USS Roanoke-- Part 23: Not a Successful Ironclad Monitor

Initial plans called for four turrets on the new monitor, but only three were placed.    Her masts, rigging and everything except smokestack was removed above the gundeck.  Little to nothing was done to reinforce the hull which proved to be a major problem.

Those three turrets, however, mounted some really heavy pieces of artillery:  two muzzle loading 15-inch Dahlgren, two 11-inch Dahlgrens and two eight inch 150-pdr. Parrott rifles.  No turret had two of the same two caliber guns, however.

Commissioned 29 June 1863.

Her initial commander as an ironclad was Captain Benjamin F. Sands (who was also at the battles of Fort Fisher while in command of the USS Fort Jackson),  He reported that on the trip from New York to Hampton Roads that the ship rolled heavily that it would be impossible to use its guns.

On 14 July, Sands test fired his guns for the first time and three of the guns dismounted because of the bad recoil.  It was decided that the Roanioke would serve only as harbor defense for Hampton Roads, where she spent the rest of the war.

She was decommissioned in 1875 and sold for scrap in 1883.

--Old B-Runner

Cruising With the USS Montgomery-- Part 7: LCSs and DDs Look Quite a Bit Like ....

Before I go any further, I happened to notice something while looking at side views of the USS Montgomery and other LCS ships as well as new destroyers.

These ships seem to incorporate parts of two Civil War ships.

Take a look online and make your guess.

Answer below.

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The superstructure of the ships reminds me of Confederate ironclads.  Take a look at the CSS Virginia, Tennessee or Albemarle.

And, every one of them has a gun mounted in a turret in the bow area, which would be the USS Monitor.

A Little Taste of the Civil War in Today's Navy.  --Old B-Runner

Alban Stimers' Grave

From Find-A-Grave.

BIRTH:  5 June 1827, Peterboro, New York   I also saw Smithfield, New York, as his birth place.

DEATH:  3 June 1876,  Staten Island, New York

BURIAL:  Cypress Hills Cemetery,   Brooklyn, New York

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Superintendent of the Ericsson's Btry. Project 10/4/1861, in which he oversaw the construction of the USS Monitor.

Served as a "technical passenger" during the ship's trial run from New York to Hampton Roads, Virginia,  3/6-8/1862.

Operated the turret during the battle with the CSS Virginia 3/9/1862 during which, he was thrown to the floor when a shell hit the turret while he was leaning his hand against it.

--Old B-Runner

While on the Subject of Shipwrecks-- Part 2

4.  A SHIPWRECK CAN LINGER FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY

The iconic Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was built to withstand intense naval battles when it was launched in 1862.  But its design -- advanced for its time--  was still not enough to help the vessel withstand the tracherous winter storms off the coast of North Carolina on New Year's Eve that same year.

The resulting shipwreck has been intensely researched since it was rediscovered in 1973.  In 2002, the Monitor's turret was recovered in a joint U.S. Navy and NOAA mission, it still held the skeletal remains of two of the 16 men who lost their lives on the vessel 140 years earlier.

--Old B-Runner

USS Merrimack

Today, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will be hearing a presentation from Dave Noe on the USS Merrimack, the ship that became the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.

Here are some facts about the USS Merrimack:

From Wikipedia.

The USS Merrimack is also sometimes called the USS Merramac and was a steam frigate (powered by a screw propreller).  One of six ordered in 1854.  The others were the  Wabash, Roanoke,  Niagara,  Minnesota and Colorado. (The Minnesota, Colorado and Wabash were at Fort Fisher.)   The Roanoke became an ironclad herself featuring three turrets.  The Niagara spent most of the Civil War in Europe.

The Merrimack was named after a river that starts in New Hampshire and flows to Merrimac, Massachusetts, on the Atlantic Ocean which causes the confusion in spelling.

It was launched by the Boston Navy Yard 15 June 1855. Commander was Captain  Garrett J. Pendergrast.

--Old B-Runner

20th Anniversary of Recovery of USS Monitor's Turret-- Part 2

From the August 2, 2022, Chesapeake Bay Magazine"Anniversary celebration: Ironclad Civil War  ship's turret pulled from the ocean" by Kendall Osborne.

It was 20 years ago this week that the turret of the famous USS Monitor was pulled off the ocea floor of North Carolina.

