The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-03-14
BATTLE WITH
THE MONITOR
The Merrimac Disabled in Three
Hours.
Monitors PeriIous Trip From New
York TO Hampton Roads Nom In
Perception by Washington provi-
dental = Wardens Brave Fight
New Era in Naval Architecture.

was the instigator and arbiter
II ~ first and last in the wonderful
battle between the little Mon
itor and the huge Merrimac in Hamp-
ton Roads, March 8, 1862. The en-
counter and Its results turned the naval
world upside down and decided who
would rule the wave on the American
coast, with many things besides.
Stories Of the marvellous powers of
the Confederate ironclad ram had ter
rorized the north and built up the
hopes Of the south. She entered Hamp-
ton Roads OH March s, sank the thirty
gun wooden sIoop Of war Cumberland,
burned the fifty gun frigate Congress
I'd the waters edge and then lay by for
favorable tides to enable her to visit
similar destruction upon three more
wooden frigates, the Roanoke, st. Law
renee and Minnesota, anchored at hand
and already smarting under the fire Of
her chance shots during the first days
battle
While the flames ignited by the in
cendiary shells from the Merrimac
were devouring the noble frigate Con-
gress the evening Of March the Mon
itor steamed up to Fortress Monroe, six
miles from the scene Of battle. Her
presence there was due to an accident.
and but for another accident she would
not have been in existence. Her pro-
jector, Ericsson, had shamed the FEEDER
al naval board into ordering the con
struction Of an ironcIad upon the plan
he had submitted Ericsson had gone
from New York to Washington In the
fall Of 1851 under the belief that his
plan for an ironclad ship had been APP
proved by the naval board 1t was
false, but the deception and disappoint-
ment caused the earnest hearted Swede
to burst forth iii angry eloquence.
Gentlemen" said he, "after what
have said consider it your duty to the
country to give me an order to build
the vessel before ] leave this room,
The upshot of the little deception,
which passed for diplomacy, was an or.
der to build the Monitor within 100
days.
Ericsson's working models were
completed, and the machinists toiled
night and day from December to
March Finally all was ready for a
trial trip, and, with volunteer officers
and crew-for it was life and death
venture from the start to sail in her
the Monitor left New York at midday
March 9. Her commander, Lieutenant
John L. Worden OF the navy, was told
to proceed to fortress Monroe for the
protection Of the Chesapeake bay and
the Potomac river from the raids Of
the dreaded ironclad ram Merrimac.
After the Monitor had left New York
a dispatch reached there from Wash
ington ordering Worden to sail up the
Potomac to Washington, not touching
at Fortress Monroe. A tug gave chase
to deliver the message, but failed to
overtake the Monitor, and she passed
the mouth Of the Potomac, bringing up
at Fortress Monroe the evening of
March 8, the last few miles Of the sail
enlivened by the sound of the guns in
the fight between the Merrimac and
the wooden feet near Newport News.
Meanwhile the undeliyered New
York dispatch had been forwarded to
the naval commandant off Fortress
Monroe. with that dispatch before
him. he also heard reports from the
front, where the sunken sloop Cumber-
land Law, swaying in the tide, the
flames Of the burning Congress lit the
sky for miles. and the Roanoke, Mime
sofa and st. Lawrence were patching
the rents made in their wooden hulls
by the shells of the Merrimac, which
was only waiting for daylight to sally
forth from her mooring and finish the
heet at one blow.
The orders were imperative to send
the Monitor to Washington to defend
the capital, and from the way the
Merrimac had smashed things on her
first attempt it looked like hopeless
case FOR the little black thing which
resembled In comparison with the war.
ships OF the day a s'tin can on board"
to go out against the monster ram. In
the trip down from New York the Mon
itor people had discovered the weak
points Of their novel craft. The waves
had flooded her hold. deluged her fur
mace room and coal bnnkers. checking
the fires and almost suffocating her
crew with gas. She carried but two
guns. Her ports could only be closed
y ssSs psr the % trrret ~ svanla sIa d;aa i 81,