A monitor was a type of warship designed and built in the United States of America in the second half of the 19th century. Technically, they were small ironclad vessels armed with one or two big-caliber guns mounted in an armored casemate or turret. They were specially designed for coastal bombardment. Thus, they were shallow-draft warships, which were able to sail along close to the sea coastline and river shores. The first one of this type of ship was the USS Monitor, which had been conceived by the Swedish engineer John Ericsson in 1861. This small ironclad vessel first saw combat action at the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, during the American Civil War.
The USS Monitor was a most important milestone in warship development. It was laid down and built at the Continental Iron Works, in New York, and she was completed and commissioned on February 25, 1862. She undertook her famous but inconclusive duel with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862. The USS Monitor would founder under tow on December 31, 1862, with the loss of sixteen of her forty-nine strong crew. Meanwhile, a new and improved type of monitor was already in production; the USS Passaic, which would be completed between November 1862 and April 1863. She would usher in the Passaic-class of ten monitor-type ships.
Characteristics
The hull of the Passaic was essentially a 200-ft-long iron ''raft'', 46-ft wide, and 5-ft deep, from which a slab-sided lower hull was suspended; it was made of iron. The lower hull was somewhat smaller than the ''raft'', with the ''overhang'' serving as a fender to provide protection for the lower hull and rudder from an enemy ship ramming. The original main armament comprised two Dahlgren, smooth-bore, muzzle-loading cannons; one 381-mm and the other 280-mm caliber. Both cannons were mounted side-by-side in a large cylindrical turret, with an internal diameter of 21 feet.
Specifications (USS Passaic)
Type: monitor warship
Number in class: 10
Displacement: 1,875 tons
Length: 70 m (200 feet)
Beam: 14 m (46 feet)
Draft: 3.2 m (10.5 feet)
Propulsion: one Ericsson, vibrating lever, steam engine, with one shaft, fed by two boilers, generating 320 iHP.
Speed: 7 knots
Armament: two Dahlgren smoothbore guns, one 381-mm (15-inch) and the 280-mm (11-inch) caliber.
Compliment: 75 men
 |
| Above, the USS Passaic, which was an improved version of the Monitor. Notice the round turret, with her guns trained to starboard. |