“NEW IRONSIDES”
“When the ‘New Ironsides’ was contracted for there was no white oak timber available outside of Pennsylvania. Timber of this kind was cleaned out in Delaware and Maryland, and Virginia was for the time-being inaccessible. So the timber that must be used was growing in the forests of Pennsylvania when the contract was signed.
“With the exception of pine decking every stick of timber was of white oak, and being the largest wooden ship ever built, the frames were very heavy,—the floor timbers were two to each frame, and, being without first futtocks and running from bilge to bilge, they required a tree large enough to be twenty-two inches in diameter at a height of forty-five feet from the ground. Trees of this kind were very scarce in Pennsylvania, and frequently only a single tree would be found in a township, which had been preserved as an heirloom by the owner, and it was often difficult to persuade him to sell.
“During the month of October, 1861, we advertised in the country papers that we would pay a dollar a running foot for every tree that was brought to us by the first of January, under the requirements that they were to be at least twenty-two inches in diameter at forty-five feet from the ground, and the logs were to be sided on two sides anywhere from thirteen inches up to eighteen inches.
“At this time, the beginning of the war, farming and business in country towns being very slack, all suitable trees in the forests of Bucks, Berks, Delaware, and Chester counties and some counties more remote were prospected by the country-people and farmers, who worked very hard utilizing moonlight nights as well as daytime in cutting and shipping this timber. These counties were traversed by the North Pennsylvania Railroad, and the various stations from Quakertown down were soon gorged with logs that had to be delivered at our shipyard on or before the first of January to meet our requirements. By the first of January we had logs sufficient to make all the floors of the ship, and quite a number were left at the stations where they had accumulated too rapidly for the railroad to handle them, and they could not be delivered within our time limit. This timber was afterward bought at a reduced price.
“Not being able to get yellow pine, the beams and water-ways were made of white oak. Some of these pieces were sixty feet long and were sided up to sixteen inches. But notwithstanding these difficulties and the fact that all the frame-timber was standing in the forest when we took the contract, yet the vessel was launched in six months after it was signed.
“The region traversed by the North Pennsylvania Railroad in furnishing the frames, water-ways, and beams became exhausted in its turn, so that toward the termination of the war white oak for the beams of the light-draught monitors had to be procured chiefly in Columbia County, in the interior of the State of Pennsylvania.
“There was also difficulty in securing timber for the curved futtocks, which were principally made of roots and were obtained from Delaware.
“The frames were fitted together solidly and caulked before ceiling or planking was secured, and the outside planking below the lower edge of armor was twelve inches thick, tapering off to the lower turn of the bilge to five inches. So the ship in her defensive capabilities was a war machine of no mean type.
“If the ship had been built of steel instead of wood, she would have been sunk when she was struck by a spar torpedo off Charleston.
“The explosion took place at the height of the orlop-deck, where the outside planking was twelve inches thick, and where the end of a sixteen-inch beam backed the frames. The side sprung in about six inches at the point of contact with the torpedo, ‘brooming’ the end of the sixteen-inch oak beam, and considerable water came in for a short time. The side of the ship, through the elasticity of the material, came back to its original form in a short time and the leak stopped. A gigantic marine, who was sitting on his chest at that part of the deck near the point of the explosion was thrown upward against the beams above him, breaking his collar-bone, and he was the only person injured on the ship.
“The time involved in the construction of the ‘New Ironsides,’ launching in six months from the laying of the keel, was remarkable in view of the fact that, besides the timber difficulty, nearly all the skilled workmen and ship-wrights here had gone into the navy-yard, and we were compelled to scour the country for men who were mostly indifferent mechanics. A large number of ship-carpenters and other men came from Baltimore and Maine, who had left their homes to avoid conscription or to secure the high rates of wages paid here.
“An interesting incident connected with the building of the ‘New Ironsides’ was the fact that during the first half of her construction the progress in naval ordnance had advanced so rapidly that the authorities concluded to enlarge the caliber of her guns sufficiently to double the power of the original design. The ship was at first planned to carry sixteen 8-inch smooth-bore guns, which was at that time considered the heaviest caliber that could be worked in a broadside mount. Having in view the fact that all war-ships heretofore built, particularly steam-ships, exceeded their calculated draught, I determined to avoid a similar error in this ship. I provided against it in my calculations of displacement by allowing a foot for a margin. The draught was not to exceed fifteen feet; I allowed for fourteen feet. The minimum height of the port-sills above water at load draught, to insure sea-worthiness and ability to fight the guns in sea-way, should have been seven feet, according to our instructions. But in getting up the plans I arranged that the port-sills with the 8-inch battery would be eight feet above water. My calculations having been correctly made, I had a foot to spare.
