The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-08-04

atlOat with more and larger guns bullying
out at their portfolios than the south could
scrape together for years. Hence neces-
sity's traditional role was repeated and the
first iron floating ram, the dreaded and
destructive Merrimac. slid down from her
stays one fine spring morning, took q sous
ing if rather ungraceful plunge in the Vir-
ginia waters, hen righted herself with an
air~that seemed to convey to the trim and
model men-of-war of the world, and of the
United States in particular, the saucy,
challenging salute: II am here! Haul
down your colorsl'
The monster, for such she proved to be,
had nothing to brag of as q sailing beauty.
She looked like the roof of a house afoat.
Her construction was of the most primi-
tive kind, such as a people in desperate
straits could bring about. But the idea
was everything, sloping ironclad sides,
ironclad shields for pilot house, gun cham
bers, machinery and crews quarters and a
submerged hull and ramming beak. That
was the new thing under the sun in actual
p~ractice-iron, iron everywhere.
In order to economic in time and money
the protector of the Merrimac ram fshed
the hull Of the former United States screw
wal frigate Merrimac from the bottom of
the Elizabeth river at Norfolk, where she
had been sunk, after firing and scuttling,
by a Union expedition early il the wal.
The transformation into a ram began by
cutting the hull down to within three feet
of her old light water line. Both ends for
seventy feet were decked over level so that
the weight of s~uperstructure and arma-
ment would keep them below water. In
the middle section-about one-half the
ship-a sloping roof was laid of pitch pine
and oak twenty-four inches thick. This
extended from the water line at an angle
of IS degs. to a point sever feet above the
gun deck. At the vessels ends this shield
was rounded SO as to give the bow and
stern guns wide sweep. =
The upper ends of the shield planking
did not come together by about twenty
feet, and the opening between them was
covered with a grating that served as a
ventilator to the chambers below and also
as a promenade deck. Over the shield
planking was bolted four inches Of rolled
iron in two layers, the under layer running
horizontally, the outer one up and down
the slope. The bolts extended through the
twenty-fourin inches of wood and were clinch-
ed on the inside. ....T.
The propelling power of. the old hull was
the weakest part of her. The engines had
been condemned before the war, and the
fire and a long soaking in the salt water as
she lay submerged, hadn't improved them.
In fact the Confederates had condemned
the Old thing for all practical purposes in
the navy, but considered her a cheap plant
to let the "cranks" tinker with. The Con
. federacy had no foundries, no patterns, nc
WOrkren and no tools nor machinery for
1ronclad building, and everything had to
be lmprovised; Workmen had to be trained
and the projectors and hackers of the new
tangled notion were obliged to be patient
ana cautious SO as not to weary practical
people by demands for this and that .un
heard of thing.
The designer and constructor of the ram
was John l.. Porter, an old United States
naval officer, who had carried the plan of
an lronclad shield for war vessels in his
head for years before the Confederacy was
thought of. Another factor was Lieut..
Johp II. Brooke, who laid the plating and
also prepared the armament for the mon
ster battery. The guns numbered ten,
q 'lnch rifle apiece for the bow and stern.
a o-lnch rifle and three 9-inch smooth
pores for each broadside. The monster was
) not to be unique in capacity for standing
hard knocks alone. She was to give hard
knocks. BY a device of Lieut.. Brooke's
steel bands three inches in thickness were
shrunk on around the breech Of each can
non, to prevent bursting under heavy
charges. Last, but not least, for that was
the main purpose of this new creation.
came the RAM, a cast iron Prov projecting
iour teet, and to be completely submerged
during action, Relatively this wac , t,; a ;no
a~ppurtenance, like the nose on a face. hut
it weighed 1,50O pounds. All the heavy
armor was simply to shield men, engines.