Navy Vessels: The USS Monitor Essay

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.

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

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

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

On the 24th of December, 1864, Union ships have started engaging the Confederate forces of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, just south of Wilmington. Thus far the Confederate fort’s large guns have kept the Union ships at a distance and nullified the attack.

The ironclad CSS Virginia began a naval engagement on the Union fleet. On March 8, the battle lasted throughout the day. This engagement was part of a Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of the Southern ports. Unfortunately, the USS Monitor did not arrive in Hampton Roads until later at night, too late to preserve many of the Union ships from destruction.

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.

The Battle of Hampton Roads, otherwise known as Monitor versus Merrimac, was the first engagement of two ironclad ships in battle. On March 8, 1862, the Merrimac, now christened the CSS Virginia, sunk two Union ships in addition to grounding another in an effort to prevent the Union from blockading southern ports. On March 9, the more significant battle began when the Confederate Virginia fired on the Union’s Minnesota. The Virginia then met its northern ironclad counterpart, the Monitor, at the mouth of the James River. The Virginia and the Monitor fired upon one another, though the incompetence of the crews rendered the shots ineffective. The volley continued for some time, causing people to flock to the shore, the docks, or nearby vessels in an effort to watch the action. Eventually, the Virginia had a successful shot at the Monitor, hitting the Monitor’s iron pilothouse. When the Monitor’s pilothouse was hit, iron shards flew everywhere and got into Commander Lieutenant John Worden’s eyes. This caused the Monitor to sheer off course and move into shallow water. The Virginia posed to attack the Minnesota, after deducing that the Monitor was out of commision at this point in time. Before attacking, the Virginia’s officers reported a leak in the bow, depleted ammunition, and that the steam powered engine was having trouble keeping pace. The battle ended in a draw as the Virginia headed back to its naval yard for repairs. The battle showed that in the future, all wooden ships and vessels would be obsolete in comparison to the ironclads that would soon became the new naval fighting

During the Civil War, great advancements in technology and weaponry were happening. Both the Union and Confederate side of the war used what were considered typical weapons. For example, they both used knives, swords, pistols, rifles, and muskets. Artillery such as cannons were also very popular. Though all these weapons were used in wars before the Civil war, such as the Mexican War, advancements were made to better the pre-existing weapons. Better bullets were made for rifles. Rifle barrels were advanced to make them more precise and shoot farther distances. Advancements were also made in the naval department. Before the Civil war, battleships were made out of wood, but around the civil war, iron started to be added to battleships. This newly

After learning of the construction of the Virginia, the Union began construction on their own version of the Ironclad, running through

The start of the Civil War was April 12, 1861 when Confederates attacked a Union fort. Fort Sumter took a heavy beating that day and would later surrender after the second day of the Confederates attacking (Roark et al. 424-5). Once the war started, the U.S. Navy created a blockade around the 3,500 miles of the South’s coastline. The fleet was originally just 36 ships, but it grew to 150 with new ships being added almost weekly. Few Confederate ships were able to cross the blockade, unless they were specially designed stealthy steam boats. These ships were known as “blockade runners” and were able to bring back important supplies like guns and medicine. But the blockade runners were in no way designed to destroy the Union’s blockade or even the ships that formed it for that matter. The Union’s navy was expanding too fast for the Confederates to keep up. The Confederacy decided to build two ironclad warships, the Merrimack and Virginia. These warships were powerful and sank two wooden Union ships. But the Union was not ready to give up their blockade without a fight. The Virginia was set to destroy the blockade the next morning, but it greated by the Monitor (Roark et al. 435). After a two hour battle, the ships called it a draw. Yet the Confederacy was never able to destroy the blockade using their own strength (Roark et al. 436).

The Intrepid ship, used from 1943 - 1960’s was a warship commissioned during World War II, the Cold War, and later for NASA as a vessel recovery ship. The ship itself was a part of American history and today stands as a museum for all three and the many more voyages it served.

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