Description
Carte view of designer, inventor and engineer John Ericsson, who was responsible for the creation and construction of the USS Monitor. During the summer of 1861, the United States Congress was informed that the Confederacy was in the process of building an ironclad ram using the former hull of the USS Merrimack. The U.S. Navy saw an urgent need to construct an ironclad of their own. Ericsson, years before had a falling out with the U.S. Navy and was not necessarily overjoyed at the prospect of being offered the job of designing a new war ship for the Navy. Nevertheless, Ericsson was eventually convinced by Lincoln’s hard-working Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells, and Cornelius Bushnell to submit an ironclad ship design for production. Ericsson presented drawings of what would later become the USS Monitor. It was a novel design of an armored ship which included a rotating turret housing a pair of large cannons. Despite controversy over the unique design, the keel was eventually laid down and the ironclad was launched on March 6, 1862. The ship went from plans to launch in approximately 100 days which is a rather amazing achievement. The CSS Virginia and USS Monitor met in battle on March 9, 1862 and began the first battle of ironclads during the now famous battle at Hampton Roads. The battle proved as stalemate as the two slugged it out, neither being able to sink the other but it would issue in a entirely new era of war ships. From that point, all wooden hulled warships were now obsolete. Ericsson’s other designs included a new type of torpedo, a destroyer and a torpedo boat that could fire a cannon from an underwater port. He also provided some technical support for John Holland during his early submarine experiments. Very nice view of Ericsson back marked out of New York
