The National tribune., 1882-03-25
LIFE ON AN IR0N-CLAD.
THE EXPERIENCES OF A VOLUNTEER
NAVAL OFFICER.
Dwelling Under the Sea Level-The Battle Of Fort
McAIIister-Attack on Chsrlesten-Dupont
and DahlgreR-Capture of Fort Wag.
ner-Three Iron.Clad Lost,


ner-Three Iron.C Clads Lost,
Among the numerous vessels at San Fran
cisco at the present time is the neat barken-
tine Fremont, owned in that city, and COM
manded by Captain Loring G. Emerson, who
was recently presented with two costly vases
by the japanese government for saving the
lives of large number of shipwrecked Jap
anese sailors. His experience on the brlny
deep would form an interesting volume.
Although yet in his prime, he has seen much
of life, adventure and battle on the watery
waste. A Chronicle reporter recently obtained
an interview with him on the subject OF
iron-clad vessels of war, having learned that
he served long period on the noted monitor
Passaic In reply to numerous lnterroga-
tories he said:
"I went on board the Pdssaic in October,
1862, at Brooklyn, n. Y, as Acting Ensign,
and was afterwards Watch Officer with the
rank of Lieutenant. The PdSsdic was built
at Hunters Point, n. Y, and probably cost
in the neighborhood of $2000,000. 1 can't
give you her dimensions with exactness,
speaking off hand, but she was much larger
than one would suppose to look at the pic
lures of the monitors in an ordinary illus
trated history. Her deck was about 200
feet long, and about 40 feet in width. 1t was
longer and wider than the hull, and over
jected "a feet ahead and II feet aft, and came
to peak at either end. She was regular tur-
ret monitor, and was of the first batch built
after the great original defeated the Merrimdc
Her engines were of S00-horse power
Everybody knows whata cheese-box' moni-
tor looks like.
AN IRON MONSTER.
"The deck was plated with inch iron.
Over the magazine and boilers this armor
was double in thickness, and we afterwards
adopted the practice of pilling bags of sand
five feet high over those vitality important
places when getting ready for action. The
hull was of iron, but no thicker than that
used in the construction Of an ordinary iron
merchant vessel. After we had taken on
board our ballast and war supplies only four
inches of the hull was exposed to the enemy's
fire. In other words, the deck was just
four inches above the level of the sea. The
turret was twenty-one feet in diameter and
about nine feet high, and was protected by
eleven one-inch plates of laminatedOr or beaten
iron. On top Of the turret wasa pilot-house,
which was about six feet high, and was also
protected, and in it the commanding officer
stood during battle. Our first armament con-
sisted of an eleven-inch gun and a fifteen
inch gun. The eleven-inch gun was after
wards exchanged for a single 200-pound
Parrott. / was in the turret the first time
a gun was ever discharged from it, and the
explosion burned the hair and whiskers from
thegunner and set his jacket on fire. The roar
was terrific. The conclusion almost deafened
US. In fact, the men used 10 get temporarily
deaf in The turret. and none of them could
stay there long. We had to keep sending
them below aud ordering up fresh men to
take their places. The ffteen-inch gun did
not project outside the turret, but was ingeni-
ously fitted to the port. 1t was thought that
large port hole would afford the enemy too
good target, and the turret was so arranged
that only the muzzle of the gun was present
ed to the aperture through which the missile
was to be hurled. At first we thought we
had achieved great triumph to be able to
fire fifteen pounds ofpowder at one discharge,
but by successive improvements of various
kinds we became able to fire a hundred
pounds powder at one discharge. Wewere
like boys at school The whole business
was new to us and to the naval world, and
we were learning all the time. When our
vessel was armed with 20O-pound Parrott
we had to project it out of the turret in the
time-honored style. The monitors were the
most unhealthy vessels ever built. We had
six different surgeons in twenty-six months,
and changes were being constantly made
among the officers and crew. Rheunatism
and general debility were the principal dis
orders. will first give you an idea of how
we lived"
LIFE BENEATH THE LEVEL OF THE SEA.
Taking a pencil the Captain carelessly
drew the following diagram, and appended
the explanations beneath: