USS Monitor

In 1859, La Gloire (La Glouar - Glory) was laid in France , the first of a completely new type of ship: a ship equipped with steel plate armor . In the world, this event did not go unnoticed, and soon in the UK similar ships were laid down, called armadillos . From this moment, the nature of naval battles has changed dramatically.

During the Civil War , the hull of the Merrimack ship fell into the hands of the Confederation , which the northerners did not manage to completely destroy when they retreated from the naval base in Gosport . Soon, the intelligence of the northerners became aware that the Merrimack, which was restored under the name Virginia , is planned to be recreated in a new capacity - in the form of an armadillo designed to break the sea blockade of the ports of the Confederation.

Without waiting for the restoration of the Virginia, the federal authorities decided to create a ship that can successfully withstand the hope of the South, whatever it may be.

The Swedish emigrant John Erickson , who has already proved himself to be a number of technical innovations, suggested creating a fundamentally new ship that had no analogues in the world. Moreover, he said that he would build it in just three months. The project he proposed turned out to be so convincing that President Lincoln, in his usual manner, said: "I feel the same way a girl who puts on a stocking feels for the first time: there is something in it . " The commission approved the project. And Erickson managed to build a completely new ship in just 100 days.

The word “Monitor” in Americanized English, among others, also means “mentor” or “mentor”. It was understood that a ship of that name would teach the southerners a lesson.

The entire hull of the ship was made of iron. The height of the sides was only 60 cm. The armor covered not only the sides, but also the deck. The deck was completely empty except for the well-armored wheelhouse and the gun turret. Closer to the stern there were two chimneys that needed to be dismantled before entering the battle.

The rotating heavily armored gun turret was armed with two 11-inch (279 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore guns. The guns were loaded from the muzzle and advanced into the ports after reloading on the hoists. The Monitor Tower was armored with 8-inch multi-layer armor. At the time of the descent, not a single naval gun of the Southerners fleet was capable of penetrating such armor. According to the first commander of the ship, Lieutenant Worden: "if the shell hits the turret at an acute angle, then it will bounce off of it without causing damage." Dahlgren’s guns with which the ship was armed acted in the spirit of the naval strategy of that time: they were not intended to pierce the enemy’s armor, but to break the armor sheets or attempt to break their mounts. However, after the rupture of one of such guns in the tests, the used powder charges were seriously reduced. In 1906, in an interview with the last of the remaining “Monitor” officers, Captain Louis N. Stodder, the following statement was made:

A small draft allowed the ship to operate on rivers and shallows of the coastline.

In total, 47 unique inventions protected by patents were used in the design of the ship.

As a ship of original design, created in a hurry, the Monitor had many shortcomings.

The problems were with a three-hundred-horsepower engine, which allowed to develop a speed of only 9 knots . However, even such a speed was often unattainable: ultralow sides not only reduced the ship's visibility for the enemy, but also greatly impaired its maneuverability, and besides, with the slightest disturbance at sea, the waves simply crossed the sides. In its first passage, the ship was in a state of agitation at sea, which was only 2-3 points , but even this turned out to be sufficient for the ship to reach the target only by a miracle. The waves lashed across the sides, leaky hatches passed water inside. Low pipes were felled by a wave, and the water extinguished the boiler furnaces. The holds were full of poisonous smoke, stopped cars did not allow the use of steam pumps, and the ship was slowly sinking. Only the improvement of the weather allowed to rekindle fireboxes, pump out water and continue the journey.

The latest system for using steam to rotate the tower also had its drawbacks. According to the testimony of the deputy commander of the ship, Lieutenant Green, the tower was rotating tightly, then easily and quickly: "It was difficult to start the rotation, and if it had already begun, stop it."

Many of the ship’s flaws could be corrected, but the completed construction of the Virginia required the immediate commissioning of the Monitor.

During the battle of the battleship southerners Virginia against the blockade squadron of the northerners on March 8, 1862, the advantages of the new type of ships were fully manifested. Virginia, without suffering any tangible losses, destroyed two powerful enemy ships ( Cumberland and Congress ) and severely damaged the third . Arriving at the scene of the battle late in the evening, the Monitor turned out to be the last resort capable of resisting the Virginia.

The “Monitor” was commanded by Lieutenant John L. Worden . His deputy was Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene , who was in the tower during the battle. Third in seniority was Lieutenant Alban C. Stimers, who served on the Merrimack before his capture.

However, Washington decided otherwise. Having learned about the tragic circumstances of the battle on March 8 and fearing that Virginia would rise up the Potomac and attack the White House and the Capitol , the fleet command ordered the Monitor to urgently leave for Washington. However, Warden, either realizing that the southerners' goal is to break the blockade, and not attack the capital, or simply fearing a second long transition, which could prove fatal for the ship, preferred to ignore the order. According to another version, the order was not given to Warden, acting commander of the squadron, Captain Marston.

On March 9, Virginia, when it went to sea to destroy the Minnesota, collided with the Monitor. The form of the latter was so unusual that the crew of the southerners mistook it for either a beacon or a raft, and ignored it as an enemy. This allowed Worden to come close and give a volley. However, the cores flew away from the armor protection of the southerners ship. However, the return volley of "Virginia" was unsuccessful. After one of the Virginia hits, Worden climbed out of the tower and inspected the pothole left by the shell. He later wrote: “with the exception of a few cracks, the case was not damaged.”

The Virginia escort ships, preferring not to take any chances, returned to Norfolk .

