today we have pictures of USS Monterey the first monitor to be designed and launched as part of the new steel navy in the 1880's. Monterey was the only ship in her class she was launched in April of 1889 and commissioned into the USN in February of 1893. USS Monterey was 261ft. in length and displaced 4,084t. she had 13" armor belts on the side and 8" on the turrets. her armament was two 12" rifles forward and two 10" rifles aft with assorted 6pdr. for secondary battery. she was powered by two vertical triple expansion engines driving two screws of 10'2" diameter for a top speed of 13.60kts. pretty fast for a monitor. Monterey was one of only two monitors to ever cross the Pacific. the other was the even older monitor USS Monadnock. she was sent to the Philippines during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Monterey served in the Pacific all her life. first on the West Coast of the USA and then in the Philippines and China. the old monitor was towed to Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands in 1917 where she became a submarine tender until decommissioned in 1921 and towed to the US for scrapping in February of 1922. for an obsolete ship type such as a monitor the Monterey had a long and eventful life. the first picture shows Monterey in dry dock in China around 1900. next is Monterey seen from astern with a steam launch coming alongside. from this view we can see her aft armament of 10" naval rifles. third picture shows the ship at firing practice with the forward 12" rifles. in the distance can be seen a round hitting the water. fourth is the Monterey in a typhoon during her service in the Philippines or China. and finally we see the old vessel in a mild sea probably while underway for the Philippine Station. Monitors had little freeboard and hence were wet ships in any kind of sea. not too pleasant for the crew as below decks they were humid and hot while underway with both engines operating.
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