CHAP. XLV.] The Wampanoag class. THE ARMORED SHIPS. 207 France, and of the fact that the republic possessed no foreign coaling stations, still another class of ships was built, of which the Wampanoag is the type. This vessel is 3200 tons burden, 335 feet long, 45 feet in breadth. With the same breadth they have twice the length of the frigates of 1812. They are full ship-rigged, with an enormous spread of canvas. They carry the most powerful engines that their hulls can bear. Their armament consists of a few very heavy guns. The sails of these sea-racers are to be used to spare their coal until they reach their hunting-ground, for they are intended to act against the merchant marine of the enemy, and clear it from the sea. Their speed, either under sail or steam, is to be fifteen knots per hour. The Confederate government at an early period turned its attention to the construction of iron-clad The armored ships. ships. At the seizure of the Norfolk navy yard, the Merrimack, one of the largest frigates in the service, had been sunk (p. 84), but under such circumstances that she was raised without difficulty. The Confederate mack. There was thus supplied extemporaneously to the Confederates the hull of a very powerful ship. iron-clad Merri- They proceeded to convert it into an ironclad on the plan of the shot-proof raft that had been used in Charleston Harbor, covering her, when properly cut down, with an iron roof projecting into the water. At or below the water-line the mail extended in the opposite way, so that a shot striking in the air would glance upward, and in the water would glance downward. She was, therefore, a broadside iron-clad with sloping armor, and carrying a very formidable battery. The national Congress had appointed a special board to examine and report on the subject of iron-clads, and had made an appropriation of $1,500,000 for the experimental construc Congressional appropriation for iron-clads. 208 mental ships. THE MONITORS. [SECT. VIII. tion of one or more armored ships. Contracts were ac cordingly made for three such vessels, one a small corvette, the Galena, plated with iron three inches thick: she The three experi- proved to be a failure, being easily perforated with heavy shot. The second was a frigate, the New Ironsides: she was constructed as a broadside iron-clad, and with her powerful battery of eleven-inch guns did good service. The third was the Monitor, invented and constructed by John Ericsson. The Monitor is essentially a shot-proof revolving tur ret, containing a battery, and carried on a The first Monitor. raft or hull so much submerged as to present the smallest possible surface to an enemy's fire. The guns of a monitor can be trained to any point of the horizon, even though the ship herself should be aground. They are mounted over the centre or axis of the vessel, and hence those of the heaviest weight may be used; the principle of condensing the weight of the broadside into a few heavy shot may be perfectly carried into effect. A monitor, in comparison with a broadside armored ship, requires a small number of men. Its fire is more effective because of the greater steadiness of the vessel, which exposes but little surface to the waves. Advantages of the monitor type. Ericsson's success his contract. The first monitor was built chiefly for the purpose of neutralizing the Confederate iron-clad Merful completion of rimack. Mr. Ericsson, with great energy, commenced her construction before the contract for her was signed. He bound himself to finish her within 100 days. She reached Fortress Monroe at a most critical moment, when her antagonist had begun her work of unresisted destruction. By a crew inexperienced in her management, and worn out with a stormy voyage, she was carried without hesitation into action against her enemy, fought the battle for which she had been built, and won it. CHAP. XLV.] THE MONITOR FRIGATES. 209 Dimensions and The length of the Monitor was 173 feet, her breadth 42 feet; her side armor at the water-line armament of his five inches thick; her turret eight thicknesses of one-inch iron; its inside diameter was 20 feet, its height nine feet. Her armament was two eleven-inch guns mounted side by side. ship. Other monitors at once built. The government at once ordered. nine monitors, of somewhat larger size, and having such improvements as experience had suggested. The armor was of greater thickness, that of the turret being eleven inches. They carried one fifteen-inch and one eleven-inch gun. draught monitors. This class of monitors was followed by another of light Failure of the light- draught. These proved to be failures, not having sufficient flotation. Still another class was ordered, larger than any of the