After several unsuccessful volleys, the southerners tried to hit the enemy in the gun loopholes, but on the “Monitor”, using the steam drive to turn the turret, they deployed it after each shot, and did not use the existing heavy iron plates, designed to protect it, but greatly slowing down the rate of fire and exhausting sailors.

However, the intercom between the tower and the wheelhouse failed, and orders were transmitted through sailors running along the open deck. Ironically, both sailors (Keeler and Toff), before serving on the Monitor, were ground people, and the information they delivered was often distorted. Orientation from the gun turret itself was extremely difficult: special markings that made it possible to distinguish between the left and right sides were soon overwritten, and Green often had to shoot, relying only on his own intuition.

After making sure that the “Monitor” was also unable to harm the enemy, Lieutenant Warden tried to ram the “Virginia” from the side of the screw. However, Virginia was better at steering and managed to avoid a collision. Nevertheless, the volley of the “Monitor” from a minimum distance pierced the armor of the “Virginia”, but the wooden lining was intact, and the leak did not form. In turn, the captain of the "Virginia" Jones also tried to ram the enemy. However, the specially adapted ram installed on the Virginia ship lost the previous day in a collision with the Cumberland. An attempt to crush the bottom of the Monitor low in the water also failed: the blow came in passing.

In the “Monitor” tower the cores ran out, and for their additional loading it was required to deploy the tower along the bow of the ship. Mistaking the enemy’s inaction for failure, Virginia again tried to finish off the Minnesota, which was aground, but soon the Monitor returned to battle.

By the end of the third hour of the battle, the Virginia gunners changed tactics and began to aim at the commander’s cabin. As a result of one of the shell explosions, the captain of the Monitor, Worden, was injured: one eye was knocked out by shrapnel and scale on the inside of the armor plate and damaged the other. The command was taken over by Lieutenant Green, who decided to go under the cover of his batteries: the tide was approaching, and even a ship with such a small draft risk ran aground in the sight of the enemy’s coastal batteries, which would lead to its loss. In addition, the team that has not slept since the ship left New York was tired both physically and psychologically. Green wrote:

“My people, and I myself, were completely black from smoke and gunpowder. All my underwear was completely black ... I stayed on my feet for so long and was so excited that my nervous system was completely exhausted. "Nerves and muscles contracted sharply, as if an electric discharge were constantly running through them ... I lay down and tried to fall asleep - with the same success I could try to take off."

However, numerous observers on the shore thought differently: Assistant Secretary of War Fox was outraged by the withdrawal of the "Monitor" and later demanded that Green be removed from command. A number of newspapers (both North and South) directly accused the Monitor crew of cowardice.

The command of the Virginia was surprised by the withdrawal of the "Monitor" (it seemed to the enemy intact) and for some time awaited his return in the raid. However, Virginia was not able to fight with anyone: the ship's hull weakened from constant blows, the river began to leak in the wooden base of the vessel, and the outflow began threatening the vessel that got the water to run aground. The ship returned to Norfolk for repairs.

The extremely low-power heavy industry of the southerners, and so having made inhuman efforts to create the Virginia (even metal fencing of private houses in cities was allowed for remelting), failed to restore the ship.

Thus, despite the fact that the battlefield remained behind Virginia, the goal of the latter (breaking the blockade) was unfulfilled, and the goal of the "Monitor" (to prevent deblockade) was successfully completed.

The battle ship was witnessed by the French ship "Gassandi" ( fr. Gassendi ). His commander subsequently in Europe described what he saw.

Soon after the battle, which clearly demonstrated the capabilities of armor protection, ships of a similar class appeared all over the world: in the USA both single-tower and double-tower monitors were created. Their seaworthiness was significantly improved and allowed the ships to go to sea.

Similar vessels were equipped with the fleets of Great Britain , Russia , Sweden , Norway , Denmark and Peru . It is noteworthy that the first Swedish fleet monitor, launched three months after the Battle of Hampton Roads, was named after John Erickson.

On December 29, 1862, the “Monitor” after repair followed in tow on a cable to Hampton Roads. However, around 11 o’clock in the evening something happened that the team had feared during the very first trip: the waves swept the ship, and it quickly sank. Together with the ship, 4 officers and 12 sailors were killed (49 people were rescued).

In 1973, the Monitor site, discovered 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina , was declared the first national marine sanctuary. Due to the turbulent currents and changeable weather, this area is often called the Cemetery of the Atlantic .

In 1998, the ship's propeller was lifted from the bottom of the sea. On July 16, 2001, a 30-ton power plant was lifted. And in 2002, after 41 days of work, the ship’s tower was raised from the bottom of the sea. During the ascent, the remains of two sailors were found who are awaiting their identification.

Now the place of the ship’s death is under the protection of the National Agency of Oceanology and Atmosphere . Numerous parts of the ship, raised from the bottom, are in the Maritime Museum in Virginia .

In 1986, the place of death of the "Monitor" was declared a national historical monument.

• The history of “Monitor” is described in sufficient detail in the fantastic historical novel of the famous science fiction writer Harry Harrison “Anaconda Rings”.
• Shipbuilding and the final battle between Virginia and Monitor were replicated by director Delbert Mann in the 1991 feature film Battleships ^[1] .
• USS Monitor is a song from the Swedish metal band Civil War.

• Hampton Raid: Virginia vs. Monitor (March 8–9, 1862)
• Jack Greene, Alessandro Massignani First Armadillos. Chapter two
• Mal K. M. Civil War in the United States 1861-1865. - M .: ACT; Mn .: Harvest, 2002.