arrival had to be one of the all-time examples of good timing and luck in history. Cause ya see, The Virginia was having her way with the blockade fleet…

*******************************************************************************

Links and Notes and stuff:

First off, there is far more information on the Monitor than the Virginia..She was more technologically advanced, was around a little longer, her wreck's still accessible, her turret and  engines are being preserved for restoration, and she belonged to the winning side. Had I used all the info I found  on her (And I'm STILL finding info on her even as I type this) this post would have been two or three times longer than it is. Also, a good bit of the info is contradictory, and some of it is down right inaccurate. I tried to cull the latter before I posted.

There are scores of sites about the U S S Monitor  and I'll list some of the better sites here for those who want to find out more about her.

The first two were already noted but bear relisting:

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=66949&sid=da8f8c544a3238e8685a1a03bd31ae6d  

Thread on a ship modeling forum detailing the turret rotating and jacking mechanisms.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/

This is the companion site to an excellent documentary on the Monitor and includes a virtual tour of the ship (You need the latest Apple Quicktime to view it) as well as detailed descriptions of the various interior compartments. Also contains a firsthand account of the battle.

http://www.brooklynonline.com/waterfront/work/monitor.html

 A Brooklyn History page devoted to the Monitor's construction...good info and a bunch more links at the end of the article. A couple of the links are devoted to multiple topics, so you have to scroll a bit to reach the bits about the Monitor

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/monitor.htm

Some pics and images of the Monitor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/divemasterking2000/sets/72157605714378030/with/1368317361/

A 'Flickr' image set of both the Monitor  reproduction at the Mariner's museum in Newport News, Va as well as a few shots inside the recovered original turret and some Monitor artifacts

  And as a note...if you're ever anywhere even close to The Mariners' Museum, you've got to visit it!

There are literally scores of sites and hundreds of images of the  Monitor on-line...I've barely scratched the surface. Hope everyone enjoys, and please comment. Any corrections, additions, etc, please feel free.

A certain battle, and the events leading up to it next!