Monitor Disguised as a Barn

[AndyHall]

Stumbled across this on Flickr: a double-turreted monitor, laid up at Charlestown, Boston, maybe in the 1870s or 1880s. A smaller monitor is at left; the old warship at right may be U.S.S. Constitution. Lots to chew on here.

Added: Found this as well -- the view to the left:

 

[unionblue]

Stumbled across this on Flickr: a double-turreted monitor, laid up at Charlestown, Boston, maybe in the 1870s or 1880s. A smaller monitor is at left; the old warship at right may be U.S.S. Constitution. Lots to chew on here.

Added: Found this as well -- the view to the left:

Andy,

I wonder why the wood covering/structure on the double-turrented ironclad?

Unionblue

 

[rebelatsea]

That is to weatherproof the hull from above. Although there do seem to be plenty of apertures around the deck structures for water to get in, which I suppose could be mopped up before it did any damage.

 

[unionblue]

That is to weatherproof the hull from above. Although there do seem to be plenty of apertures around the deck structures for water to get in, which I suppose could be mopped up before it did any damage.

rebelatsea,

Thanks for the information.

And for teaching me something new.

Sincerely appreciated,
Unionblue

 

[TinCan]

That is strange, if they were only trying to "mothball", i.e. protect it from the elements, why would they put a flying bridge up forward and not enclose the aft turret? At some point this thing was supposed to have gotten underway.

 

[DaveBrt]

Looks to me like she has been prepared to take a long open sea voyage.

 

[caller]

Stumbled across this on Flickr: a double-turreted monitor, laid up at Charlestown, Boston, maybe in the 1870s or 1880s. A smaller monitor is at left; the old warship at right may be U.S.S. Constitution. Lots to chew on here.

I don't think that the ship at right is the Constitution. Something seemed off to me - looking at the stern of the ship, the above image has what appears to be a squared off window whereas the Constitution (of today) has a protruding rounded off window. (Of course, this could have been changed over the years or could just be the perspective.) However, I found the following picture (which I am unable to post at the moment of a similar stereoscope) circa 1880 that shows Old Ironsides in pretty bad condition.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-new-york-public-library/happy-birthday-old-ironsi_b_688173.html
(If anyone can post it on this site, I'd appreciate it.)

As for the monitor - that is a clunky looking vessel right there. Thanks for posting it!

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Reminds me of the old saw that the worst thing one can do to a boat is to put it in the water. (!)

 

[tmh10]

I know the government sold a lot of the old ironclads after the war. Could be they wanted to preserve them and fit them out to sail, so they could sell them and move them out to their new homes.

 

[georgew]

That is to weatherproof the hull from above. Although there do seem to be plenty of apertures around the deck structures for water to get in, which I suppose could be mopped up before it did any damage.

Howdy Rebel, would this also be a setup for towing the vessel between ports? My first thought when I saw this photo is that the sloping structure was designed to prevent icing and snow loads during winter, but it might also be useful when towing at sea. The load line on the hull indicates that her bunkers are probably low or empty, so I wonder what the extra structure has done to her center of gravity and how that would affect towing.

 

[Mike Serpa]

caller, here it is.

 

[caller]

caller, here it is.

Many thanks.

 

[Mike Serpa]

Many thanks.

You're welcome.

 

[rebelatsea]

I had thought about the ship being prepared for a long voyage, but Onondaga crossed the Atlantic without being covered over ( on the other hand maybe that's why it was done here), but I don't recall anyone buying a monitor or the USN wanting to sail one overseas. That still begs the question, why the bridge work, and what is under canvas on top of the aft turret?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Onondaga and Miantonomoh both crossed the Atlantic (the latter made the return trip), Monadnock went "around the Horn" to the Pacific, and two Canonicus-class monitors were sold to Peru and towed/sailed there. I'm not sure about the two that crossed the Atlantic, but I believe the latter three had temporary masts and sails fitted, though they were probably more for steadying the vessel than for propulsion.

None of them were roofed over like that. I think the in-ordinary ("mothballs") explanation is the most likely.

Expired Image Removed

 

[AndyHall]

I had assumed this was an in ordinary/mothballs situation, but I never saw a structure like that. It was common to construct conventional, house-like structures on ships used for accommodations (below), but this one doesn't appear to be that.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

It's weird-looking, all right.

 

[tmh10]

A good account of transporting a Civil War era ship to Brazil can be found in the Voyage of the Destroyer contained in the book The Voyages of Joshua Slocum. In this account he transported this John Ericson designed vessel to Brazil in 1893. This ship was not available during the CW, as it ended before ready, thus never tried out in combat by the US.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Hm... http://www.eldritchpress.org/js/destroyer.htm

 

[101combatvet]

They look similar to the CSS Virginia for some reason.