Civil War Battleship The Monitor

The U.S.S. Monitor was an entirely new type of warship when it launched in 1862. Dubbed "the forefather of the modern Navy," this ironclad ship changed how wars are fought at sea. But on New Year's Eve, 1862, it sank off the coast of North Carolina in a terrible storm. No one thought the Monitor could be raised, but after 140 years, parts of the ironclad have finally been brought to the surface. This book chronicles the Monitor's revolutionary design, exciting battle, and intriguing excavation. Illustrated by Larry Day.

“An utterly absorbing account of one of history’s most momentous battles” (Forbes) that not only changed the Civil War but the future of all sea power—from acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow, who “writes with verve and a keen eye” (The New York Times Book Review). No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, took a radical step to combat the Union blockade, building an iron fort containing ten heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project, and, in panicky desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship. Rushed through to completion in just one hundred days, it mounted only two guns, but they were housed in a shot-proof revolving turret. The ship hurried south from Brooklyn, only to arrive to find the Merrimack had already sunk half the Union fleet—and would be back to finish the job. When she returned, the Monitor was there. She fought the Merrimack to a standstill, and, many believe, saved the Union cause. As soon as word of the fight spread, Great Britain—the foremost sea power of the day—ceased work on all wooden ships. A thousand-year-old tradition ended and the naval future opened. Richly illustrated with photos, maps, and engravings, Iron Dawn “renders all previous accounts of the encounter between the Monitor and the Merrimack as obsolete as wooden war ships” (The Dallas Morning News). Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time in this “lively tale of science, war, and clashing personalities” (The Wall Street Journal).

Lavish illustrations (photographs, site drawings, and artifact sketches) complement this informative and highly readable account. Naval warfare buffs, amateurs and professionals involved in maritime archaeology, and Civil War aficionados will be intrigued and informed by USS Monitor A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage.

The United States Navy's first ironclad warship rose to glory during the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, but there's much more to know about the USS Monitor. Historian John Quarstein has painstakingly compiled bits of historical data gathered through years of research to present the first comprehensive picture of the lives of the officers and crew who served faithfully in an iron ship unlike any vessel previously known. "The Monitor Boys," a moniker the men gave themselves, is a reflection of how these hundred-odd souls were bound together through storms, battles, boredom and disaster. Just living aboard the ironclad took uncommon effort and fortitude. Their perseverance through the heat, stress and un-seaworthiness that defined life on the ship makes the study of those who dared it a worthy endeavor. Many recognized that they were part of history. Moreover, the Monitor Boys were agents in the change of naval warfare. Following Quarstein's compelling narrative is a detailed chronology as well as appendices including crew member biographies, casualties and statistics and dimensions of the ship. Readers can dive into the world of the Monitor and meet William Flye, George Geer and the rest of the men who risked everything by going to sea in the celebrated "cheesebox on a raft" and became the hope of a nation wracked by war.

The USS Monitor famously battled the CSS Virginia (the armored and refitted USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads in March 1862. This updated edition of David A. Mindell's classic account of the ironclad warships and the human dimension of modern warfare commemorates the 150th anniversary of this historic encounter. Mindell explores how mariners—fighting "blindly," below the waterline—lived in and coped with the metal monster they called the "iron coffin." He investigates how the ironclad technology, new to war in the nineteenth century, changed not only the tools but also the experience of combat and anticipated today's world of mechanized, pushbutton warfare. The writings of William Frederick Keeler, the ship's paymaster, inform much of this book, as do the experiences of everyman sailor George Geer, who held Keeler in some contempt. Mindell uses their compelling stories, and those of other shipmates, to recreate the thrills and dangers of living and fighting aboard this superweapon. Recently, pieces of the Monitor wreck have been raised from their watery grave, and with them, information about the ship continues to be discovered. A new epilogue describes the recovery of the Monitor turret and its display at the USS Monitor Museum in Newport News, Virginia. This sensitive and enthralling history of the USS Monitor ensures that this fateful ship, and the men who served on it, will be remembered for generations to come.

A description of the construction, battles, and historical impact of the Civil War battleships, the Monitor and the Virginia, known to Union forces as the Monitor and the Merrimack, focuses on the Battle of Hampton Roads, where it was evident that the age of wooden warships was gone forever. Reprint.

In the centuries preceding the American Civil War, the large wooden sailing ship was the mainstay of the world's navies. Then, in the spring of 1861, Stephen Mallory, secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States of America, issued a challenge to the United States Navy: the South was going to fight the numerically superior wooden Navy of the US in ironclad ships. The Union responded to the challenge with its own ironclad, the Monitor, but the South had the advantage of an earlier start. The Merrimac was designed and built to fight wooden ships; the Monitor was created to fight the Merrimac. The US Navy's urgent need for an ironclad led a naval review board to accept the proposed design of the Monitor after initially having rejected it. Manuscripts reveal how the board examined and turned down several proposals; they also describe how the Monitor's designer defended her against skeptics and how the construction of the vessel was organized and undertaken. The book describes the formation of a cartel of northeastern iron and shipbuilding industries that sought to monopolize the construction of blue-water ironclads. This investigation of the origin of the Monitor departs from earlier studies by focusing on the construction companies rather than on Ericsson and his most visible partners. The construction of the Monitor has never been thoroughly investigated. Most of the literature on the Monitor focuses either on Ericsson and his associates or on the dramatic meeting of the Monitor and the Merrimac; it generally ignores the actual building of the vessel. The few attempts to describe her construction contain numerous errors particularly with respect to the operation of her innovative turret.

The U.S.S. Monitor was an entirely new type of warship when it launched in 1862. Dubbed "the forefather of the modern Navy," this ironclad ship changed how wars are fought at sea. But on New Year's Eve, 1862, it sank off the coast of North Carolina in a terrible storm. No one thought the Monitor could be raised, but after 140 years, parts of the ironclad have finally been brought to the surface. This book chronicles the Monitor's revolutionary design, exciting battle, and intriguing excavation. Illustrated by Larry Day.