In April the Virginia, under Capt. Josiah Tattnall, again challenged the Monitor, but the Union ship declined combat. When General McClellan's advance in the Peninsular campaign forced the Confederates to abandon Norfolk, Tattnall, unable to lighten the Virginia sufficiently for passage up the James River, destroyed her May, The Monitor foundered and sank in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras in Dec.
In scientists discovered the intact wreck of the Monitor, and the site was subsequently protected by the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The steam engine and turret of the Monitor were recovered in for display with other artifacts at the Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Va.
See R. Daly, How the Merrimac Won ; W. Her armor plating was two inches thick. Under that was two solid feet of iron-reinforced pine. The Union Navy was by no means idle in its own strides towards naval innovation during these months. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles learned that the Confederates were working on an ironclad ship shortly after construction began and wanted to meet them in kind.
Once he received Congressional approval to begin constructing an ironclad of his own he put together a commission of three senior officers to do just that. The so-called Ironclad Board assembled in August of and accepted seventeen different design proposals before selecting a final three to fully support.
Of those, the one was a particularly strange looking craft designed by Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson. The whole vessel was based around a large revolving turret designed by another inventor named Theodore Timby. The ship floated so low in the water that the only real targets an enemy ship could even hit were that thickly armored turret and the also-armored pilot box from where she was steered.
And, perhaps most importantly, she was built fast. Ericsson promised he could build her in days if given approval. The Battle of Hampton Roads began on the morning of March 8th, That first day, as mentioned above, did not go well for the Union Navy. But three of his five warships ran aground as they moved to attack, two of which remained stuck for the remainder of the battle. The first actual shots were exchanged between a Union tugboat and one of several Confederate gunboats supporting the Virginia.
The battle heated up quickly from there. In short order the Virginia rammed the frigate Cumberland , sinking her along with men of her crew. She then turned on the Congress , another frigate.
The captain of the vessel, Lieutenant Joseph Smith, had purposefully run her aground to prevent her being rammed and sunk like the Cumberland. After an hour of pummeling from the Virginia and her support ships Smith surrendered his vessel.
As the survivors were escaping the ship, a Union shore battery fired on the Virginia. Her commander, Captain Franklin Buchanan, ordered his men to shoot cannonballs heated red hot at the Cumberland as retaliation. The wooden ship caught fire, burned for a time, and then exploded when her magazine went up. With the tide going out and darkness falling, the first day of battle drew to a close. In her first day of combat the Virginia had suffered heavy damage to her smokestack slowing her speed considerably.
Two of her guns were disabled and her armor was heavily battered. Two sailors were dead and several wounded, including Captain Buchanan. But compared to the Union ships losses and the roughly dead American sailors, the Virginia had definitely won the action of March 8th. He found his path blocked by what looked to him like a new boiler being towed to the grounded vessel by a tug. It was, in fact, the Monitor. Smoke-pipe — C. Pilot-house — Anchor Well — E.
Rudder — F. Propeller — G. Iron Armor — H. Braces for Dock Beams — K. Water-line — L. Dahlgren Gun — M. Harper's Weekly , March 29, , page Lieutenant Jeffers and Chief EngineerStimers; 2. Captain's Cabin; 3. Engine-room; 4. Berth Deck; 5.
Interior of the Tower; 6. Turret Machinery; 7.
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