Amphitrite - class monitor The " Amphitrite " class monitors were a class of four U . S . Navy monitors ordered in the aftermath of the " Virginius " affair with Spain in 1873 . A fifth ship originally of the same design , , was later fitted with extra armor and designated as a unique class . " Puritan " and the " Amphitrite " class were to remain under construction for an extraordinarily long period due both to design changes and to the reluctance of the U . S . Congress to appropriate funds for their completion . Most of the vessels were only commissioned in the mid - 1890s — more than twenty years after the commencement of construction . They were eventually to see active service in the Spanish - American War . Development and construction . In the years following the American Civil War , the U . S . Congress had allowed the Navy to fall into disrepair as the nation focussed its energies on reconstruction and westward expansion . On 1 October 1873 , the American - flagged merchant ship " Virginius " was intercepted by the Spanish Navy on suspicion of supplying provisions and personnel to a Cuban insurgency . A few days later , 53 crew and passengers of " Virginius " were summarily executed by the Spanish , including several Americans and Britons , creating a serious diplomatic crisis . While war was apparently imminent , a Spanish ironclad was coincidentally berthed in New York Harbor , drawing attention to the fact that the U . S . Navy had not a single ironclad in serviceable condition for the defence of America ' s ports . The Robeson subterfuge . Secretary of the Navy George Robeson wasted no time in bringing the Navy ' s lack of readiness to the attention of Congress , which hastily allocated a million dollars for the overhaul of five of the larger twin - turret Civil - War era monitors — , , , and . These vessels were in such poor condition however , that Robeson took it upon himself to use the money to build five entirely new monitors instead , under the guise of " repairing " the old ones . In furtherance of this scheme , he gave the new monitors identical names to the old , and authorized the scrapping of the latter to help pay for the new construction . As the Navy ' s own shipyards lacked the capability to build ironclads at this time , Robeson approached four private shipyards — Harlan & Hollingsworth , William Cramp & Sons , John Roach & Sons and the Continental Iron Works , and offered them his " repair " contracts for " Amphitrite " , " Terror " , " Miantonomoh " and " Puritan " respectively . A fifth contract , for " Monadnock " , was accepted by a New York entrepreneur , Phineas Burgess . Continental Iron Works was the only firm to decline Robeson ' s offer , and consequently John Roach & Sons accepted the contracts to build both " Puritan " and " Miantonomoh " . However , Continental Iron Works would still participate in construction of the monitors through its supply of prefabricated ship parts to Burgess . The terms for each contractor were identical — a set of three contracts which covered respectively the building of the frames , installation of hull plates , and installation of the engines and boilers . The third contract was left unsigned in each case until the first two had been fulfilled . Since Robeson had been unable to secure funding for new warship construction , he hoped to be able to complete the ships from the Navy ' s annual repair and maintenance budget , but in the wake of the " Virginius " incident , the Navy increased the number of its personnel and also conducted a series of Naval demonstrations , all of which reduced available funds . Robeson resorted to cannibalizing many of the old Civil War era ironclads to sell as scrap to the shipbuilders in lieu of cash payments . The Cramp shipyard received four old monitors for scrapping , including . John Roach & Sons , which had its own iron mill and could directly recycle scrap iron , received the most ironclads for scrapping — the original " Miantonomoh " and " Puritan " , in addition to the s , , , , , and . The scrap value of " Puritan " was estimated at $ 43 , 000 and that of the " Casco " class from $ 7 , 000 to $ 20 , 000 each . Roach also received several other vessels for scrap including the screw frigate and the screw sloop — fourteen ships in total , including the monitors . In spite of these ad hoc measures , Robeson soon ran out of money . In 1876 , he was forced to ask Congress for an appropriation of $ 2 , 300 , 000 to complete the five new monitors . A few days before leaving office , he decided to sign the third ( machinery ) contracts for all five vessels , in hope that the incoming administration would honor them . He also awarded a new $ 997 , 642 contract to Roach for the fitting of additional armor to " Puritan " . Cancellation of contracts , 1877 . When the Hayes administration came to power in 1877 , it appointed a new Secretary of the Navy , Richard W . Thompson , to replace Robeson . Thompson was shocked to discover the total indebtedness of the Navy to be in excess of seven million dollars , and he quickly slashed expenditures across the board by fifty percent . Considering the " Amphitrite " class contracts signed by Robeson in his last days in office to be illegal , Thompson initiated an independent review . An " ad hoc " committee confirmed his opinion , and the contracts for all five monitors were cancelled . The four shipyards which had contracted to build the monitors were now forced to retain the cancelled ships in an unfinished state on their slipways at their own expense , while their debts went unpaid . Roach , for example , was owed in excess of $ 500 , 000 by the Navy , the interest alone for which amounted to $ 30 , 000 per annum . He was even compelled by the government to retain a watchman , again at his own expense , to guard the unfinished warships . The shipyard of Phineas Burgess , set up in Vallejo , California specifically to build " Monadnock " , was forced into receivership by the cancellation . Burgess ' heirs sued the government for compensation and in 1897 won a settlement of $ 129 , 311 . 