The Erebus Research Paper

Captain Edward Smith stayed on the boat while it was sinking. He was an English naval reserve officer. He

Most of the junior sailors come from backgrounds where education and professionalism is missing due to unstable financial stability, lack of parent involvement or just trying to make money the easy way. We as Navy leaders, have the task to assist those sailors to achieve their goals. First of all, we need to continue training junior sailors. Training is a crucial tool for them to become technical experts and subject matter experts. It is in our hands to make sure that all juniors’ sailors are well-trained, mentally, professionally, and personally. They have an entire tool box of resources, programs and opportunity that many of us did not have during our early years in the Navy. It is our job to show them where they can find them and how to use them. Also, we have to keep in mind that we are not only train sailors, we are training our replace; we need to train leaders. Education is another essential piece that we need to keep advertising, especially when they can complete a degree at no cost. But to be successful and guide in the right direction, we need to know them first. If we take time to know them, we can determine what are they are looking for. I believe that no major changes need to be made because the opportunities and programs are out there. The challenge will be to engage them and keep them on

It was built of oak, it's bottom clad was made of copper, and it had three masts.

Prior to the Civil War during the Napoleonic era, artillery was a smoothbore weapon system primarily forged with bronze. These systems were very large, cumbersome, horse drawn and difficult to move into battle. However, near the end of the Napoleonic Era the Gribeauval system would improve cannon systems by casting them out of a solid piece of bronze, and boring out the center. This new Napoleonic invention increased range and accuracy, ultimately, establishing the cornerstone of rifled artillery.1

Fortunately, one of men a Mallory had hired told him about a naval yard burned at the beginning of the war, with a ship or two fitted with the engine. One of those ships was the recently re-surfaced, the CSS. Merrimack, which had sunk when the Confederacy burned a naval yard. William Williamson, one of the men Mallory had hired to help with the construction of a armored ship, pointed out that instead of building new engines they could use the hull of the already ready Merrimack. When construction of the Virginia had completed, she boasted an arsenal of 14 different types of guns, along with twenty-six inches of armor composed of pine wood and iron.

This weapon was quite important throughout the battle. While the turret did in fact turn well, it was difficult for it to stop turning once in motion. Eventually, the crew let it revolve and started “firing on the fly” when the target was in sight. Both the Monitor and the Virginia served as prototypes for future war ship what would be used for their innovative designs. However, the monitors design continued as the principal coastal and riverine warship.

The “cap and ball” had two barrels, which held nine .40 caliber rounds on the upper barrel, and a .63 caliber on the lower barrel, and came with the option of either an eighteen or twenty gauge shot barrel. One model was even fitted with a full length barrel (Pikes 27-30). This greatly aided the northern victory due to the enormous power it possessed over the confederate’s figure eight’s.

With beating the CSS Virginia in mind and the leaked design plans of the CSS Virginia, much more effort and planning went in the making of the USS Monitor. Swedish engineer John Ericsson was the lead designer of the Union ironclad. It was built from the ground up in just ninety days and was made entirely of iron, giving the vessel a leg up over its opposite. The key design feature that set the USS Monitor apart from the CSS Virginia was the turret that was “twenty-one feet across and eight feet high, the turret was constructed of eight layers of overlapping one-inch iron plate, and it revolved on a spindle… [The guns] were large-caliber guns, and because the turret could revolve, they could be pointed in any direction” (Symonds 101).

The American Civil War has a plethora of important events with major impacts on the eventual outcome. In this war, a significant event occurred on the coastline of Savannah, Georgia during the Battle of Ft. Pulaski, an important battle with definite defensive and logistical advantages as the prize to the victor. The innovation shown in this battle will forever leave an imprint in the history of the field artillery's modern cannon rifling system as it revolutionized influencing higher rates of accuracy at greater distances. The Union commander during that era, Cpt. Gilmore, showed how a once considered invincible “third system defense” fortress, built with seven foot wide walls with a legion of cannons, can be breeched and seized without any loss from enemy fire. With continuous and accurate fires while being out of reach from enemy fires this technology to which is still in use today in modern field artillery cannons. We will be exploring the historical timeline of this battle. Not just the significance of this particular fort battle in the Civil War, but also in how rifled cannon tubes changed the course of this battle.