“About three months after we began work, and when the frames were up and the beams in, the Department decided to arm the ship with fourteen 11-inch Dahlgrens in broadside and two 200-pounders (8-inch Parrotts). They were all muzzle loaders. This, together with the increased weight of ammunition for the larger guns, exactly consumed my foot of margin and brought the port-sills down to the normal height of seven feet above water, and the draught of ship there was not over fifteen feet, the original design.
“It may not be improper to say that I received much credit and congratulation from the Board and others for my foresight in allowing the margin as I did, and for the correctness of my calculations. But for that the modified battery would have brought the port-sills down to six feet or less, which would have rendered it dangerous to open the main-deck ports in much of a sea.
“During the earlier stages of the construction of this ship but little attention was paid to it by the people of the country; the exciting conditions of the war on land; battles won and lost; the movement of troops, etc., occupied the entire attention of the people; so that while the yard was left open and no fence around it there were no visitors.
“When the battle between the ‘Monitor’ and ‘Merrimac’ took place a short time before launching the ‘New Ironsides,’ the whole world was aroused, and their attention was called to the fact that there were such things as armor-clad ships.
“When the number of visitors who applied for admission was so great that we had to build a high fence around the shipyard, and only admitted those who secured tickets issued by us, and when the launch took place, it was under conditions of great excitement and enthusiasm. The completion of the ship was accomplished in a very short time, and her first scene of operations was before Fort Sumter, which she bombarded eleven months and two days after the contract was signed.
“At this point the history of the contracts may be stated:
“When the appropriation was made by Congress for the purpose of constructing iron-clads, the Secretary of the Navy, as has been remarked, created a board on armored ships, consisting of Commodores Paulding, Smith, and Davis, who were fully authorized to carry out the provisions of the law and make contracts, keeping in view what had been done by England and France in the way of iron-plated floating batteries. These gentlemen advertised for plans and specifications accompanied by proposals for accomplishing the purpose of the act of Congress. There were twenty-five or thirty proposals, embracing a great diversity of projects, the principal features of most of which were lack of well-defined plan, type, and character.
“After considerable investigation, the board decided to accept three plans and award the contracts. They were the ‘New Ironsides,’ the original ‘Monitor,’ and the ‘Galena.’ Those three vessels exhibited a vast diversity in form, construction, and outfit.
“A number of fables have originated and have come to be believed as truths about many of the circumstances attending the selection of plans. Among others, it was said that Mr. Lincoln himself, being impressed with the claims of Mr. Ericsson, had to interfere, and ordered the board to select the ‘Monitor.’ This is entirely false, for no such demonstration was ever made by Mr. Lincoln, and the board was not influenced at all by any considerations of that or any other kind except their own judgment.
“The contract for the ‘New Ironsides’ was awarded to Merrick & Sons; the design, plans, and specifications of hull complete had been made by me in connection with Mr. B. H. Bartol, who conceived the project and had charge of the proposal to the government,—Mr. B. H. Bartol was Superintendent of Merrick & Sons at that time. When the contract was awarded to Merrick & Sons, they sub-let the hull together with the fittings to our firm, in accordance with a previous agreement with Mr. Bartol. The contract price was about $848,000. Merrick & Sons furnished the engines and armor plate. The engines were designed by I. Vaughan Merrick, and were duplicates of those which they had completed for a sloop-of-war, and were for a single screw. The speed was about seven knots. She was bark-rigged with bowsprit.
“After completing the ‘New Ironsides,’ I proposed to build two more of similar type with certain modifications and improvements, that is, sea-going iron-clads, with twin screws instead of a single one, and in increasing the speed and the efficiency of the armor. But at that time what was known as the ‘Monitor craze’ was in full blast, and, notwithstanding the excellent all-around performance of the ‘New Ironsides,’ she remained the only sea-going broadside iron-clad in the navy, and was the first to fire a gun at an enemy, and fought more battles than all other sea-going battleships past and present put together.