preceding, their length being 225 feet, their turrets and side-armor eleven inches thick. They were considered more formidable than any broadside ship afloat. To the foregoing two monitor frigates were added. There was significance to the Confederates The monitor frig Dictator. ates Puritan and in the names they received-the Puritan and the Dictator. The former is doubleturreted, the latter single-she is the smaller ship of the two. Her length is, however, 314 feet; she is built altogether of iron; her side-armor is eleven inches thick, her turret fifteen inches; she has a ram of solid oak and iron; her engines of 5000 horse-power, her armament two fif teen-inch guns. Dunderberg. Still larger and more powerful, the ram frigate DunderThe ram frigate berg is 378 feet long and 68 feet in breadth. She was intended to combine the advantages of a ram, a casemated broadside, and a monitor, carrying twenty-inch guns. This vessel, probably the most powerful war-ship ever built, was not finished until the II.—O 210 THE RIVER NAVY. [SECT. VIII. close of the war, and was then sold to the Emperor of the French, class. With a view of carrying out the monitor type in ocean The Miantonomoh cruisers, a class of vessels of which the Miantonomoh is an example was built. These have a sea-speed of eleven knots; their side-armor is eleven inches thick, their turrets twelve, their armament four fifteen-inch guns, and the weight of their discharge 1800 pounds. Their sea-going qualities have been found to answer expectation. They cross the Atlantic without dif ficulty. Finally, there was nearly completed, at the end of the The Kalamazoo class. war, a class of monitors of which the Kalamazoo is an example, their length 342 feet, their breadth 56% feet, their deck solid to the water-line, their turrets fifteen inches thick, their intended armament twenty-inch guns. (2.) Of the River Navy: River navy of the If the republic had only a single available war-ship on the North Atlantic coast at the breaking out of the insurrection, it was actually still worse prepared on the Mississippi and its tributaries, on which there was not so much as a single gun. The reopening of those streams, seized by the Confederates without resistance, and the conduct of warlike operations upon them, implied the creation of a powerful navy, the guns of which might sweep the level shores for miles. Gun-boats on the Western rivers must be mainly planned for resistance and offensive movements against batteries on the banks, and engagements with other ships like themselves. Since they are to operate in smooth water, principles of construction may be adopted in them which would be inadmissible in ships exposed to the Atlantic. Requirements for river gun-boats. CHAP. XLV.] THE RIVER NAVY. 211 The Confederates had strongly and without molesta tion fortified the most important strategic points upon the Mississippi-Columbus, Island No. 10, Fort Pillow, Memphis, Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Port Hudson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans. On the Tennessee they had Fort Henry, on the Cumberland Fort Donelson, on the Arkansas Fort Hindman, etc. At first the government directed the purchase of such stout and swift steam-boats as might answer Their dimensions struction. and plan of con- the purpose. They were altered so as to have better protection for their machinery, but were not plated with iron. The Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington were of this class. They were side-wheel steamers. In July, 1861, the government advertised for the construction of iron-clad gun-boats. "It was decided to construct seven vessels, each of about six hundred tons, to draw six feet, to carry thirteen guns, to be plated with iron two and a half inches thick, and to steam nine miles an hour. They were one hundred and seventy-five feet long, and fifty-one and a half wide; the hulls of wood." The principles adopted by the Confederates in the construction of the Merrimack were here reproduced. "Their sides were placed out from the bottom of the boat to the water-line at an angle of about thirty-four degrees, and from the water-line they fell back at about the same angle, to form a slanting casemate, the gun-deck being but a foot above water. This slanting casemate extended across the hull, near the bow and stern, forming a quadrilateral gundeck. Three nine or ten inch guns were placed on the bow, four similar ones on each side, and two smaller ones astern. The casemate inclosed the wheel, which was placed in a recess at the stern of the vessel. The plating was two and a half inches thick." Mr. Eads, of St. Louis, undertook to construct these seven vessels in sixty-five days. Mr. Boynton, from whose |