THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MERRIMAC."
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC"--EFFECT UPON NAVAL
ARMAMENTS OF THE WORLD--IDEA OF REVOLVING TOWER NOT ORIGINAL WITH
ERICSSON--DESTRUCTION OF THE "CUMBERLAND"--PUBLIC EXCITEMENT AT
PROSPECT OF AN ATTACK ON WASHINGTON--THE "MONITOR" SAILS FROM NEW YORK
HARBOR MARCH 6TH--GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN HAMPTON ROADS.
While the great naval expedition was approaching New Orleans, the
waters of Hampton Roads, from which it had sailed, were the scene of a
battle that revolutionized the naval armaments of the world. When at
the outbreak of the war the navy yard at Norfolk, Va., was abandoned,
with an attempt at its destruction, the steam frigate _Merrimac_ was
set on fire at the wharf. Her upper works were burned, and her hull
sunk. There had been long hesitation about removing any of the
valuable property from this navy yard, because the action of Virginia
was uncertain, and it was hoped that a mark of confidence in her
people would tend to keep her in the Union. The day that Sumter was
fired upon, peremptory orders had been issued for the removal of the
_Merrimac_ to Philadelphia, and steam was raised and every preparation
made for her sailing. But the officer in command, for some unexplained
reason, would not permit her to move, and two days later she was
burned. Within two months the Confederates were at work upon her. They
raised the hull, repaired the machinery, and covered it with a steep
roof of wrought iron five inches thick, with a lining of oak seven
inches thick. The sides were also plated with iron, and the bow was
armed with an iron ram, something like a huge ploughshare. In the
water she had the appearance of a house submerged to the eaves, with
an immense gun looking out at each of ten dormer windows.
[Illustration: THE FRIGATE "CUMBERLAND" RAMMED BY THE "MERRIMAC."]
But all this could not be done in a day, especially where skilled
workmen were scarce, and it was March, 1862, before she was ready for
action. The command was given to Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned a
commission in the United States navy. On the 8th of March, accompanied
by two gunboats, she went out to raise the blockade of James and
Elizabeth Rivers by destroying the wooden war vessels in Hampton
Roads. Her first victim was the frigate _Cumberland_, which gave her a
{84} broadside that would have riddled a wooden vessel through and
through. Some of the shot entered her open ports, killed or wounded
nineteen men, and broke two of her guns; but all that struck the armor
bounded off like peas. Rifled shot from the _Merrimac_ raked the
_Cumberland_, and then she ran into her so that her iron prow cut a
great gash in the side. The _Cumberland_ at once began to settle; but
the crew stood by their guns, firing broadside after broadside without
producing any impression on the iron monster, and received in return
shells and solid shot that made sickening havoc. The commander,
Lieutenant Morris, refused to surrender; and at the end of forty-five
minutes, when the water was at the gun-deck, the crew leaped overboard
and with the help of the boats got ashore, while the frigate heeled
over and sank to the bottom. Her topmasts projected above the surface
and her flag was flying. While this was going on, three Confederate
steamers came down and attacked the _Congress_ with such effect that
her commander tried to run her ashore. Having finished the
_Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ came up and opened a deliberate attack on
the _Congress_, and finally set her on fire, when the crew escaped in
their boats. She burned for several hours, and in the night blew up.
Of the other National vessels in the Roads, one got aground in water
too shallow for the _Merrimac_ to approach her, and the others were
not drawn into the fight.
The next morning the _Merrimac_ came down again from Norfolk to finish
up the fleet in Hampton Roads, and after that--to do various
unheard-of things. The more sanguine expected her to go at once to
Philadelphia, New York, and other seaboard cities of the North, and
either bombard them or lay them under heavy contribution. The National
Administration entertained a corresponding apprehension, and expected
to see the _Merrimac_ ascend the Potomac and attack Washington first.
