Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-05-26
THE MONITOR.
Ericsson's Historic Ironclad and Its Trip
to Hampton Roads.

Ericssoh's Historic Ironclad and Its Trip
to Hampton Roads.
The Monitor had been formally COM
missioned on Feb. 25, 1862, under COM
mand of Lieutenant John L. Worden,
u. S. N. Twelve officers and 10 enlist
ed men comprised her personnel. Chief
Engineer A. g. Sinners, the superin-
tendent of construction, went to sea in
the vessss to observe her performance
and give tas Officers the benefit Of his
knowledge. Ee was, as stated by Colo
mel W. G. Church in his Life of John
Ericsson, y the only man on board who
thoroughly understood the oharacteris-
tics of the vessel.
The voyage to Hampton Roads was
eventful, and almost ended the career
of the Monitor, and with it the fate of
ironclads for an indefinite time. Rough
weather was encountered, and water
broke over the smoke and blower trunks,
nearly putting out the fires and stopping
the pumps from lack of steam for four
or five hours on one occasion. Loss by
laundering was imminent at this time,
because of the great quantity of water
that got into the vessel under the base
of the turret and through the hawse
pipes The blowers stopped because the
belts got wet and the engine and fire.
rooms filled with noxious gas from the
fires and had to be abandoned In try
ing to remedy this trouble the chief en-
gineer, Mr. Newton, and his assistants
were overcome by the gas and were car
ried to the top of the turret, where they
revived, though they were thought dead
when dragged out of the engine room.
Trouble and danger also resulted from
the wheel ropes jumping off the steer
ing wheel and becoming jammed.
After two days of toll and peril the
Monitor escaped from the dangers of
the sea into the presence of new enc
my. Late in the afternoon of March 8
she passed in at the capes of chesapeake,
and from the sound of shotted guns
knew that her time for action had come
thus early in her career. The Merrimao
was abroad that very afternoon, and
wreck and destruction fouled her wake.
A rude improvised ironclad herself, she
marked new era in naval warfare, and
before her lay large feet of supposedly
formidable ships of war as helpless as a
flock of sheep assailed by wolf
Night fell before the Monitor came
up to the seemingly doomed Union fleet
in Hampton Roads. The Merrimac had
glutted her thirst for blood for the day
and was at anchor and at rest, but in
her silence in presence Of the ships that
she meant to attack in the morning she
stood for all that men understand by
the dominion of the seas. Lighted by
the burning wreck OF the frigate Con-
gress, the Monitor moved up toward
Newport News and anchored near the
stranded Minnesota, upon which vessel,
it was certain, the first blow of the
morrow would fall
From either historical or theat-
rical point of view the stage settings
were now complete. With the night the
curtain had fallen upon the last Of a
long series of glorious deeds, performed
under an order of seamanship or sea
tactics that had already long passed it's
meridian, but which for romance and
chivalry excelled any that had preceded
it, and, it must be admitted, excelled
that which was now to rudely supplant
it. A new type of sea warrior and a
new type of warship were about to APP
pear upon the waters The engineer S
machine of John Ericsson was to face
the fabric that represented the engineer
ing ingenuity of the American south,
and the result of the encounter would
infiict fright upon the romance of the
sea and transform the masted navies of
the world into useless relics in a day.
F. M. Bennett, U. S. N, in CASTER q
Magazine.