The barbette is of particular interest. Artillery placed here faced north, up the lake, the direction from

Many various muskets were used as well as cannons. They would have a fixed blade like a spear point on the end of the musket that is called a bayonet. They would use it like a spear

The war ship was 172 feet long and 41 feet wide and weighed 987 tons and had a turret, which allowed for fire on all sides of the ship that had two 11 inch smoothbore guns and held 49 crew members. The Monitor couldn’t go out into the ocean because of its bad hull design the Monitor warship will be compared to a British iron hulled wood warship called the HMS Warrior. The HMS Warrior was both a sail and steam ship and was 420 feet long and 9000 tons and had forty 8 inch smooth bore and 7 inch rifled guns. The HMS Warrior was easily disabled due to the positioning of the propeller, which could be destroyed with a lucky shot. What makes the Monitor superior to the HMS Warrior is its iron plating making it impossible to sink the Monitor with regular cannon fire and ramming rendering the wooden HMS Warrior useless against the powerful union ironclad warship. (Little, McDougal, page 491)(Wiegand, Steve Page 169)(The End Of Wooden Walls Hisrsch,

Field Artillery traces its history back to 1775. “However, artillery as we know it today is a proud profession that traces its origins and honorable traditions to centuries before the birth of Christ (Unknown).” In the 18th century Frederick the Great of Prussia began mounting cannoneers on the backs of horses. This in turn gave the Field Artillery great mobility and the ability to accompany cavalry. “With the development of trucks, horse artillery and horse drawn artillery evolved into the towed artillery, as we know today (Unknown).” The American field artillery has answered the call to arms in every major war and conflict, evolving our technology, equipment, and cannoneers to employ these changes in battle.

An inventor by the name of David Bushnell retrofitted a wooden barrel into a submersible, attached with a smaller barrel containing a 150 lb charge of gunpowder (Thomas). The Turtle's task was a discreet offensive mission attempting to blow a hole in the convoy of ships blockading the New York harbor (Thomas). In the end, the Turtle was deemed unsuccessful and the project was abandoned. Years later Robert Fulton, with the knowledge of Bushnell's work, saw the torpedo as the opportunity to be a defensive weapon to "keep the seas safe for travel and comerce" (Cutcliffe and Fabbri 879). Fulton's torpedo was an underwater mine that would be connected to the sea floor by chain, where it would reside indefinitely. He struck some setbacks initially with the gunpowder housing, as it was found it did not efficiently explode on impact in every instance (Branfill-Cook 13). In France during the year 1805, he conducted unsuccessful experiments with the French Navy attempting to sink a ship anchored in the harbor using towed torpedoes (Cutcliffe and Fabbri 885). Just before Fulton died at the age of forty-nine he composed the idea behind the spar torpedo, which later became his legacy and the primary motivator for the creation of the CSS Hunley and its attempted use of a spar torpedo during the American Civil War (Branfill-Cook

As the trench became more compilated the pilots and their spotter had an increasing difficult time accuracy relaying enemy and artillery positions. It was because of this that aerial photography was introduced. It quickly became apparent that cameras where more effective when they were attached to the aircraft. The photographs where then overlaid onto a map give accuracy information about the enemy. One such pilot with the Royal Flying Corps named Lt. W. R. Read tells a story of him and his observer, Jackson, flying over Mons. After the mission was complete they fired a few shots with a rifle at enemy aircraft. After Jackson ran out of ammunition he asked Read “Have you got a revolver, old boy?” Read replied “Yes. But no ammo” . Jackson then asked for the revolver and for him to fly as close to the aircraft as he could. He proceeded to throw the revolver at the aircraft’s propeller. Afterward they decided that there was nothing further to do so they headed home. It did not take long before it became important to down enemy aircraft before they could return home with vital troop and artillery positions.