A part of these expectations were well founded, and the rest were such
exaggerations as commonly arise from ignorance. The _Merrimac_ could
not have reached New York or Philadelphia, because she was not a
sea-going vessel. With skilful management and good luck, she might
have ascended the Potomac to Washington, but she would have had to run
the gantlet of numerous dangers. There is a place in the Potomac
called "the kettle-bottoms," where a great many conical mounds,
composed of sand and oyster-shells, rise from the channel till their
peaks are within a few feet of the surface; and their positions were
so imperfectly known at this time that the National vessels frequently
ran aground upon them. Several devices were in waiting to make trouble
for the iron-clad champion at this point, perhaps the most dangerous
of which was that prepared by Captain Love, commanding an armed
tugboat. He procured a seine three-quarters of a mile long, took off
its floats, and stretched it across the channel in such a way that the
_Merrimac_ could hardly have passed over it without fouling her
propeller, which would have rendered her helpless.
[Illustration: JOHN ERICSSON. Inventor of the "Monitor."]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT G. U. MORRIS. Commander of the
"Cumberland."]
[Illustration: REAR-ADMIRAL J. SMITH. Commander at the Washington Navy
Yard.]
But the dangerous enemy was destined to be disposed of in a more novel
and dramatic way. In August, 1861, the Navy Department had advertised
for plans for steam batteries, to be iron-clad and capable of fighting
the _Merrimac_ and other similar armored vessels that the Confederates
were known to be constructing. The plan adopted was that presented by
Capt. John Ericsson. Its essential features were an iron-clad hull,
with an "overhang" to protect the machinery, all of which was below
the waterline, surmounted by a round revolving tower or turret, in
which were two heavy guns. The idea of a revolving tower was not
Ericsson's; it had been put forth by several inventors, especially by
Abraham Bloodgood in 1807. But this special adaptation of it, with the
application of steam power, was his. The vessel was built in Brooklyn,
and was launched January 30, 1862, one hundred days after the laying
of the keel. She was named _Monitor_, for the obvious significance of
the word. The extreme length of her upper hull was one hundred and
seventy-two feet, with a breadth of forty-one feet, while her lower
hull was one hundred and twenty-two feet long and thirty-four feet
broad. Her depth was eleven feet, and when loaded she drew ten feet of
water, her deck thus rising but a single foot above the surface. The
turret was twenty feet in diameter and nine feet high. The only
conspicuous object on the deck, besides the turret, was a pilot-house
about five feet square and four feet high. This was built of solid
wrought-iron beams, nine by twelve inches, laid {85} one upon another
and bolted together. At a point near the top a slight crack was left
between the beams all round, through which the commander and the pilot
could see what was going on outside and get their bearings. The guns
threw solid shot eleven inches in diameter. The advantage of
presenting so small a surface as a target for the enemy, having all
the machinery beyond reach of any hostile shot, carrying two large
guns, and being able to revolve the turret that contained them, so as
to bring them to bear in any direction and keep the ports turned away
from danger except at the moment of firing, is apparent.
This novel war-machine sailed from the harbor of New York on March 6,
in command of Lieut. John L. Worden, destined for Hampton Roads. She
was hardly out at sea when orders came changing her destination to
Washington; but fortunately she could not be reached, although a swift
tugboat was sent after her. She had a rough passage of three days, the
perils of which were largely increased by the fact that her crew did
not as yet understand all her peculiarities. They neglected to stop
the hawse-hole where the anchor-chain passed out, and large quantities
of water came in there, besides what poured down the low smoke-stacks
when the waves broke over her.
Outriding all dangers, she arrived in Hampton Roads on Saturday
evening, March 8, where the mournful condition of things did not
diminish the dispiriting effect of the voyage upon her crew. The
_Cumberland_ was sunk, the _Congress_ was burning, the _Minnesota_ was
aground, and everybody was dismayed. But Worden seems to have had no
lack of confidence in his vessel and his crew. He took on a volunteer
pilot, and promptly in the morning went out to his work. He first
drove away the wooden vessels that were making for the helpless
_Minnesota_, and then steered straight for the _Merrimac_, which was
now coming down the channel.
The Confederates had known about the building of the _Monitor_ (which
they called the _Ericsson_), just as the authorities at Washington had
known all about the _Merrimac_. When their men first saw her, they
described her as "a cheese-box on a raft," and were surprised at her
apparently diminutive size. Buchanan had been seriously wounded in the
action of the previous day, and the Confederate iron-clad was now
commanded by Lieutenant Jones.
Worden stationed himself in the pilot-house, with the pilot and a
quartermaster to man the wheel, while his executive officer, Lieut.
