NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



507 



ed securely one over another with overlapping 

 joints, and lined with an additional layer of 

 iron an inch thick, thus making 9 inches in all. 

 The weight of the turret is about 100 tons, and 

 its support is a circular bed plate of composi- 

 tion metal firmly secured to the deck. Upon 

 this it is supported except in time of action, 

 when the weight is taken by a vertical central 

 shaft of iron, with which it is made to revolve 

 as desired, the motive power being a steam en- 

 gine specially designed for this service, as also for 

 working the blowers for the fires, and for ven- 

 tilation. On the top, the turret is covered with 

 iron beams and perforated iron, shell-proof. 

 This, while it affords protection, admits the cir- 

 culation of air necessary in working the guns. 

 Small sliding iron hatchways are also provided 

 to afford an entrance for the men through this 

 portion. The turret is constructed for two 

 heavy guns, which constitute the whole arma- 

 ment of the battery. They are placed pre- 

 cisely parallel with each other, and both are 

 directed out the same side of the turret. Those 

 selected for the first trial were 11-inch Dahl- 

 gren smooth-bore guns, carrying 168 Ib. round 

 shot. Some wrought-iron shot were provided 

 for the first encounter, but their use was for- 

 bidden for fear of their bursting the guns, by 

 reason of their weight, being 15 Ibs. greater 

 than that of the shot used iu proving the guns. 

 The portholes are circular openings, 3 feet above 

 the deck, just large enough to admit the muzzle 

 of the gun, and kept closed by a sliding shut- 

 ter, managed on the inside, and removed only 

 when the gun is run out to be fired. The 

 gun-carriages are of wrought iron and run on 

 slides very accurately constructed. The sight- 

 ing of the guns was designed to be not over 

 their line through the portholes ; but four holes 

 were pierced through the turret at the height of 

 the eye for telescopes, and just outside of the 

 holes reflectors were fixed, which bent the ray 

 of light coming in- a direction parallel with the 

 guns through the axis of the telescope. In 

 action, however, the ordinary mode of sighting 

 was adopted. The turret is caused to revolve 

 to the right or left, by the movement of a small 

 wheel which controls the action of the steam, 

 and is turned by the gunner or his assistants, 

 and a scale is provided by which the elevation 

 of the guns is also adjusted. When ready for 

 firing, the shutter is triced up by the gunner, 

 the piece is run out, fired, and instantly returns 

 by the recoil, a friction clamp upon the sides 

 of the ways arresting it at any desired point. 

 On this side of the turret is an additional thick- 

 ness of iron plating of about 3 inches. The 

 pilot or wheel-house, as originally constructed, 

 was a square box formed of bars or beams of 

 wrought iron, 9 inches by 12, interlocked at 

 the corners, and covered with heavy plating. 

 Elongated horizontal apertures at the sides 

 afford the only lookout for the helmsman. 

 These apertures may also be used as loopholes 

 for musketry if desirable. In the place of 

 chimneys, bomb-proof gratings are set in the 



deck, and through these the smoke of the fires 

 is driven out by the blowers ; low temporary 

 chimneys are however provided, which are re- 

 moved in time of action. The deck is thus en- 

 tirely free of all incumbrances, and the men 

 who work the vessel and handle the guns, are 

 all entirely out of sight beneath the invulner- 

 able plating. All access into the interior ig 

 securely shut off, so that if the battery were 

 boarded, the men could not be reached and no 

 harm could be done to the vessel itself. Its 

 sharp and powerful iron prow will enable it to 

 sink with ease any wooden vessel it can reach, 

 and its light draught allows of its running into 

 shoal waters either for offensive operations or 

 to retire, if necessary, to a distance from more 

 powerful vessels of deeper draught. Her com- 

 plement of men consists of 60 in all, of whom 

 11 are officers. The battery is evidently de- 

 signed for harbor and river operations, and not 

 for encountering heavy seas.* 



* The important service soon performed by this vessel, 

 and the immense consequences following the first encounter 

 between iron-clad vessels, will justify us in presenting in 

 this form a short sketch of her voyage, and of the battle in. 

 which she -was immediately afterwards engaged, although 

 the events properly belong to the year succeeding that to 

 which this volume i's particularly devoted. The Monitor was 

 taken in tow from New York harbor by a steam-tug on the 

 6th of March, 1S62, and propelled by her own steam-power 

 also, was hurried towards Hampton Roads, to be in readi- 

 ness, if possible, for the threatened descent upon our shipping 

 of the fricate Merrimac. which the Confederates had covered 

 with a heavy plating of iron, and with a roof forward formed 

 of bars of railroad iron. In case of encountering storms, the 

 original plan was to make a harbor, and thus avoid the dan- 

 gers to which a vessel of this character would be subjected. 

 The voyage, however, was performed through a heavy gale 

 of wind and rough seas, which the vessel happily weathered, 

 although the waves rolled over the top of the turret, and the 

 water was driven with violence through the apertures neces- 

 sarily left for ventilation, for the escape of smoke, &c. This 

 threatened several times to extinguish the tires, and caused 

 the engines to work so feebly, that they were incompetent 

 to expel the noxious gases, of pump out the water. Several 

 of the men and officers were rendered senseless by the suffo- 

 cating fumes from the fires, and were only restored by being 

 brought up into the turret and exposed to the fresh air. In 

 the height of the gale the tiller rope was thrown off the wheel, 

 and but for the strong hawser connecting the battery with 

 the tug-boat ahead, the former must have foundered before 

 her movements could have been brought under any control. 

 During the night, when these dangers were most imminent, 

 no means whatever were available for signalling to the tug- 

 boat the need of seeking protection nearer the shore, from 

 which direction the wind came, and all on board were thus 

 kept in constant alarm. 



To those upon whom rested the responsibility of the great 

 trial, upon which they were about to enter, no sleep was 

 afforded after Friday morning the 7th of March. On Satur- 

 day evening the Monitor entered Hampton Roads as the en- 

 gagement of the day was terminating between the Confed- 

 erate ships the iro'n-plated Merrimac, the Jamestown, and 

 the Torktown, with the United States vessels the sloop-of- 

 war Cumberland, the frigate Congress, and the steam-frigate 

 Minnesota, the two former of which had already been de- 

 stroyed, the one by the terrible battering power of the 

 Merrimac, and the other by her heavy broadsides of shot 

 and shell. During the night the Merrimac lay at anchor 

 near Sewall's Point, and the Monitor remained near the 

 Minnesota, which was fast aeround between Fortress Mon- 

 roe and Newport News. Early on Sunday morning the 

 Merrimac was seen advancing towards the Minnesota, to re- 

 new the *rork of destruction she had so successfully prose- 

 cuted the day before. When within range, her shot were 

 discharged at the frigate aground without any heed being 

 paid to the apparently insignificant stranger within a mile 

 of which she was passing. At this distance, those on board 

 the Merrimac must have been astonished as one of the 11- 

 inch Dahlgrens from the curious little tower upon the raft- 

 like structure opened upon the ship with its hundred and 

 sixty-eight pound shot. From that time the attack upon 



