USS Monitor's 11 Months: The Cheese Box From Hampton Roads to Hatteras

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The USS Monitor existed for less than 11 months. Its story starts with Mary Louvestre, a freed woman working for a Confederate engineer in Norfolk, who brought proof to Navy Secretary Gideon Welles that the Confederates were armoring the scuttled Merrimack as the CSS Virginia. Congress authorized $1.5 million for ironclads, and John Ericsson proposed an iron ship with 18 inches of freeboard and a rotating turret holding two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, promising to build it in 100 days. It took 101, and Lincoln's backing overcame a skeptical board.

On its first voyage in March 1862, water poured in under the turret, fan belts slipped, and coal gas nearly suffocated the engine crew. It reached Hampton Roads after the Virginia had sunk the Cumberland and destroyed the Congress, and on March 9 the two ironclads fought for four hours to a standstill. Captain John Worden was blinded by a shell at the pilot house. On December 31, 1862, under tow off Cape Hatteras, the hull began separating in a storm and 16 men died. The wreck was found in 1973 and the turret raised in 2002.

The pilot house sat near the bow, so the turret could not fire straight ahead without endangering it.
The Virginia carried explosive shells instead of solid shot, and Dahlgren ordered reduced powder charges for fear his guns would burst.
Souvenir hunters stripped doorknobs, keys and escutcheons when the public toured the ship in Washington.
Ericsson blamed the crew for the sinking, but the Navy took no action against them.
Remains of two sailors found inside the turret were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in 2013.

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