Samuel D. Greene, was in the turret, commanding the guns, which were
worked by chief engineer Stimers and sixteen men. The total number of
men in the _Monitor_ was fifty-seven; the _Merrimac_ had about three
hundred.
[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC," HAMPTON
ROADS, VIRGINIA, MARCH 9, 1862.]
{86} [Illustration: THE FIGHT OF THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC," HAMPTON
ROADS. FEDERAL FLEET IN THE FOREGROUND.]
The _Merrimac_ began firing as soon as the two iron-clads were within
long range of each other, but Worden reserved his fire for short
range. Then the battle was fairly open, the National vessel firing
solid shot, about one in eight minutes, while the Confederates used
shells exclusively and fired much more rapidly. The shells struck the
turret and made numerous scars, but inflicted no serious damage,
except occasionally when a man was leaning against the side at the
moment of impact and was injured by the concussion. Worden had his
eyes at the sight-hole when a shell struck it and exploded,
temporarily blinding him, and injuring him so severely that he turned
over the command to Lieutenant Greene and took no further part in the
action. Each vessel attempted to ram the other, but always without
success. Once when the _Monitor_ made a dash at the {87} _Merrimac's_
stern, to disable her steering-gear, the two guns were discharged at
once at a distance of only a few yards. The two ponderous shots,
striking close together, crushed in the iron plates several inches,
and produced a concussion that knocked over the entire crews of the
after guns and caused many of them to bleed at the nose and ears. The
officers of the _Monitor_ had received peremptory orders to use but
fifteen pounds of powder at a charge. Experts say that if they had
used the normal charge of thirty pounds their shots would undoubtedly
have penetrated the _Merrimac_ and either sunk her or compelled her
surrender. The _Monitor_ had an advantage in the fact that she drew
but half as much water as the _Merrimac_ and could move with much
greater celerity. The fight continued for about four hours, and the
Confederate iron-clad then returned to Norfolk, and she never came
down to fight again till the 11th of April, when no battle took place
because both vessels had orders to remain on the defensive, each
Government being afraid to risk the loss of its only iron-clad in
those waters. The indentations on the _Monitor_ showed that she had
been struck twenty-two times, but she was not in any way disabled.
Twenty of her shots struck the _Merrimac_, some of which smashed the
outer layers of iron plates. It was claimed that the _Merrimac_ would
have sunk the _Monitor_ by ramming, had she not lost her iron prow
when she rammed the _Cumberland_ the day before; but a description of
the prow, which was only of cast iron and not very large, makes this
at least doubtful.
Just what damage the _Merrimac_ received in the fight is not known.
But it was observed that she went into it with her bow up and her
stern down, and went out with her bow down and her stern up; that on
withdrawing she was at once surrounded by four tugs, into which her
men immediately jumped; and she went into the dry-dock for repairs.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN L. WORDEN. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)
Commanding the "Monitor."]
[Illustration: COMMANDER FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, C. S. N. Commanding the
"Merrimac."]
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT S. DANA GREENE. Executive Officer of the
"Monitor."]
The significance of the battle was not so much in its immediate result
as in its effect upon all naval armaments, and because of this it
attracted world-wide attention. The London _Times_ declared: "There is
not now a ship in the English navy, apart from these two [the
_Warrior_ and the _Ironside_], that it would not be madness to trust
to an engagement with that little _Monitor_." The United States
Government ordered the building of more monitors, some with two
turrets, and they did excellent service, notably in the battle of
Mobile Bay.
In May, when Norfolk was captured, an attempt was made to take the
_Merrimac_ up the James River; but she got aground, and was finally
abandoned and blown up. When the Confederates refitted her they
rechristened her _Virginia_, but the original name sticks to her in
history. In December of that year the _Monitor_ attempted to go to
Beaufort, N. C., towed by a steamer; but she foundered in a gale off
Cape Hatteras and went to the bottom, carrying with her a dozen of the
crew.
[Illustration]
{88} [Illustration: LOSS OF THE "MONITOR" IN A STORM OFF CAPE
HATTERAS, DECEMBER 30, 1862.--GALLANT EFFORTS TO RESCUE THE CREW.]