. The naval history of the Civil War . d boilers of these ships, as hedid the machinery of all others planned byMr. Lenthall. Mr. Lenthall could not at first be made toadmit that a vessel of the Monitorsbuild could be made efficacious for war pur- OF THE CIVIL WAR. 361 poses, or live in a sea-way, and he did nothesitate to say, while she was building, thatshe would go down as soon as she waslaunched. It was not Until after the battleof the • Monitor and Merrimac that hehad any confidence in the former. Then *s ideas underwent a radical change,and while he sighed over what he knewwou
. The naval history of the Civil War . d boilers of these ships, as hedid the machinery of all others planned byMr. Lenthall. Mr. Lenthall could not at first be made toadmit that a vessel of the Monitorsbuild could be made efficacious for war pur- OF THE CIVIL WAR. 361 poses, or live in a sea-way, and he did nothesitate to say, while she was building, thatshe would go down as soon as she waslaunched. It was not Until after the battleof the • Monitor and Merrimac that hehad any confidence in the former. Then *s ideas underwent a radical change,and while he sighed over what he knewwould be the end of all his beautiful woodenvessels, with whose fine models he hadspent so many hours of his life, his practi-cal mind at once grasped the subject, withnew ideas engrafted on the first project,and in the end he produced vessels of theMonitor type that had not their equals atthat time in any European navy. Whatever alterations may have beenmade in the Monitor system, the originalidea was that of John Ericsson; any change. B. F. ISHEHWOOD, V. S. NAVY, CHIEF OF BUREAU OFSTEAH-EXGIXEERIXG. or improvement that left the hull submerged,or nearly so, and retained the revolvingturret, was his by right. The criticisms onhis first invention led him to consider theimportance of somewhat changing his out of this came the •Miantonomah, Monadnock. double-turreted moni-tors, which, with their four 15-inch guns,were more than a match for any three-decker. Though there were some objections tothe first Monitor, there was nothing to callfor the bitter criticisms with which the ves-sel was assailed. Theoretically, the originalplan had advantages over the later ideas:for instance, the armor projected over thesides, stern and boAv on what was calledthe overhang, which carried out the idea Ericsson first conceived of building a raftthat could not sink; which could not bestruck by shot below the water line: whichcould not be rammed; where the rudder andpropeller were en
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectunitedstatesnavy
