- Joined
- Mar 31, 2012
- Location
- Central Ohio
150 years ago today (30 Aug), an iron vessel slid into the waters off Greenpoint, near Brooklyn, New York. Unlike an almost identical event exactly seven months earlier, this launch attracted relatively little attention.
The USS Passaic was the first of the 'improved' monitors, the class ship and pattern for nine more sisters (including one, the USS Camanche, that was built, partially disassembled, and shipped to San Francisco to be reassembled). They incorporated a number of changes to the basic Monitor layout from ideas that had come up during the design and construction of the original, particularly heavier armor (an additional 3" on the turret), relocation of the pilothouse to the top of the turret where it did not cause the severe communication problem between the ship's commander and the turret commander that the Monitor's separate pilothouse did, a permanent smokestack and ventilator stack (in place of the Monitor's temporary structures), and heavier armament.
Originally, it was proposed to mount two Dahlgren XIII-inch guns where the Monitor had mounted two XI-inch, but the experience of the Battle of Hampton Roads caused the Navy Department to insist that XV-inch guns be mounted instead. Dahlgren championed the XIII-inch to no avail, and complied, though concerned about the strength and durability of the XV-inch gun. (The XV-inch did prove to be reliable, however, though not approaching the levels of the IX- and XI-inch pieces.) The XV-inch could not be produced rapidly enough, so eight of the monitors had an XI-inch instead instead of one of the planned XV's (the Patapsco mounted a 150-pounder Parrott rifle alongside the XV-inch, and the Camanche was under less of a time pressure, so its portholes were rebored and it mounted two XV-inch).
This presented a problem, however; the turret gunports had already been bored for the XIII-inch gun and were too narrow for the muzzle of the XV-inch. To rebore the gunports for all the vessels (except the Camanche) would delay their delivery, which was unacceptable to the Navy; so it was decided that the XV-inch would discharge entirely within the turret. A "smoke box" fitting around the muzzle was designed by Ericsson to attempt to keep most of the gunsmoke out of the turret; this arrangement worked imperfectly, but well enough to be practical.
This photo shows the turret of the Catskill, one of the sisters mounting one XV-inch (just visible within the gunport over the left shoulder of one of the officers on deck) and one XI-inch.
Expired Image Removed
Despite the hybrid armament, the Passaic class monitors functioned acceptably. The slow rate of fire of the XV-inch hampered them, as was most clearly seen at Forts McAllister and Sumter, so they were not really capable of laying down a suppressive barrage; but they had plenty of punch to deal with other ironclads, as evidenced by the Weehawken's defeat and capture of the CSS Atlanta in the summer of 1863. They were the workhorses of the Union coastal ironclad fleet, serving from Savannah to Hampton Roads; and one of them, USS Montauk, served briefly as a floating prison for several of the Lincoln assassination conspirators in 1865.
The Weehawken sank accidentally and unexpectedly on December 6, 1863, due to being loaded too much by the head (so that water entering the hull could not easily flow back to the pumps near the stern), taking 24-30 men down with her. The Patapsco struck a mine near Fort Moultrie and sank on January 15, 1865, with a loss of 65 of her crew of about 85. The rest survived the war; in fact, five of them were recommissioned in 1898 during the Spanish-American War to serve as harbor guardships, although long obsolete.
The USS Passaic was the first of the 'improved' monitors, the class ship and pattern for nine more sisters (including one, the USS Camanche, that was built, partially disassembled, and shipped to San Francisco to be reassembled). They incorporated a number of changes to the basic Monitor layout from ideas that had come up during the design and construction of the original, particularly heavier armor (an additional 3" on the turret), relocation of the pilothouse to the top of the turret where it did not cause the severe communication problem between the ship's commander and the turret commander that the Monitor's separate pilothouse did, a permanent smokestack and ventilator stack (in place of the Monitor's temporary structures), and heavier armament.
Originally, it was proposed to mount two Dahlgren XIII-inch guns where the Monitor had mounted two XI-inch, but the experience of the Battle of Hampton Roads caused the Navy Department to insist that XV-inch guns be mounted instead. Dahlgren championed the XIII-inch to no avail, and complied, though concerned about the strength and durability of the XV-inch gun. (The XV-inch did prove to be reliable, however, though not approaching the levels of the IX- and XI-inch pieces.) The XV-inch could not be produced rapidly enough, so eight of the monitors had an XI-inch instead instead of one of the planned XV's (the Patapsco mounted a 150-pounder Parrott rifle alongside the XV-inch, and the Camanche was under less of a time pressure, so its portholes were rebored and it mounted two XV-inch).
This presented a problem, however; the turret gunports had already been bored for the XIII-inch gun and were too narrow for the muzzle of the XV-inch. To rebore the gunports for all the vessels (except the Camanche) would delay their delivery, which was unacceptable to the Navy; so it was decided that the XV-inch would discharge entirely within the turret. A "smoke box" fitting around the muzzle was designed by Ericsson to attempt to keep most of the gunsmoke out of the turret; this arrangement worked imperfectly, but well enough to be practical.
This photo shows the turret of the Catskill, one of the sisters mounting one XV-inch (just visible within the gunport over the left shoulder of one of the officers on deck) and one XI-inch.
Expired Image Removed
Despite the hybrid armament, the Passaic class monitors functioned acceptably. The slow rate of fire of the XV-inch hampered them, as was most clearly seen at Forts McAllister and Sumter, so they were not really capable of laying down a suppressive barrage; but they had plenty of punch to deal with other ironclads, as evidenced by the Weehawken's defeat and capture of the CSS Atlanta in the summer of 1863. They were the workhorses of the Union coastal ironclad fleet, serving from Savannah to Hampton Roads; and one of them, USS Montauk, served briefly as a floating prison for several of the Lincoln assassination conspirators in 1865.
The Weehawken sank accidentally and unexpectedly on December 6, 1863, due to being loaded too much by the head (so that water entering the hull could not easily flow back to the pumps near the stern), taking 24-30 men down with her. The Patapsco struck a mine near Fort Moultrie and sank on January 15, 1865, with a loss of 65 of her crew of about 85. The rest survived the war; in fact, five of them were recommissioned in 1898 during the Spanish-American War to serve as harbor guardships, although long obsolete.
Bringing the