John Ericsson's ironclad warship the USS Monitor was labeled both affectionately and derisively as the "cheese box on a raft," "rat trap," and "tin can on a shingle." It was among the most unprepossessing, but significant, warships of the nineteenth century. The design for the famous Union ironclad was simplicity itself: a flat, shallow-draft deck with a small revolving gun turret in the center. Ericsson had conceived the original design for a warship with a "cupola" (revolving turret) in the early 1850's, and it was initially presented to Emperor Napoleon III of France. The Swedish inventor was, at that moment, aggrieved with the U.S. Department of the Navy over its failure to compensate him for his work on the USS Princeton. The French government never followed up on the scheme. Therefore, years later, in 1861, Ericsson--whose resentment over his past treatment had been somewhat mollified over time--submitted his cupola design to the Union Navy's special Ironclad Board and was awarded a contract on October 4, 1861. The inventor proposed the name "Monitor" in the hope that his vessel would serve as a "severe monitor" to the "leaders of the Southern Rebellion."

Completed, the USS Monitor took on a crew of sixty-three sailors and officers, the turret (the final version of which was refined by Theodore Timby) was fitted with two eleven-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannons, and, under the command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, hurried south from New York to battle the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862. The four-hour fight was a stalemate; the Monitor was faster and more maneuverable than its larger opponent, but the mechanical limitations involved in settling the revolution of its turret rendered its artillery's aim less accurate than that of the Virginia. At day's end, neither vessel was able to penetrate the other's armor.

There was to be no repeat of the Hampton Roads faceoff: The Monitor's role was to act as a defensive deterrent to the Virginia, keeping it bottled up in Portsmouth harbor. After the destruction of the Virginia by the retreating Confederates on May 11, 1862, the Monitor accompanied the Union fleet up the James River toward Richmond and engaged the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluff (Fort Darling) on May 15, 1862. The U.S. fleet lost the battle, and the Monitor proved to be ineffectual because it could not raise its own cannons to a high enough level to target the Confederate batteries on the bluff.

For most of the remainder of the year, the Monitor was stationed on uneventful patrol duty in the James River. On December 20, 1862, it journeyed southward to join the federal blockading fleet located off Charleston, South Carolina. Early in the morning on December 31, 1862, however, the ironclad sank during a squall off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with the loss of sixteen crewmen.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Military Topics at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Military Topics and other relevant topics.