The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-08-26
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ARMY AND NAVY NEWS

liam ID. May, as commanderin-chief of
the home Heet, is the descendant of
Ericsson s Monitor. She is indeed a re-
version TO the original type. We owe
her to America. When Ericsson design
ed his revolutionary man of-war he had
the British government in his eye. In
letter to the assistant secretary of
the United States Navy Department
in 1862 he stated that "the impregna-
bic and aggressive character of this
structure will admonish the leaders of
the southern rebellion that the bat
teries on the banks of their rivers will
no longer present barriers to the en-
trance of the Union forces. The iron
clad intruder will thus prove a severe
monitor to those leaders.
And then his thoughts travelled
across the Atlantic, and he added
FThere are other leaders who will
also be startled and admonished by
the booming of the guns of the inn
pregnable iron turret. Downing street
viii hardly view with Indifference this
last Yankee notion this monitor. To
the lords of the admiralty the new
craft will be a monitor, suggesting
doubts as to the propriety of complet-
ing those four steelclad ships at three
and half million dollars apiece
On these and many other grounds he
concluded:
81 propose to name the new battery
Monitor
Ericsson was quite right in his anti
cipations. This new ironclad in
truder," without mast, spar or sail,
gave the board of admiralty of that
day shock and changed the whole
development of naval design.
The Monitor was modification of
to Napoleon III. in 1854. Eight years
had merely confirmed his original ideas,
and when his ugly, grim, "impregna-
ble' man-of-war made her appearance
all the navies Of the world were rem
dered obsolete. Yet she was little
ship as vessels are reckoned in these
days. She was only 210 feet long,
with an immense beam of As feet; her
deck and low sides were plated, and
she had two 150-pounder guns in a
single turret amidships. This turret
was the feature of the ship.
It was protected by eight 1-inch steel
| plates screwed together and was turn
| ed round by steam, so as to bring her
| guns to bear on an enemy. She was
| the most repulsive ship on which sail
| ors had ever looked-lacking all that
! comeliness which they had hitherto as
ISOLATED with the great Sailing men-of-
| war; to which they still clung with
| pride and devotion. The Monitor had
| no bulwarks and her deck was barely
! two feet above the water level, while
! there was nothing for an enemy to
| hit on the deck except the funnel and
! a pilot house. which, like the turret,
| was also steeiclad. She was the first
all big gun ship and banished the
broadside system of mounting guns, for
| the time, at least.
After some hesitation, the British
| admiralty realized that it had to fol-
low the American lead, and three large,
low, freboard, mastless, turret ships
were laid down, the Dreadnought, the
/ Devastation and Thunderer, the first
ships without sails, and thus a sorrow
| to the seamen of the old school.
! They were given a higher freeboard
| than the Monitor-about four feet
because a British man-of-war must be
able to meet any sea. On their sides
they had belt of fourteen inches of
arnor, of course, of very poor resist
ance, and above this, for about two
thirds of the entire length, was a
brestwork Of twelve inches of armor
for the protection of the base of the
turret, the loading gear and the vital
communications, while an armored deck
covered in all the machinery. Each
vessel mounted four 12-inch guns of
the thirty-fve-ton, muzzle-loading
type.
These ships were the British adapta-
! ton of the all-big gun principle, and
gave rise to endless controversy, for
though they offered very small tar
get to an enemy, owing to the near
hess of the deck to the water, they
] could not steam against heavy sea.
Their gun power, however, was re-
garded as marvellous.
Thus we came by. our first ship of
the all-big gun principle. In the de
sign of the old Dreadnought may be
seen the germ of the Dreadnought OF
today.
sa.s1uK,sa rtanFa az