“The armor plate of the ‘New Ironsides’ was made partly at Pittsburg and partly at Bristol, Pennsylvania, and was of hammered scrap iron. It was four inches thick, and the plates, which could now be rolled in many mills and be considered light work, were then looked upon as marvels of heavy forging.
“When the contract was made for the ship, wages for shipwrights were $1.75 per day, and in less than two months they rose to $3 per day. We contracted for all the copper sheathing and bolts the day after signing the contract at twenty-nine cents per pound; in four months it was sixty cents per pound. Materials in general went up from 50 to 100 per cent. before we finished the ship.
“Great and radical changes have since occurred, but, primitive as the ‘New Ironsides’ seems in comparison with modern battleships, it is doubtful if any one now existing will ever see as much fighting or make so much history as she did. Last July, in an address read before the Naval War College at Newport, I said:
“‘I cannot better illustrate my point than by comparing the first and the last sea-going battleships built and delivered to the government by Cramp. The first was the ‘New Ironsides,’ built in 1862. The last is the ‘Iowa,’ completed in 1897. Each represented or represents the maximum development of its day.
“‘The ‘New Ironsides’ had one machine, her main engine, involving two steam-cylinders. The ‘Iowa’ has seventy-one machines, involving one hundred and thirty-seven steam-cylinders.
“‘The guns of the ‘New Ironsides’ were worked, the ammunition hoisted, the ship steered, the engine started and reversed, her boats handled, in short, all functions of fighting and manœuvring, by hand. The ship was lighted by oil lamps and ventilated, when at all, by natural air currents. Though, as I said, the most advanced type of her day, she differed from her greater battleship predecessor, the old three-decker ‘Pennsylvania,’ only in four inches of iron side armor and auxiliary steam propulsion. She carried fewer guns on fewer decks than the ‘Pennsylvania,’ but her battery was nevertheless of much greater ballistic power.
“‘In the ‘Iowa’ it may almost be said that nothing is done by hand except the opening and closing of throttles and pressing of electric buttons. Her guns are loaded, trained, and fired, her ammunition hoisted, her turrets turned, her torpedoes, mechanisms in themselves, are tubed and ejected, the ship steered, her boats hoisted out and in, and the interior lighted and ventilated, the great search-light operated, and even orders transmitted from bridge or conning-tower to all parts by mechanical appliances.
“‘Surely no more striking view than this of the development of thirty-five years could be afforded.’
“The battery of the ‘New Ironsides’ was mounted in broadside, and she had eight ports of a side, out of which she fought seven 11-inch Dahlgrens and one 200-pounder Parrott, the maximum train or arc of fire being about 45 degrees.
“The ‘Iowa’s’ four 12-inch guns are mounted in pairs in two turrets, and train through arcs of about 260 degrees forward and aft respectively. Her eight 8-inch guns are mounted in pairs in four turrets, and each pair trains through an effective arc of about 180 degrees.
“The ‘New Ironsides’ had no direct bow or stern fire.
“The ‘Iowa’ fires two 12-inch and four 8-inch guns straight ahead and straight astern.
“The maximum shell-range of the heaviest guns of the ‘Ironsides’ was about a mile and a quarter, that of the ‘Iowa’s’ heaviest guns is about eight miles. The muzzle energy of the ‘Ironsides’’ 11-inch smooth bores was to that of the ‘Iowa’s’ 12-inch rifles about as 1 to 26.
“The fate of the ‘New Ironsides’ is well known: she was destroyed by fire at League Island in 1866, about a year after her last action.”
Judged by modern standards of construction, the time expended in building the “New Ironsides” was marvellously brief, six months, because, as Mr. Cramp said, she was in action against Fort Sumter within eleven months from signing of the contract.
Of course, there can be no comparison between the methods of her construction or the nature of her appliances and those of a modern battleship, yet in her time and for her day she was the most formidable and powerful sea-going battleship afloat.
Mr. Cramp, notwithstanding that he was entering upon a new and untried field without any prior guidance of observation or experience, undertook the design and construction of this remarkable vessel with all the confidence that a sense of professional mastery never fails to inspire; and so confident was he that the “New Ironsides” would prove a success that, while she was building, he proceeded to design two other vessels of the same type, but embodying numerous improvements which his experience in construction of the “Ironsides” from day to day suggested to him, and when these designs were completed he offered them to the Department.
He then discovered that the Navy Department had become entirely under the influence of what might be called the “Monitor craze,” which absolutely dominated the councils of the Department and of Congress in respect to armor-clad vessels.
