36 Facts About USS Monitor

USS Monitor was an ironclad warship built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, the first such ship commissioned by the Navy.

USS Monitor presented a new concept in ship design and employed a variety of new inventions and innovations in ship building that caught the attention of the world.

The impetus to build USS Monitor was prompted by the news that the Confederates were building an iron-plated armored vessel named the Virginia in the old Federal naval shipyard at Gosport, near Norfolk, that could effectively engage the Union ships blockading Hampton Roads harbor and the James River leading northwest to Richmond.

That night, USS Monitor arrived and, just as Virginia set to finish off Minnesota and St Lawrence on the second day, the new Union ironclad confronted the Confederate ship, preventing her from wreaking further destruction on the wooden Union ships.

Confederates were forced to scuttle and destroy Virginia as they withdrew in early May 1862 from Norfolk and its naval shipyard, while Monitor sailed up the James River to support the Union Army during the Peninsula Campaign under General-in-Chief George B McClellan.

Related searches

USS Monitor was the most innovative design by virtue of its low freeboard, shallow-draft iron hull, and total dependence on steam power.

USS Monitor had a tonnage of 776 tons burthen and displaced 987 long tons.

Welles insisted that if USS Monitor did not prove to be a "complete success", the builders would have to refund every cent to the government.

The name "USS Monitor", meaning "one who admonishes and corrects wrongdoers", was proposed by Ericsson on 20 January 1862 and approved by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox.

Yet USS Monitor was still able to challenge Virginia and prevent her from further destroying the remaining ships in the Union flotilla blockading Hampton Roads.

USS Monitor required petty officers: among them was Daniel Toffey, Worden's nephew.

USS Monitor was now in danger of foundering, so Worden signaled Seth Low for help and had USS Monitor towed to calmer waters closer to shore so she was able to restart her engines later that evening.

In USS Monitor Worden was already at his station in the pilot house while Greene took command of the turret.

USS Monitor received several direct hits on the turret, causing some bolts to violently shear off and ricochet around inside.

USS Monitor was unable to do significant damage to Virginia, possibly because her guns were firing with reduced charges, on advice from Commander John Dahlgren, the gun's designer, who lacked the "preliminary information" needed to determine what amount of charge was needed to "pierce, dislocate or dislodge iron plates" of various thicknesses and configurations.

USS Monitor was taken below to recover and relieved by Stimers.

Virginia, seeing USS Monitor turn away, turned her attention to the Minnesota and fired shots that set the wooden vessel ablaze, destroying the nearby tugboat Dragon.

Shortly after USS Monitor withdrew, Virginia had run aground, at which time Jones came down from the spar deck to find the gun crews not returning fire.

USS Monitor had managed to fire forty-one shots from her pair of Dahlgren guns.

USS Monitor did successfully defend Minnesota and the rest of the Union blockading force, while Virginia was unable to complete the destruction she started the previous day.

USS Monitor was taken to Fort Monroe for preliminary treatment, then to a hospital in Washington.

USS Monitor informed them President Lincoln had personally paid Worden a visit extending his gratitude.

Virginia fired a few shots ineffectively at very long range while USS Monitor returned fire, remaining near Fort Monroe, ready to fight if Virginia came to attack the Federal force congregated there.

USS Monitor did not follow and after firing a gun to windward as a sign of contempt, anchored off Sewell's Point.

USS Monitor was now part of a flotilla under the command of Admiral John Rodgers aboard Galena, and, along with three other gunboats, steamed up the James River and engaged the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluff.

Related searches

USS Monitor was of little help in the assault because the confinement and small gun ports of her turret would not allow her to elevate her guns sufficiently to engage the Confederate batteries at close range, so she had to fall back and fire at a greater distance, while the other gunboats were unable to overcome the fortifications on their own.

USS Monitor was now a premier tourist attraction and the crowd was allowed on board to tour the vessel.

Crew celebrated Christmas aboard USS Monitor while berthed at Hampton Roads in what was described as a most merry fashion, while many other celebrations were occurring along the shore.

Bankhead ordered the engineers to start the Worthington pumps, which temporarily stemmed the rising waters, but soon USS Monitor was hit by a squall and a series of violent waves and water continued to work its way into the vessel.

USS Monitor then ordered the anchor dropped to stop the ship's rolling and pitching with little effect, making it no easier for the rescue boats to get close enough to receive her crew.

USS Monitor then ordered the towline cut and called for volunteers, Stodder, along with crewmates John Stocking, and James Fenwick volunteered and climbed down from the turret, but eyewitnesses said that as soon as they were on the deck Fenwick and Stocking were quickly swept overboard and drowned.

USS Monitor was designated a National Historic Landmark on 23 June 1986.

Saturation diving was evaluated by the Navy that dive season on USS Monitor and proved to be very successful, allowing divers to maximize their time on the bottom.

Only 16 of the crew were not rescued by Rhode Island before USS Monitor sank and the forensic anthropologists at JPAC were able to rule out the three missing black crewmen based on the shape of the femurs and skulls.

The Greenpoint USS Monitor Museum commemorated the ship and her crew with an event on 12 January 2013 at the grave sites of those USS Monitor crew members buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, followed by a service in the cemetery's chapel.

USS Monitor gave her name to a new type of mastless, low-freeboard warship that mounted its armament in turrets.