Monitor

A revolutionary ironclad turret warship constructed by John Ericsson. Dimensions 37,8×10,36×1,78 m. Armed with two 11" smoothbore Dahlgren guns.

The structure consists of three pincipal parts, viz., a shallow-decked vessel with perpendicular sides, dead flat bottom and pointed ends. Under this shallow vessel a second and deeper vessel is attached with a raking stem abd stern, perfectly flat bottom and sides inclined at an angle of 51 to the vertical line. This lower vessel does not extend the entire length or breadth of the upper one. It is in free communication with the latter, the bottom of which is cut out corresponding excatly with the top line of the lower vessel. The third principal part consists of a cylindrical turret.
The Ericsson Battery, Scientific American Vol. 5 (1861), No. 21, 23 November, p 331.

1862 January 30: Launched at Thomas F. Rowland's shipyard, New York.
1862 February 19: Conducted sea trials.
1862 March 4: Delivered to the US Navy.
1862 March 9: Participated in the battle against the ironclad CSS Virginia off Hampton Roads.
1862 Christmas: Sank during a storm off Cape Hatteras while being towed.

Pictures:

Poster [96kB GIF]
Monitor (original), 1862. Deck, after battle with the Virgina. Photograph, 1862. 200-CC-486.

Select Bibliography

Besse, Sumner B.: C.S. Ironclad Virginia and U.S. Ironclad Monitor. With data and references for scale models.
The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA, 1978. 8vo, 47 pp, ill., 1 fold. plate & 24 pp, ill., 2 fold. plates. The Mariners' Museum Publication No. 36 originally published in 1937 and 1936 as No. 4 och No. 2.
Bushnell, C.S.: The Story of the Monitor, The Original United States Warship Monitor.
New Haven, 1899.
Canney, Donald L.: The Old Steam Navy. Volume Two. The Ironclads, 1842-1885.
Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1993. 4to, xvi, 167 pp, ill.
Church, William Conant: The Life of John Ericsson.
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1891.
Cracknell, W.H.: United States Navy Monitors of the Civil War.
Warship Profile 36 (Sept. 1973).
Cox, J. Lee Jr. & Jehle, Michael A.: Ironclad Intruder: U.S.S. Monitor. A collection of essays on the history, symbolism and archaeological importance of the U.S.S. Monitor, published in conjunction with the exhibition, "Ironclad Intruder: U.S.S. Monitor" March 25 - October 31, 1988.
Philadelphia Maritime Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 1988. 4to, (2), 61 pp, ill. ISBN 0-913346-15-2.
Daly, Robert W. ed.: Aboard the USS Monitor, 1862: The Letters of Acting Paymaster Willaim Frederick Keeler, U.S. Navy, to His Wife, Anna.
U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1964.
Hammar, Hugo: John Ericssons Monitor och drabbningen på Hampton Roads.
Hugo Gebers, Stockholm, 1937. +8vo, 63 pp, 8 pl.
Miller, Edward M.: USS Monitor: The Ship that Launched a Modern Navy.
Leeward Publications, Annapolis, 1978.
Thompson, Stephen C.: The Design and Construction of USS Monitor. Warship International Vol. 27 (1990), No. 3, pp 222-239.

Updated 1996-02-16 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives.