THE BUILDING       OF THE     "MONITOR."
             BY CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON, INVENTOR OF TIE " MONITOR."

                          THE introduction of General Paixhans's brill-
                          liant invention, the shell-gun, in 1824, fol-
                          lowed, in 1858, by the successful application of
                          armor-plating to the steam-frigate La Gloire,
                          under Napoleon Ill., compelled an immediate
                          change in naval construction which startled
                          the maritime countries of Europe, especially
      yEngland, whose boasted security l)ehind her
                       "4wooden walls" was shown to be a complete
           X             "    odelusion. The English naval architects, how-
                           ever, did not overlook the fact that their French
                           rivals, while producing a gun which rendered
                           wooden navies almost useless, had also by their
                           armor-plating provided an efficient protection
                           against the destructive Paixhans shell.
  Accordingly, the Admiralty without loss of time laid the keel of the
Warrior, an armored iron steam-frigate 380 feet long, 58 feet beam, 26 feet
draught, and 9200 tons displacement. The work being pushed with extraor-
dinary vigor, this iron-clad ship was speedily launched and equipped, the
admiration of the nav al world.
  Shortly after the adoption of armor-plating as an essential feature in the
construction of vessels of war, the Southern States seceded from the Union,
some of the most efficient of the United States naval officers resigning their
commissions. Their loss was severely felt by the Navy Department at Wash-
ington; nor was it long before the presence of great professional skill among
the officers of the naval admiinistration of the Confederate States became
manifest. Indeed, the utility of the armor-plating adopted by France and
England proved to be better understood at Richmond than at Washington.
While the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Welles, and his advisers were discuss-
ing the question of armor, news reached Washington that the partly burnt
and scuttled steam-frigate M1rrinibar, at the Norfolk Navy Yard, had been
raised and cut down to her berth-deck, and that a very substantial structure
of timber, resembling a citadel with inclined si(les, was being erected on that
deck.
  The Navy Department at Washington early in August advertised for plans
and offers for iron-clad steam-batteries to be built within a stipulated time.
My attention having been thus called to a subject which I had thoroughly
considered during a series of years, I was fully prepared to present plans of
an impregnable steam-battery of light draught, suitable to navigate the shal-
low rivers and harbors of the Confederate States. Availing myself of the
services of a friend who chanced to be in Washington at the time, proposals
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