armoured ship Thursday on Friday

this week for armoured ship Thursday we have the famous Swedish engineer and inventor John Ericsson 1803-1889. he invented the surface condenser for steam engines which allowed fresh water to be made aboard ship. he invented steam locomotives, an improved screw propellor, a caloric engine, artillery, ships and submarines and many other things as well. definitely one of the world's greatest engineers and inventors. here we feature the USS Monitor one of the first of the world's armoured ships and one of if not the first to feature a rotating gun turret. as the Civil War progressed it became obvious that the Confederate Navy was building an ironclad ram to threaten the Union blockade and destroy the Union wooden navy. although Ericsson had been refused payment by the navy over an earlier ship design he was convinced that he should nevertheless submit his design for an armoured ship to the navy board. this he did and finally signed a contract to deliver a complete vessel to the USN in 100 days. he basically succeeded in this and after some trials and improvements the USS Monitor was sent south to Hampton Roads and Fort Monroe to defend the Union fleet against the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Virginia. the day before the Monitor's arrival in Hampton Roads the Virginia had sunk in battle the USS Congress and the USS Cumberland both sailing ships with no steam power. as they could not escape the Virginia they were both destroyed. although both resisted with all their power they could inflict little damage on the armoured Virginia. the Monitor arrived that night and the next day was in battle with the Virginia. neither ship could damage the other enough to defeat it and so in the end the battle was a draw. the Virginia had no armour piercing ammunition aboard and the Monitor was limited to light charges in the new Dahlgren 11" smoothbores in her turret. it has always been speculated that if either had not been the case one or the other of the two would have been defeated. the battle was in a sense a Union victory since the Virginia was prevented from destroying any more Union vessels. indeed she was eventually blown up to keep her from being captured by the USN. the Confederates had to retreat from Norfolk and surrounding areas and the Virginia had too deep a draft to go up the James River to Richmond, VA the Confederate Capitol. the first picture here is of John Ericsson. the second also of Ericsson holding a model of the Monitor, is a statue that may be seen in Battery Park in New York City. third is a picture of the famous engagement between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. next is a picture of some of Monitor's crew cooking a meal on deck{it was not very comfortable below decks in the Monitor}. and last a picture of some of Monitor's officers after the battle. look closely at the turret and some dents from the battle may be seen. although Monitor took some dents in her armour and severe damage to the pilot house and the Virginia had some of her armour plates broken and her funnel shot away neither vessel sustained enough damage to be defeated by the other.