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To meet the deadline set by the government, Ericsson subcontracted the construction and fabrication of his ironclad to eight foundries. In a particularly ambitious plan, each subcontractor supplied various components of the ship at separate locations, then shipped the parts to a central location for assembly. Delamater Iron Works of New York City constructed the engines and boilers. Novelty Iron Works of New York City rolled the iron plates for the turret and oversaw its assembly, and Clute Brothers and Company of Schenectady produced the donkey engine to power the turret. Meanwhile, Holdane and Company of New York City, Albany Iron Works of Troy, and H. Abbot and Son of Baltimore rolled additional iron plate for the turret, as well as bars and rivets. Two iron port stoppers were furnished by the Niagara Steam Forge of Buffalo. As these parts were produced, they were shipped to Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, New York, where the hull was laid and the final assembly was performed.
The most innovative feature of the Monitor and the one that became her distinguishing characteristic was her revolving turret. Though other designers had toyed with the idea of developing turrets for warships, Ericsson's Monitor was the first warship to use the invention successfully. The turret rested amidships of the vessel and was furnished with a separate steam engine that propelled the turret in a complete rotation. It measured 20 feet in diameter and 9 feet in height, and its armored walls were made of eight layers of 1-inch armor plate. Two massive XI-inch Dahlgren smooth-bore guns, capable of firing solid shot weighing 180 pounds, were installed inside the turret. Though the Monitor would go into battle with only two guns, she had a distinct advantage even over an opponent with ten cannon. This was because the revolving turret would allow her to fire and aim her guns rapidly in any direction regardless of the direction in which the ironclad might be steaming. All other ships of her time were forced to aim their guns in part by steering the vessel into a position where the guns, mounted in broadside arrangement, could be brought to bear on the enemy. |
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A further innovation of Ericsson's design was the Monitor's extremely low profile: only 18 inches of the deck was visible above the water line. Essentially the only target an enemy had when firing on the Monitor was her heavily armored turret and the low iron pilot house on the forward section of the deck. Enemy gunners would be hard pressed in the heat of battle to score many hits on such a meager target. The assembly of Ericsson's battery was in itself an amazing engineering feat. Eight foundries, working independently and perhaps with no clear idea of what the final product would look like, successfully produced a ship of revolutionary design.
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| The USS Monitor is launched at Greenpoint. |
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| Ericsson was not only a genius of engineering, but a genius of organization and efficiency. When the ship was launched on January 30, 1861, Ericsson had missed his one hundred-day deadline by 18 days, but no one seemed to notice. The navy had its Monitor to check the South's Virginia. |
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