Ironclad Technology
The clash of ships at sea embodies the ongoing technological battle between arms and armor: between deploying ever more destructive weapons and contriving ways to withstand them. As long as solid shot was the only way to attack a ship’s hull, heavy timbers were usually armor enough. Big wooden warships were rarely sunk by even the heaviest shot. (Constitution is a particularly good example.) But the rules of the game changed with the coming of more powerful and more accurate guns, and especially with the development of the practical explosive shell in the 19th century. A shell could open a gaping hole in a heretofore impervious wooden hull. By 1860 France and then Britain had begun building ironclads. In Britain, especially, the rising cost of diminishing timber supplies was another incentive to experiment with iron, both as armor and for structural elements of the hull. But in the United States, wood was still cheaper than iron. Also, though the country had earlier experimented with ironcladding, the Navy resisted the new technology, putting emphasis on speed rather than armor. But it quickly made up for lost time after the beginning of the Civil War. The Confederacy took the lead, for the same reason that the United States had built “super-frigates” at the end of the 18th century. A country that could afford only a small navy had to build state-of-the-art warships. The blockade-breaker C.S.S. Virginia showed the lethal effectiveness of its ironcladding on its first outing (see [page 28]). The next day U.S.S. Monitor fought Virginia to a draw in the first battle between ironclads (right). The encounter spurred European navies to accelerate their ironclad programs, but new breech-loading rifled guns were demonstrating greater armor-piercing ability. In response iron, and then steel, armor was made thicker and harder, leading to still more powerful guns. The gun designers generally stayed a step ahead, with the biggest guns able to penetrate the thickest armor.
Inside a Turret
Pilot house (did not rotate) Turret (23-foot diameter inside) rotated on central spindle Ammunition gantry Two 15-inch Dahlgren guns Ammunition
The monitor Monadnock (all turreted ironclads were designated monitors) was built at the Charlestown yard in 1862-63. The only monitor built there, it was quite successful, described by Admiral David Dixon Porter as “the best monitor afloat.”
Ventilation shaft Auxiliary steering position Shot locker Ericsson engine Stokers’ quarters Coal bunk Funnel (5-inch armor) Officer’s quarters Boilers Crew’s quarters Turret rotation gearing Stores Chain locker
Specifications: Length overall: 259.5 ft. Beam (width): 52.5 ft. Displacement: 3295 tons Draft: 12 ft., 8 in. Armor: turrets, 10 in.; pilothouses, 8 in.; over wooden hull, 3-5 in.; deck, 1.5 in. Engines: Two Ericsson 1426 HP steam engines, 32-in. cylinders; four boilers Screws: Two 4-bladed screws, 10-ft. diameter Speed: 9 knots Crew: 167 Armament: Four 15-in. Dahlgren smoothbore muzzle-loading guns; fired shot or shell