Replies

YEARS ago there was a series of EC comics about the Civil War. The one on the Monitor/Merrimac had a great quote by an old salt who had seen the Virginia ram and sink the wooden USS Cumberland: “Physiks is unphysicked. Wood sinks and iron floats.” “Physiks is unphysicked” stuck in my mind ever since, for some reason.

A couple of anecdotes I read a while back. The Monitor had a small steel pilot house just forward of the turret. Capt. Worden was there looking through a slit directing fire when a blast from the Virginia partially blinded him. He kept telling the turret officer to “pivot left (or right)”. The officer reported “Pivot left? Hell, I can’t tell up from down in all this smoke”. He was told to “pivot the turret until you don’t see daylight, then fire”. (Evidently when the cannon were retracted for reloading he could see through the port.)

The other was on the Virginia when the skipper noticed that their fire had slackened. “Mr. Eggleston, why aren’t you firing?” Eggleston: “Sir, I find I can do as much damage to the Yankee by snapping my fingers every 2 1/2 seconds.”

Mebbe Urban Legends, but great stories to tell the grandkids.

The Monitor in that one fight, obsoleted all the worlds navies with not only its armor and screw propeller, but with the innovative revolving turret that did away with the need of broadside guns.

Naturally, after the war, we let the Navy go to rot.

The Monitor in that one fight, obsoleted all the worlds navies with not only its armor and screw propeller, but with the innovative revolving turret that did away with the need of broadside guns.

Yes, exactly. There was an alternate history series several years back, can't remember the author or titles, just that it all came off as contrived and convoluted, about a scenario where Great Britain entered the ACW on the side of the Confederacy.

The best part of the books was the hypothesized battle between the Monitor and either HMS Warrior or HMS Black Prince. The Monitor was able to maneuver in close, beneath the ability of the RN ship's guns to depress, and circle while taking shot after shot after shot - tearing the RN ship to hell because with the revolving turret each shot was a guaranteed hit.

The Monitor in that one fight, obsoleted all the worlds navies with not only its armor and screw propeller, but with the innovative revolving turret that did away with the need of broadside guns.

There was a quote from a London newspaper after the battle at Hampton Roads I saw once. I don't recall it exactly, but the gist of it was "Last week we had 150 world class warships. Now we have none."