The ship of course, had that famous battle with the ironclad CSS Vorginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862, and then  sank the last day of 1862 before being found in August 1973.  Exploration and recovery  began with smaller pars of the ship being brought up like the propeller.  The largest piece broke  the surface of the Atlantic Ocean on August 5, 2002, the turret and was taken to the Mariners' Museum for preservation.

The recovery of the turret was no small feat.  It took 41 days and 160 divers, mostly from the U.S. Navy, to get the turret to the surface, and it has since most of the last twenty years in an Electrolyte Reduction (ER) System in a 90,000 gallon tank to keep it protected.

--Old B-Runner

20th Anniversary Celebration Today at Mariners' Museum for Recovery of the Monitor's Turret

From the Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

The Mariners' Museum in Virginia, which is also the home and offices of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (MNMS), will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Moniior' turret recovery today, August 6.

There will be a scavenger hunt and visitors of all ages can dig through concretion (the goop that surrounds artifacts on the sea floor) to find additional artifacts. (That sounds really neat to me.)

Representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will guide visitors through a virtual dive to the wreck of the Monitor through virtual reality headsets.  There will be additional personnel throughout the museum to give visitors additional and interesting  information about specific exhibits.

At 11 am, Dr. John Broadwater, the former superintendent of the MNMS, will describe how the national marine sanctuary, NOAA, the Navy, The Mariners' Museum and other agencies recovered the Monitor's turret and other artifacts.

After lunch, Will Hoffman, director of conservation and chief conservator, will discuss efforts to preserve the turret over the last twenty years.  He will also discuss the 220 tons of other recovered artifacts from the site.

Sure Wish I Could Be There.  --Old B-Runner

Timby and the Monitor Blog

Also included in the Timby and the Monitor blog was a drawing of what Theodore Timby believed his revolving turret would look like on a ship.  The one he designed also had a low freeboard and looked a whole like Ericsson's Monitor.  Only, the pilot house was on top of the turret instead of on the deck.

This was sent to China in 1842 at the suggestion of Caleb Cushing, whom I have written about in this blog as the name of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Charles Read was going to attack in Portland, Maine, was named after him.

Another drawing in the blog showed how the turret was to turn.  Also a cutaway of the turret tower which had three levels.

There was also a patent for an  improvement in Timby's Revolving  Battery-Towers.

--Old B-Runner

The Timby and the Monitor Blog-- Part 5: Trying to Set the Record Straight

In the ensuing  world famous battle,  which would render all the navies of the world obsolete, the Monitor with its Timby Turret and low freeboard technology turned back the Confederate threat and gave Abraham Lincoln the strategic victory he needed to prosecute the war  toward the preservation of the fledgling American democracy.  (I'm not sure this was the whole reason.)

The Dr. Timby story that follows will reveal why he remains unknown in that final resting place.  It s to be hoped  that this publication and the "telling of the tale" can bring some recognition for him, almost 100 years after his death in 1908.

Although seemingly protected, by law,  thru his  US patent #356789 first filed as a caveat in 1842, his designs were  plagerized by Swedish engineer John Ericsson who used them to offer and win, when war loomed in 1861, a government contract to  build a vessel.

--Old B-Runner

The Timby and the Monitor Blog-- Part 4: And, Then It Appeared

On the morning of March 9, 1862, the CSS Virginia was preparing to finish off the Union fleet in Hampton Roads.  As the daylight increased, watchers on shore and ship noted with disbelieving eyes, the slow approach of an object  and shape never seen before in naval history.

Admiral Farragut, who had remained aboard the helpless  Federal flagship later described it as a "giant shingle, floating on the water with a cheesebox on top."  (I am not sure Farragut was at the battle as he was headed for the Battle of New Orleans in April.)

It was, in fact,  the Theordore Ruggles Timby inspired USS Monitor, as black and menacing  as the mythical monster of Loch Lommand with only a few inches of  its slim iron hull above the waterline, as it parted the waves and closed upon the CSS Virginia.

Most striking to onservers, it bore at its midsection a cylindrical iron turret that was seen to revolve around its center.  Twenty feet in diameter, with iron walls  8 inches thick the turret rotated, as if in the hunt for a line of fire to its prey.  Upon command, the gaping muzzles of two huge 11 inch smoothbore guns appeared from behind small ports in the armored wall  of the turret.

The genius of the Timby machine and patent, as intended of course,  was that it could fire in any direction, with devastating effect on targets.

--Old B-Runner

An Unmarked Grave for Timby-- Part 6: They Both Deserve Credit

Park Commisiiner Stover told of a visit he paid to Timby in Brooklyn two years ago, only a few days before his death.  Timby was then in his ninetieth year.

