The Memoirs of Charles H. Cramp

by Augustus C. Buell

“As it was necessary to raise the turret in order to raise the deck, and as we were compelled to haul the vessel out of the water, we took the guns out of the turret and proceeded to remove it also. Hoisting out the guns was an easy accomplishment, but the removal of the turret was a difficult problem.

“At first sight, cutting out the rivets and bolts, taking apart and rebuilding it, appeared the most feasible. This, however, was an expensive transaction. After careful investigation, we concluded that it could be hauled off the ship on to the dock on sliding-ways if the work was done with the greatest rapidity with the best men at it. The removal of guns and turret to the dock was successfully accomplished.

“On account of the great cost due to occupying a dry-dock long enough to make the change, it was determined to haul her out on sliding-ways, reversing the process of launching, and that without using a coffer-dam for laying the ground-ways.

“The vessel was hauled out by the use of six 12-inch falls, two of which were attached to end of upper ways, two to a chain that passed around the stem extending to amidships, the ends lashed to the ship just above high-water mark, and the other two to holes in the bow made for the purpose.

“When the six large ‘crabs’ were started with all of the men that could be put on them, they never stopped until the vessel was entirely out of the water, taking a day and a night for the operation.

“This was by all odds the heaviest vessel ever hauled out on ways in this country, and, in view of the simplicity of its preparations and the limited cost, was one of the great achievements of the time occupied by the Civil War. But little or no notice was taken of it by the papers, as battles lost and won were the sensation of the day.

“While the craze for constructing monitors had possession of the country, the government built nothing else in the way of armored vessels.

“Mr. Lenthall and Mr. Isherwood, who was on Mr. Lenthall’s staff at that time, had no power to antagonize the monitor craze successfully, and a large one of wood was ordered to be built in each navy-yard, to be designed by the constructor of that particular yard as far as the hulls were concerned. But little money of the vast expenditures of the navy during the war was devoted to other iron-clad constructions than that of the monitor class.

“The ‘Miantonomah,’ which was one of these vessels built in one of the navy-yards and designed by the constructor at the navy-yard in which she was built, was sent to Russia under command of Commodore John Rodgers with Assistant Secretary Fox, as Special Envoy to convey to the Emperor certain congratulations. The idea was that the government of Russia would construct a number of large monitors. The trip, so far as that was concerned, was a failure. Commodore Rodgers, who went in command, was formerly in command of one of the original monitors which had been engaged in the contests before Charleston, and also in the Savannah sounds in the Civil War, and he was one of the strongest of the captains in favor of that type. As a rule, the captains and other officers were all adverse to them.

“While the Navy Department and Naval Committee of Congress were favorable to the monitor type, Messrs. Lenthall and Isherwood were against it; but they were very backward in doing or in recommending anything else, and permitted themselves to be overlooked. In view of this negligence on their part, it was argued that it was better to try to do something, even if it turned out wrong, than to do nothing at all.”