The Monitor was, without doubt, the most remarkable production of the constructive art that appeared during the war. The original Monitor was lost at sea, but our illustration presents the Passaic class of Monitors, which quickly followed the original of this type.
U. S. MONITOR “PASSAIC.”
The Passaic was built of iron, and was launched in 1862. Her length is 200 feet, beam 46 feet, draught of water 11.6 feet. She has a displacement of 1875 tons, and attains a speed of seven knots per hour with an indicated horse-power of 377. The capacity of her coal-bunkers is 140 tons. Her battery consists of one 15-inch smooth-bore and one 11-inch smooth-bore. Her sides are protected by five inches of laminated iron, and her turret by eleven inches of the same. This vessel and eleven others of her class constitute the entire armored fleet of the United States. Too much credit cannot be awarded to Captain Ericsson for his brilliant conception of this floating battery, and the navy must be ever grateful to him for preserving it from the dire disaster which was averted by the appearance of the original Monitor at the moment of a great crisis. These vessels bore themselves well through the storms of elements and battle during the war, proving capable of making sea-voyages, and of resisting the effects of the artillery that was in use during the period of their usefulness; but an interval of more than twenty years has produced such a change in artillery as to make the protection afforded by a few laminated plates of one-inch iron but a poor defence against weapons which have robbed this fleet of its once formidable character. Although many of the features of the original design may be retained in new constructions, most of the details will be changed, notably in the turret, in consequence of the greater weight resulting from the increased thickness of armor. The central spindle around which the Ericsson turret revolves must disappear, and the turret must turn on rollers under the base.
The effect produced abroad by the success of Ericsson’s Monitor is so familiar to all that it hardly needs more than a passing allusion here. There is no doubt that the Monitor was the progenitor of all the turreted vessels in the fleets of the world, though the essential principle of the vessel, however, was never viewed with favor. This principle consists in the low freeboard, which, besides reducing the size of the target, is intended to contribute to the steadiness of the hull as a gun-platform by offering no resistance to the waves that are expected to wash freely over the vessel’s deck: the horizontal overhang of the Passaic class is intended to contribute to resisting a rolling motion. The vessel was designed to be as a raft on the water, constantly submerged by the passing waves, hermetically sealed to prevent the admission of water, and artificially ventilated by means of blowers drawing air down through the turret. This was the most startling feature about the construction. The protection afforded to the battery by a circular turret having the form best suited to deflect projectiles, the employment of machinery to point the guns by the rotation of the turret, the protection to motive power, to anchoring apparatus, etc., all presented admirable points of advantage, but the almost perfect immersion of the hull, and the absence of motion due to the great stability, are the essential features in the construction.
U. S. DOUBLE-TURRETED MONITOR “TERROR.”
The double-turreted Monitors, of which the Terror indicates the class, were built with a sponson, and it would have been better for the navy if this had been the only deviation made from the original design of Captain Ericsson. But it was not; the great mistake was made of building this class of Monitors of wood—a style of construction which had been already condemned abroad, in consequence of the impossibility of repairing an armored vessel so constructed, it being necessary to remove the armor for that purpose.