Navy Vessels: The USS Monitor Essay

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The United States of America has not always been the world superpower that it is today. The same goes for its Navy. In the first several years of existence, the United States Navy was not a formidable fighting force. The young nation was hesitant to invest in a navy for many reasons, one of them being to prevent provoking the world powers of the time, France and Britain. On top of that, navies were very expensive to build and required a significant amount of resources to maintain, which the U.S. did not have at the time. To say that the United States Navy was ill prepared for war would be a dramatic understatement. The U.S. had a total of fifteen ships in its entire naval fleet compared to the might of the Royal Navy which possessed over six hundred warships. Even with the odds stacked against the U.S., President Madison declared war on 18 JUN 1812. The lack of size and power of the navy at the time would make it extremely difficult to satisfy the needs of the newly founded nation.

It ran off of twin 300 horsepower engines that were powered by coal burning boilers.

A. sank the entire Spanish fleet in Manila without a single American loss of life

Despite initial Confederate successes, the battle turned against Lee on July 3rd, and with few options remaining, he ordered his army to return to Virginia. The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg.“ (Document 6). The confederates encountered the union instead of defending because Robert E Lee understood that he wasn’t going to win the civil war. Encountering was not a good idea, as the Confederates attacked, they became desperate enough to fall into a trap that caused them the turning point of the war which resulted in a total lost. Another reason why the northern earned the victory is because of the great technology in the war, Ironclad ships. Ironclad ships were naval ships made out of mostly steel plates. The first battle of the ironclads was Hampton roads Virginia. First naval ship battle of the history. The outcome of the battle was

The civil war had many new technologies arise that made it unique compared to the wars of the past. One of these technological improvements was the introduction of the Ironclad warship. This technology was introduced during the showdown between the Monitor and the Merrimac . These two Ironclad warships fought to a stalemate , but this struggle forever changed how ships would be designed. Another technology that had not existed in previous wars in american history was the reconnaissance balloon it allowed the union to gather information and send it through telegraph to the various commanders. The civil war brought the first submarine, The CSS Hunley. The Hunley successfully sank the Union ship Housatonic, but unfortunately the Hunley itself was damaged. The submarine would eventually prove to be important for all armies in the wars to come.

A decade ago naval warfare changed forever in the two-day Battle of Hampton Roads between the Elizabeth and James River. Cannon shots rang out for endless hours and those present on surrounding shores witnessed history when, for the first time, two ironclad ships entered into battle. The Confederates, protecting their naval yard just south of Hampton Roads, decided to place their undefeatable ship, the CSS Virginia, at the mouth of the river. On the first day of battle this ship was responsible for the death of 400 hundred sailors while only losing two of its own. On the second day, hearing the booms of heavy cannon fire up river the USS Monitor, on a test run, changed course and moved to defend the union. The

The USS Greer was the first US Navy ship to fire on a German ship, three months before the United States officially entered World War II on September 4, 1941. The incident was taken place during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The ship was approximately 125 miles southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland, it was carrying mail to the U.S. Marines stationed in Iceland. It was named after Rear Admiral James A. Greer, a Civil War veteran and commander of the European Squadron from 1887 to 1889. The Greer incident occurred because it was a case of mistaken evidence that was not reported just told by President Roosevelt at numerous press conferences without giving the American people full facts. As the Greer made its way through the North

The Eastport was an Ironclad that the Confederate Navy tried to make into an unstoppable war vessel. The vessel was planned to be a gigantic armored ship that could withstand incredible durability. It could man 150 people at a time and carry thousands of pounds of supplies. But it was lost to a Union attack on Fort Henry where it lay during construction. When the Union found it they finished construction on it and it became one of the strongest vessels in the war. But it was very slow and could not navigate more shallow water because of fear of mines in the water. The best feature was its revolving cannons that they could turn to any area within a 90-degree radius of itself; it was made as a full war machine. (Source 2)

While Burnside had been waiting for two weeks he saw how the Confederates were positioned; even though the Confederates had the advantage he still believed he could win. The night before Burnside was going to start building the pontoons, he sent a message to Lincoln saying, “We hope to succeed.” So, on the night of Wednesday, December 10, 1862, the engineers started to build the pontoons. However, another general from the South, General Will Barkslade, was right above the area where the engineers were and whenever a soldier went to check on the progress of the pontoons, the Confederates would shoot at them.

On March 9, 1862, the battle between the Union’s USS Monitor and the Confederate’s USS Merrimack was history’s first duel between ironclad warships. The cannons bounced effortlessly off the iron armor of the boats. This battle was known as the Battle of Hampton Roads and was part of the Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of Southern ports. This battle ended in a draw where neither side could declare victory, but it started the era of naval warfare. The use of ironclads marked the end of thousands of years of wooden warships.

Firstly, the ironclad ship helped the Union gain power in naval warfare in the oceans and the rivers. One piece of evidence that supports this is “After building just eight paddle steamers between 1837 and 1852, the American navy commissioned none until after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, when vessels of all types would be added for the blockade of the rebellious

After the battle the Union was so impressed they “built a fleet of fifty Monitor class Ironclads(Civil War).” Ericsson also made “monitors fo other nations and gunboats for Spain.” (Encyclopedia).

On the morning of march 8 1862 the confederate ironclad CSS. Virginia steamed out of its port at Norfolk Virginia and towards the union blockade. The goal of the Virginia’s commander Franklin Buchanan was to break the blockade of Norfolk Harbor which held one of the largest naval bases in the Americas. At about 2 pm she spotted the USS Cumberland. Buchanan ordered the ship to ram the Cumberland with its 1500 pound ram which lodged itself in the cumberlands bow completely shredding it’s hull. The cumberland began to sink rapidly with the virginia still logged in its bow. The Virginia managed to pull herself free but in the process the iron ram broke off and sank. Not knowing this the nearby USS congress a nearby frigate attempted to take the fight to shallow water but in the process ran herself aground. The now helpless congress came under fire from the virginia’s 9 inch guns which ripped the frigate apart. The congress then raised a white flag and the Virginias captain came above deck to accept but a musket ball from shore hit him in the arm. The now angry Captain Buchanan ordered the Virginia to fire anti crew shots at the now barely afloat Congress.

Since the very beginning it was first established, the Coast Guard was never seen as important to the people for about 200 years. Why is it that they’ve never had notice? How come they do all the dirty work in the ocean and no one seems to care? Well the Coast Guard is the reason why the United States has been protected, so that we can go to bed at night knowing that nothing’s going to happen to us. There are many reasons to why the Coast Guard is so important to society. The U.S. Coast is a huge part of our military and follows certain goals on the ocean to protect us from harm. There are also individuals who are aware of the situations that the Coast Guards are going through and by helping they get involved with some of the minor