THe North responds
News of the Virginia made its way up to the North. Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Union Navy, realized he had the responsibility to make sure the blockade at Hampton Roads held. This might not happen without an ironclad ship like the Confederate Navy was building. The South already had a three month head start. Welles went out and got the authority and the money to build an ironclad for the North.
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The monitor's design
John Ericsson was appointed to design the USS Monitor. He was responsible for creating plans for an ironclad to be built in just 90 days. His plans were approved by President Lincoln and the Monitor was created in the Naval shipyards in Brooklyn New York. Metal was provided from local metal works. The Monitor was finished on January 30, 1862.
Anatomy of the uss monitor
The Monitor was equipped with four inches of armor like the Virginia but had less wooden layers. The ship was flat and low to the water level. It’s deck was just a few inches from the water line. It was equipped with one rotating cannon on a double pivot point. The cannon could move up and down and the turret could rotate 360˚. The cannon was a 280mm smoothbore cannon.