"I became deeply interested in Mr. Timby and his rights in the invention of  the revolving turret," said the Park Commissioner.  "I attended Mr. Timby's funeral and since have always wished to have the fame of both Ericsson and Timby written according to each one's merits." 

"The recently discovered letters of the syndicate which built the Monitor show that they recognized the priority of Mr. Timby's rights.  One member of the syndicate states in one letter that he doesn't see the use of trying to break Timby's patent.  Timby unquestionably carries out the whole plan  of the revolving turret in 1842.  Ericsson is, on the other hand, entitled to the credit for putting Timby's invention into practical exemplification."

--Old B-Runner

An Unmarked Grave for Theodore Timby-- Part 3: A Memorial Service Two Years After Death

From Find-A-Grave.

From the October 13, 1911, New York Times  "Late Honors Paid To Inventor Timby:  His Body Taken to Battery Park Where Speakers Credit Him  as Inventor of Monitor.  Ericsson Came After Him Using Revolving Turret Idea, Which Revolutionized Naval Warfare--  Timby to Rest in Washington."

Almost a thousand persons collected around the bandstand yesterday afternoon to witness a memorial service in honor of Theodore Ruggles Timby, the inventor of the revolving turret for the battleships,  who died in obscurity in Brooklyn two years ago, sixty years after he made his invention known.and for which he was never compensated.

Timby conceived then idea for the revolving turret in 1841, after showing a small ivory model of the invention to John C. Calhoun. Timby's friends have always inssted that John Ericsson, who has received credit for inventing the first "Monitor" appropriated Timby's design without giving Timby sufficient credit or turning over to him enough of the Monitor profits.

--Old B-Runner

A Blog About Theodore Timby

While researching this man (whom I had never heard of) I found that there had been a short-lived blog on him dating back to 2008.  It was titled "Timby and the Monitor."

It was written by Theodore Walcott Dickes, writer and great great grandson of Theodore Ruggles Timby who he described as the forgotten inventor of the U.S.S. Monitor's revolving turret and of Civil War fame.

Mr. Dickes was living in Encinitas, California, at the time.

His reason for writing the blog was  to bring forth information of Timby and make his accomplishments known.

Unfortunately, there were only six blog entries.

I will be taking a look at them.

--Old B-Runner

The USS Monitor the Result of Two Inventors: Theodore Timby and John Ericsson

From the January 30, 2022  Retronewser site "First U.S. ironclad warship, the USS Monitor, launched during the American Civil War 160 years ago #On This Day (Jan 30, 1862)."

The design of the ship was  distinguished by its revolving turret, which was  designed by American inventor Theodore Timby.  It was quickly duplicated and established the monitor class and type of armored warship built by the American Navy over the next several decades.

The remainder of the ship was designed by  Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson, and built in only 101 days beginning in late 1861.  (And a good thing it was built that quickly because as it was, the Monitor arrived just in time to save the Union fleet from the CSS Virginia in March 1862.)

The Monitor presented a new concept in ship design and employed a variety of new inventions and innovations in ship building that caught the attention of the world.

--Old B-Runner

See the Remains of the Monitor-- Part 3: The End

Continued from June 10, 2022.

The battle lasted four hours as the ships shot at each other but were unable to do serious damage.  The final outcome  of the battle was cannonballs bouncing off each other.  Both eventually retired from battle unable to beat the other.

As fate would have it, the Confederates  scuttled and destroyed their ironclad, while the USS Monitor eventually foundered while under tow in a storm.  Neither ship survived 1862.

DISCOVERY AND RECOVERY OF USS MONITOR

The USS Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1862.  She remained underwater for  over a hundred years until she was discovered in 1973 (the year I started teaching).  Since then, she has been partially salvaged and her relics are on display at the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

REDISCOVERED: 1973

SALVAGE:  It has been partially salvaged.  (The turret was salvaged completely.)

Today people can visit the relics and view a full-scale replica of the ship.  They can also see her two cannons, engine and other recovered objects.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Timby-- Part 4: A Writer, Inventor and John Ericsson

During his later years, as a resident of  Brooklyn, New York,  he occupied himself with literary avocations, publishing several small volumes of  poems and essays, including "Bridging the  Skies" (1883),  "Beyond" (1886), "Stellar Worlds and Other Didactic Literature" (1896) and "Lighted Lore for Gentle Folk" (1902).