45 . Reinstatement of contracts , 1880s . By the time the Garfield administration assumed office in 1881 , the Navy ' s condition had deteriorated still further . A review conducted on behalf of the new Secretary of the Navy , William H . Hunt , found that of 140 vessels on the Navy ' s active list , only 52 were in an operational state , of which a mere 17 were iron - hulled ships , including 14 ageing Civil War era ironclads . Hunt recognized the necessity of modernizing the Navy , and set up an informal advisory board to make recommendations . Following this board ' s recommendations , Congress in August 1882 tentatively authorized the completion of the " Amphitrite " class monitors to the launching stage , including the installation of engines and boilers . It also set up a permanent Naval Advisory Board to make further recommendations . The new Board eventually recommended the construction of several new protected cruiser s and a dispatch vessel , as well as the completion of the " Amphitrite " class monitors including the extra armor for " Puritan " . Congress approved these recommendations on 3 March 1883 . Naval yard delays , 1883 – 1896 . After their launching , Congress decided to have the five monitors completed at the Navy ' s own shipyards . " Amphitrite " was transferred from the Harlan & Hollingsworth shipyard to the Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk , Virginia ; " Monadnock " from the Burgess yard to the Mare Island Navy Yard in Solano County , California ; while " Terror " from William Cramp & Sons and " Miantonomoh " and " Puritan " from John Roach & Sons were all taken for completion to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn . Following their transfer to the Navy yards , the ships were to suffer even longer delays due to repeated design changes , and construction proceeded at a snail ' s pace . A major redesign occurred in 1886 , when it was decided to fit each vessel with four 10 - inch breechloading cannon , and another redesign occurred in 1889 . The first of the five monitors to be fully commissioned was " Miantonomoh " , on 27 October 1891 ; however , the other four vessels were not to enter service until 1895 – 96 , more than two decades after the commencement of their construction in 1874 – 75 . In service . By the 1890s , the monitor concept was well and truly obsolete , if indeed it had ever been optimal . Monitor warships suffered a variety of well known defects , the most obvious of which was the type ' s poor suitability to oceangoing service , due mainly to the very low freeboard — a feature originally included as a means of reducing the vessel ' s exposure to enemy fire . Other problems which diminished the type ' s practicality for seagoing service were the low speed , and short range due to a lack of space for fuel . An additional problem was the lack of ventilation which often made for almost unbearable heat below deck ( the engine room of one particular monitor once recorded a temperature of 200 °F ) . On the positive side , monitors were considered stable gun platforms and could generally be fitted with larger guns than more conventional vessels of an equivalent tonnage . The " Amphitrite " class suffered from all the usual monitor defects ( as did " Puritan " which was eventually redesignated as a unique class due to her extra armor ) , and their combat limitations quickly became evident during the Spanish - American War . For example , during one sortie to Puerto Rico , USS " Amphitrite " had to be taken under tow as she lacked the fuel reserves to travel there under her own steam , reducing the speed of the entire fleet to a mere seven knots . Having arrived at the destination , " Amphitrite " < nowiki > ' s < / nowiki > heavy guns proved effective against shore defences , but the heat within the ship was so oppressive during the 2½ hour bombardment that the crew found it almost impossible to continue manning their posts , and one of the gunners actually died of heat exhaustion . " Monadnock " , meanwhile , earned the distinction of becoming one of only two U . S . Navy monitors ever to cross the Pacific Ocean when she sailed for the Philippines theater in the same year , after which she remained in the Far East for the rest of her career . The other " Amphitrite " s were withdrawn from frontline service after the war , and became training ships . USS " Amphitrite " saw some service in home waters during World War I , and was the last of the " Amphitrite " class to be decommissioned , on 31 May 1919 .