The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-05-04

The Monitor.

The Monitor had been formally COM
missioned on February 25, 1862, under
command of Lieutenant John Worden.
IS. N. Twelve officers and as enlist.
ed men comprised her personnel. |
Chief Engineer A. @. Sinners, the gu
perintendent Of construction, went to
sea in the vessel to observe her per-
Torrance and give the officers the
benefit of his knowledge. He was, as
stated by Colonel w. G. Church in his
"Life Of John Ericsson" "the only
man on board who thoroughly under
stood the characteristics 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 water 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 be-
cause the belts got wet and the engine
and fre-rooms filed with noxious gas
from the fires and had to be abandoned.
In trying to remedy this trouble the
chief engineer, Mr.. Newton, and bis
assistants were overcome by the gas
and were carried to the top of the tur-
ret, 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 steering wheel
and becoming jammed.
After two days of toll and peril the
Monitor escaped from the dangers of
the sea into the presence of a new enc
my. Late in the afternoon of March 8,
she passed in at the capes of Chesa-
peake. and from the sound of shotted
guns knew that her time for action had
come thus early in her career. The
Merrimac was abroad that very after
noon, wreck and destruction followed
her wake. A rude improvised IRON
clad herself, she marked new era in
naval warfare, and before her lay a
large feet of supposedly formidable
ships of war as helpless as flock OF
sheep assailed by wolf.
Night fell before the Monitor came
up to the seemingly doomed Union
fleet in Hampton Roads. The Merri-
mac 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 un.
derstand by the dominion of'the seas
Lighted by the burning wreck of the
frigate Congress, 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 threat
ricat point of view the stage settings
were now complete. With the night
the curtain had fallen upon the last Of
long series of glorious deeds, performed
under an order of seamanship or sea
tactics that had already long passed its
meridian, but which for romance ant
chivalry excelled any that had pre-
coded it, and, it must be admitted, ex
celled that which was now to rudely
supplant it. A new type of sea war
rior and new type of warship were
about to appear upon the waters. The
engineers machine of John Ericsson
was to face the fabric that represented
the engineering ingenuity of the Amer
lean south, and the result of the en-
counter would infict fright upon tn,
romance of the sea and transform tn,
masted navies of the world into useless
relics in a day.. M. Bennett, U. S
N, in Casser's Magazine.