He died in Brooklyn, New York, on November 9, 1909, and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C..

ACHIEVEMENTS

He is credited as the inventor of the revolving gun turret that was used on the USS Monitor.

He also patented a wide variety of other inventions such as a door sash, water wheel, paper cutter, needle case and a globe clock that was sold in such numbers that some can be seen today at auctions.

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The Washington Post stated in 1909, shortly after Timby's death,  that "John Ericsson has for years monipolized all of the credit for inventing and building the Monitor, but as a matter of fact he was joint inventor with  Theodore Timby."

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In 1844, he married  Charlotte M. Ware.

His father was George  W. Timby and mother was  Sarah (Johnson) Timby.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Timby-- Part 3: Where Should the Credit for a Revolving Turret Go?

In later years, a controversy followed as to credit for the idea of a revolving turret or battery tower.  Ericsson arguing that the idea for a revolving fort long antedated the 19th century.  Thus it was  one of the concepts  of military engineering that belonged as common property.

Supporters of Timby pointed to his earlier  caveat as proof that credit should go to him.

It seems clear that the  honor of first publicly urging this form of gun housing on governmental authorities belongs to Timby, while the honor of first using the idea in actual construction goes to Ericsson, who may or may not have known of Timby's design.

In 1857 and 1862, Timby received patents for a barometer; in 1869, he patented a turbine water wheel, amd in 1871, a gun carriage; he also devised  a process of  printing terrestrial globes in colors and a process for quickly ripening coffee.

His inventions seem to have brought little financial return, however,  and his family was supported in part by friends who memorialized Congress and the New York state legislature in his behalf.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Ruggles Timby

From Prabook.

He was born  on April 5, 1822,  in Dutchess County, New York,.  He was the son of George W. and Sarah (Johnson) Timby, formerly of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

He grew up on his father's farm and attended common schools.

During his teens, he is said to have invented a form of floating drydock.  As early as 1841, he exhibited a model and plans for a revolving  battery for coast desfense to the War Department in Washington, D.C..  He siad he came up with the idea from Castle William on Governors Island in New York.

He seems to have come up with a similar idea for ships of low freeboard (the Monitor was a ship of low freeboard).

On January 18, 1843,  he filed a caveat covering the invention of  the revolving turret for use on land or sea.  It appears that  in the spring of the same year, he sent a model to China by Caleb Cushing, the United States minister there.  In June he exhibited a model to President  Tyler and his cabinet.

Nothing came of these efforts.

--Old B-Runner

So, Who Was Theodore Timby-- Part 2: What Did Ericsson Do?

Meanwhile, a Swedish-born architect named John Ericsson had submitte a proposal to build an ironclad warship for the Union Navy.  The Monitor was built for $195,000 and was sold to the Navy for  $270,000.  Timby received a  5 percent  commission of $13,500.

Timby spent much of his life in Saratoga Springs, New York, having moved there in 1860.

He patented a wide variety of other inventions such as a door sash, water wheel, paper cutter, needle case and a globe clock that was sold in such great numbers that some can still be seen at auctions today.

There was an effort in the early 1900s to give credit to Timby for his turret  invention.  The Washington Post stated in 1909, shortly after his death that "John Ericsson has for years monopolized all of the credit for inventing and building the Monitor, but as a matter of fact he was a joint inventor with Theodore Timby." 

--Old B-Runner

So, Who Was Theodore Timby?-- Part 1: The Revolving Turret

In the last post I wrote that the USS Monitor was designed by John Ericcson (which I knew) and Theodore Timby.  But, who was Theodore Timby?  I'd never heard of his name.  Turns out, he had a whole lot to do with the success of the Monitor.

From Wikipedia.

THEODORE TIMBY

Theodore Ruggles Timby (5 April 1809 - 9 November 1909) is credited as the inventor of the  revolving gun turret that was used on the USS Monitor.  (I always was of the opinion that that was Ericsson's invention.)

He was born in Duchess County, New York.  Early in his life, at the age of 16,  he invented  a method for raising ships out of the water for repairs by  sinking a water-filled box beneath it and then forcing the water out through pumps in order to raise it.

Throughout the 1840s, Timby perfected a revolving gun turret for use on the land and water.  He constructed a  21-foot long model and brought it to Washington, D.C., but met with little success as war was not imminent.  However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Timby brought his model to the Abraham Lincoln White House, and this time met with much more success.

Something About This New Kind of a Ship to Be Called the Monitor.  --Old B-Runner