A contract for ‘an ironclad, shot-proof steam battery’ was issued on October 4, 1861. The contract for building it stipulated a money-back clause if it proved to be a failure. Furthermore it specified that the vessel must be provided with masts and sails and that it should make 6 knots under sail and 8 knots under steam. It was also agreed ‘that said vessel and equipment in all respects shall be completed and ready for sea in one hundred days from the date of this indenture.’

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Monitor was built from scratch in an amazingly short amount of time; some accounts claim it took 98 days. Contractors throughout the Northeast scrambled to provide the necessary iron plate, and foundries worked overtime to cast the boat’s intricate machinery. The remarkable vessel contained 40 patentable inventions.

The ship was launched on January 30, 1862, from Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y., and was fitted out with two massive 11-inch Dahlgren guns. Its crew spent the next several weeks working out the brand-new boat’s kinks. Its unique appearance earned the vessel the nickname ‘cheesebox on a raft.’

Ironclad Duel
On March 8, Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads and made short work of USS Cumberland and Congress. With USS Minnesota aground, Virginia steamed off with the falling tide, its crew confident that they could return and finish the job. The entire U.S. Navy fleet, not to mention Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s impending Peninsula campaign, seemed vulnerable to the new threat.

That next day, however, Virginia’s crew got a surprise. Monitor had arrived under tow from New York the previous evening, battered from her journey, but ready to fight. The ship stood between the Confederate ironclad and the stricken Minnesota. For more than four hours the iron beasts blasted away at each other.

Virginia’s guns raked the ironclad, and friendly fire also dented Monitor’s armor. The Rebel ship even rammed Monitor, and a shell landed a direct hit on the pilothouse, temporarily blinding Captain John Worden and forcing him to turn over command to Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene. But Monitor gave as good as it got, and its Dahlgrens defiantly pounded away at Virginia.

When the day ended, Virginia steamed away with the mission of destroying Minnesota unfulfilled. The two ironclads maintained an uneasy stalemate on their respective sides of Hampton Roads. One officer on Monitor commented, ‘Each party steamed back & forth before their respective friends till dinner time….the same comedy I suppose will be enacted day after day for I don’t know how long….’

Kept at bay by Monitor, Virginia was eventually destroyed by her own crew after it was forced to a shallow part of the James by the advance of McClellan’s campaign. Ericsson would keep his money. His ‘cheesebox’ had forever changed the face of naval warfare.

This article was written by Olav Thulesius and published in the November 2006 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.For more great articles be sure to subscribe to America’s Civil War magazine today!

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