A combination, or “ring,” was formed, with head-quarters in New York, to prevent the construction of any type of iron-clad vessel except monitors, and it had sufficient power to carry its determination into effect.
CRUISER NEWARK
A sudden halt was made in the development of the armored sea-going type which originated during the Crimean War. France had finished the construction of “La Courunne,” “La Gloire,” and several others, one of which had made a voyage to Vera Cruz before our Civil War, and certain lessons derived from that ship during the voyage were utilized in the construction of the “New Ironsides.” Both England and France were proceeding slowly in the development of the very complete type of battleship of the present day. While they built several vessels of an improved monitor type and adopted the turret on a roller base, in many cases they adhered to the course first laid out. The late British battleships have fixed barbettes and shields for their heavy guns.
The old Timby turret is practically a revolving barbette extending above the guns, which had to be loaded at the muzzle and the rammer being jointed, eleven minutes being occupied in loading and firing.
In the operations before Charleston, the Confederates would leave their bomb proofs after a shot was fired, and prepare for the next one during the eleven minutes and retire unharmed, ready to renew the contest. Under these conditions, the defence became a system of guns in a casemate connecting with a bomb proof.
The old-fashioned monitor, viewed simply as a floating battery for use in smooth water, was serviceable. It was not in any sense a sea-going vessel, and it was always in danger of foundering as it crept along the coast from harbor to harbor. Besides this, it was almost intolerable to its officers and men in the living sense. In fact, service in the monitors developed a new and distinct disease known in the war-time pathology as the “monitor fever.” Whenever one was torpedoed, as for example the “Tecumseh” in Mobile Bay, she sank immediately; so quickly, in fact, that her crew below deck were unable to escape. The torpedo which the “New Ironsides” resisted practically without injury would have instantly sunk any monitor then existing. The “Ironsides,” on the contrary, was a sea-going vessel of the best and stanchest type, capable of any length of voyage with comfort and perfect safety to her officers and crew.
A wise administration of the Navy Department, or one not affected by the influence of cranks and combinations, would have built at least half a dozen vessels of that type as soon as they could be constructed.
Mr. Cramp, realizing and appreciating the value of the type, and knowing that the influences which prevented its multiplication in the navy were unworthy, keenly felt the sting of his repulses. However, he proceeded to build such ships as the Department required, including a monitor, and from that time to the end of the war gave the navy the full benefit of his experience and skill in all directions, both in new construction and repair.
Partly through the natural unthinking enthusiasm of the people in times of great excitement and partly through a carefully planned campaign of sentiment adroitly managed by the ring, the monitor became almost the symbol of patriotism.
After the repulse of the “Merrimac” in Hampton Roads, Ericsson was almost deified, particularly by that class of people who consider rant synonymous with eloquence. Yet such sentiments were actually cherished at the time by a great many people who knew nothing whatever about the actual merits of different types of vessels. But their fanaticism made the operations of the monitor ring easy, and at the same time made it impossible to introduce or carry forward any other type of armored vessel during the whole Civil War, no matter how efficient or how desirable it might be.
Captain Ericsson is popularly credited, and doubtless will be in history, with the complete invention of the monitor. So far as the form and structure of the hull, which was simply “scow bottom,” and the fantastic type of its propelling engine and the Ericsson screw were concerned, this is probably true, at least so far as known; but the main distinguishing feature of the monitor was not its model of hull nor its propelling engine, but its revolving turret; and this device had been invented and patented by Mr. John R. R. Timby several years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Timby had proposed to use the revolving turret system for sea-coast defence, as a primary proposition. However, in his description, upon which his letters-patent were issued, he suggested that it might also be applied to floating structures or batteries. All that Ericsson did in the application of the turret system to his monitor was to appropriate Timby’s invention and act upon his suggestion; a fact which was abundantly demonstrated afterward when Mr. Timby received compensation for the infringement.
But all these facts probably went for little or nothing. It seemed that the people had determined to make a demigod of Ericsson, and there was no gainsaying them. They would have it so, and so it is.
Mr. Cramp, in a hitherto unpublished paper, deals with the history and operations of the monitor ring with regard to its personnel and the details of its origin and methods, the origin of the “fast cruisers of the navy,” and the “state of marine engineering of this country as it existed at that time.” In this paper, as will be seen, he hews to the line.