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Photo # NH 604:  Launching of USS Monitor, 30 January 1862

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Monitor (1862-1862) -- Construction

USS Monitor's construction resulted from a study of ironclad warships mandated by the Congress in July 1861, as the Civil War moved rapidly from crisis to serious armed conflict. During August and September the study board's members, Commodores Joseph Smith and Hiram Paulding and Commander Charles H. Davis, reviewed seventeen proposals and selected three for construction. Two were relatively conventional designs and became USS New Ironsides and USS Galena. The third, unconventional in virtually every way, became the Monitor.

Swedish engineer John Ericsson was personally responsible for Monitor's conception and the details of her design. Perhaps with Scandanavian coastal defense conditions in mind, he had been developing the concept on paper for several decades. What emerged was well-suited for the Civil War's inshore fighting: a relatively shallow-draft iron hull, topped by an armored raft that provided good protection against ramming and cannon fire. Freeboard was less than two feet, sufficient for coastal requirements, though a real problem when the ship went to sea. Engine power was modest, but again sufficient to the need, and a Navy requirement for masts and sails was quite appropriately ignored.

The most stunning innovation, on a ship whose design was dominated by innovations, was the method of carrying her guns: a thickly-armored round turret, twenty-feet in diameter, rotated by steam power to permit nearly all-around fire from a pair of eleven-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns, the heaviest weapons then available.

Iron fabrication began even before the Monitor's contract was issued in early October. Rapid construction was a necessity, as the Confederates were known to be pushing work on their own ironclad, which became CSS Virginia. The new ship's hull was built by the Continental Iron Works, at Greenpoint, Long Island, with iron stock, machinery and much equipment furnished by other firms. Launched on 30 January 1862, she was outfitted over the next month and placed in commission on 25 February, under the command of Lieutenant John L. Worden.

After trials and modifications, Monitor left New York on 6 March. The next day, she encountered stormy weather, which abundantly demonstrated both the inherent seakeeping problems of the design and some more-easily correctable technical difficulties. Late on 8 March, just a few hours after CSS Virginia had spread terror among the Union fleet, the weather-beaten Monitor arrived off Hampton Roads, where her exhausted crew spent a long night urgently preparing their ship for action.

This page features views related to USS Monitor's construction.

For links to more pictorial coverage of USS Monitor, see:

  • USS Monitor (1862-1862) -- Selected Views.

    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 604

    USS Monitor (1862)


    Line engraving published in Harper's Weekly, September 1862, page 433, depicting the launching of the ship at the Continental Iron Works, Greenpoint, New York, on 30 January 1862.
    It seems unlikely that Monitor was launched with her heavy armored turret, pilothouse and other fittings already installed.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 172KB; 615 x 675 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45963

    Monitor Montage, signed by Thomas Fitch Rowland


    It includes photographs of the "Monitor Shiphouse" and USS Puritan on the building ways at the Continental Iron Works, Greenpoint, New York, and an artwork of the battle between USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.

    The original was in the Office of Naval Records & Library Collection at the National Archives, circa the early 1960s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45964

    USS Monitor (1862)


    First page of the contract to construct the ship's hull, made between Thomas Fitch Rowland, on behalf of the Continental Iron Works, and John Ericsson and his associates, 25 October 1861.

    The original was in the Office of Naval Records & Library Collection at the National Archives, circa the early 1960s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 131KB; 510 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45965

    USS Monitor (1862)


    Second page of the contract to construct the ship's hull, made between Thomas Fitch Rowland, on behalf of the Continental Iron Works, and John Ericsson and his associates, 25 October 1861.

    The original was in the Office of Naval Records & Library Collection at the National Archives, circa the early 1960s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 115KB; 510 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45966

    USS Monitor (1862)


    Third (and last) page of the contract to construct the ship's hull, made between Thomas Fitch Rowland, on behalf of the Continental Iron Works, and John Ericsson and his associates, 25 October 1861.

    The original was in the Office of Naval Records & Library Collection at the National Archives, circa the early 1960s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 111KB; 600 x 765 pixels

     

    For links to more pictorial coverage of USS Monitor, see:

  • USS Monitor (1862-1862) -- Selected Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 19 June 2001
    Link added 27 June 2001