150 years ago: The Battle of Hampton Roads

[Sailor]

It's not hyperbole to say that the Monitor arrived just in the nick of time for the famous showdown 150 years ago, on March 8, 1862.

The Confederate warship Virginia - a hybrid vessel made from the hull and engines of a scuttled Union ship, covered with a protective shell of wood and topped by two inches of iron - had wreaked havoc on the U.S. fleet blockading Hampton Roads.

The Virginia sank two Union ships on the first day of battle. Both had fired on the approaching ironclad, to no avail: The shots bounced off.

A third Union ship, the Minnesota, had run aground trying to enter the fray, but darkness fell before the ironclad could approach it. The Virginia returned to Norfolk for the night. When dawn broke the next morning, the scene was far different. The Monitor had arrived and anchored next to the ailing Minnesota.

More here:
hamptonroads.com/2012/03/150-years-ago-battle-hampton-roads

This fight can be best described as the first between armored warships. Neither of them was the first armored warship, France's L'Glore and the Royal Navy's HMS Warrior (this one is still afloat BTW) both predate Virginia and Monitor and unlike ours were designed to operate in the open ocean.

Monitor's turret however is to my knowledge the first application of that technology to a warship. The turret itself is being preserved and placed on display along with other major pieces of the ship at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News VA.

[tankcommander]

Because the guns were confined in the turret, one of the Monitor's many innovations was a friction recoil system. During tests of the guns, the crew had the system adjusted improperly and one of the guns jumped track, and came out of battery.

Most people don't know, that because of this, during the battle at Hampton Roads, the Monitor was restricted to using 1/2 powder charges, 15 lbs. instead of 30. Even with half charges the solid shot from the 11 inch guns was cracking, and bending the Virginia's plates, and splinters from the oak backing killed two crewmen, and wounded 19.

With full charges the Monitor could have sat back, and shot the Virginia to pieces.

Here's a funny little factoid for you Sailor... Did you know that because most of the ship was below the waterline, along with all lt's other revolutionary innovations, the Monitor was the first ship with flushing toilets! ;D

[Sailor]

Did you know that because most of the ship was below the waterline, along with all lt's other revolutionary innovations, the Monitor was the first ship with flushing toilets!

Yup, I knew. And one of her first plumbing problems was the waste tank overflowing into the ship when the overboard discharge plugged up or valves were incorrectly lined up. Ewww!

Monitor saw some action as she and some Federal gunboats headed up the James River, trying to reach and breach some of the defenses around Richmond but she was unable to negotiate the shallow waters up there. Some skirmishes with Confederate riflemen playing "plink the tincan" but nothing really serious.

Virginia was scuttled and burned when Norfolk, Portsmouth and the Gosport Naval Yard (today's Norfolk Naval Shipyard) were about to fall back into Yankee hands. Monitor left Hampton Roads under tow shortly after the Confederate ironclad was destroyed and was lost in that Cape Hatteras gale.

One additional bit of trivia, Virginia's ram broke off when she rammed USS Cumberland and according to one of the curators at the Mariner's Museum is probably still imbedded in Cumberland's hulk. Zack, Cumberland lies just east of the Monitor Merrimac Bridge Tunnel.