USS Monitor
USS Monitor

Author: John D. Broadwater

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1603444742

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Lavish illustrations (photographs, site drawings, and artifact sketches) complement this informative and highly readable account. Naval warfare buffs, amateurs and professionals involved in maritime archaeology, and Civil War aficionados will be intrigued and informed by USS Monitor A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage.

The Construction of the U.S.S Monitor
The Construction of the U.S.S Monitor

Author: Stephen Thompson

Publisher: Page Publishing Inc

Published: 2019-07-08

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 1643506374

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the centuries preceding the American Civil War, the large wooden sailing ship was the mainstay of the world's navies. Then, in the spring of 1861, Stephen Mallory, secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States of America, issued a challenge to the United States Navy: the South was going to fight the numerically superior wooden Navy of the US in ironclad ships. The Union responded to the challenge with its own ironclad, the Monitor, but the South had the advantage of an earlier start. The Merrimac was designed and built to fight wooden ships; the Monitor was created to fight the Merrimac. The US Navy's urgent need for an ironclad led a naval review board to accept the proposed design of the Monitor after initially having rejected it. Manuscripts reveal how the board examined and turned down several proposals; they also describe how the Monitor's designer defended her against skeptics and how the construction of the vessel was organized and undertaken. The book describes the formation of a cartel of northeastern iron and shipbuilding industries that sought to monopolize the construction of blue-water ironclads. This investigation of the origin of the Monitor departs from earlier studies by focusing on the construction companies rather than on Ericsson and his most visible partners. The construction of the Monitor has never been thoroughly investigated. Most of the literature on the Monitor focuses either on Ericsson and his associates or on the dramatic meeting of the Monitor and the Merrimac; it generally ignores the actual building of the vessel. The few attempts to describe her construction contain numerous errors particularly with respect to the operation of her innovative turret.

"Our Little Monitor"

Author: Anna Gibson Holloway

Publisher: Civil War in the North

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 9781606353141

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On March 9, 1862, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia met in the Battle of Hampton Roads--the first time ironclad vessels would engage each other in combat. For four hours the two ships pummeled one another as thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers and civilians watched from the shorelines. Although the battle ended in a draw, this engagement would change the nature of naval warfare by informing both vessel design and battle tactics. The "wooden walls" of navies around the world suddenly appeared far more vulnerable, and many political and military leaders initiated or accelerated their own ironclad-building programs. Americans did not initially have much faith in the Monitor. Few believed that this strange little vessel could hold her own against the formidable Confederate ironclad Virginia, which had been built on the bones of the scuttled USS Merrimack in Portsmouth, Virginia. The Virginia, seemingly relentless and unstoppable, had ravaged the U.S. Navy in Hampton Roads on March 8, just before the Monitor arrived. Yet the following day, the "cheesebox on a raft" proved her Union mettle, becoming a national hero in her own right. For the remainder of the Civil War the Union Navy used dozens of monitor-style vessels on inland waters as well as at sea. But there would always be only one first Monitor, and she became affectionately known to many throughout the nation as "Our Little Monitor." Her loss off Cape Hatteras on December 31, 1862, was mourned as keenly in the press as the loss of 16 of her men that night. Using the latest archaeological finds from the USS Monitor Center in Newport News, Virginia, as well as untapped archival material, Anna Gibson Holloway and Jonathan W. White bring "Our Little Monitor" to life once more in this beautifully illustrated volume. In addition to telling her story from conception in 1861 to sinking in 1862, as well as her recent recovery and ongoing restoration, they explain how fighting in this new "machine" changed the experience of her crew and reveal how the Monitor became "the pet of the people"--a vessel celebrated in prints, tokens, and household bric-a-brac; a marketing tool; and a prominent feature in parades, Sanitary Fairs, and politics.

Iron Thunder
Iron Thunder

Author: Avi

Publisher: Hachette+ORM

Published: 2010-02-12

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1423140621

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

When his father is killed fighting for the Union in the War Between the States, thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll must take a job to help support his family. He manages to find work at a bustling ironworks in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where dozens of men are frantically pounding together the strangest ship Tom has ever seen. A ship made of iron. Tom becomes assistant to the ship's inventor, a gruff, boastful man named Captain John Ericsson. He soon learns that the Union army has very important plans for this iron ship called the Monitor. It is supposed to fight the Confederate "sea monster"--another ironclad--the Merrimac. But Ericsson is practically the only person who believes the Monitor will float. Everyone else calls it "Ericsson's Folly" or "the iron coffin." Meanwhile, Tom's position as Ericsson's assistant has made him a target of Confederate spies, who offer him money for information about the ship. Tom finds himself caught between two certain dangers: an encounter with murderous spies and a battle at sea in an iron coffin

The Man Who Made the Monitor
The Man Who Made the Monitor

Author: Olav Thulesius

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2007-01-18

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0786427663

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mention Civil War naval confrontations and the Monitor instantly springs to mind. The first of the ironclads, the Monitor not only took part in a major battle, it forever changed the face of naval construction. But who was the man behind the ship? Born in Filipstad, Sweden, in 1803, the brilliant and somewhat eccentric engineer John Ericsson spent his childhood observing his father's work in mining and later learned his engineering skills at the North Atlantic-Baltic canal. As a young man Ericsson turned to a variety of projects. In England, he introduced the ship's propeller, built an Arctic expedition vessel and designed some of the first successful steam locomotives. Moving to New York in 1839, he soon teamed up with Harry Cornelius Delameter of the Phoenix foundry, a partnership which resulted in Ericsson's most famous work, the USS Monitor. Focusing on the man behind the inventions, this book tells the life story of John Ericsson. It details a number of Ericsson's inventions including a steam-powered fire engine, the first screw-propelled warship, a variety of "hot-air engines," and early experiments in solar power from the roof of his Manhattan home. The main focus is Ericsson's design and construction of the ironclad USS Monitor. One of the first viable armored warships, the Monitor revolutionized naval warfare the world over. The ship's battle with the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads and its eventual fate off the coast of Cape Hatteras are covered. Ericsson's relationships with contemporaries such as Alfred Nobel and recent developments concerning the recovery of the wreck of the Monitor are also examined.