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The USS ''Monitor'' was an iron-hulled steamship. Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. ''Monitor'' is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad (built on the hull of the former steam frigate ) to a standoff. The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the Monitor type of warship. The remainder of the ship was designed by the Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson and hurriedly built in Brooklyn in only 101 days. ''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. The impetus to build ''Monitor'' was prompted by the news that the Confederates were building an ironclad warship, named ''Virginia'', that could effectively engage the Union ships blockading Hampton Roads and the James River leading to Richmond and ultimately advance on Washington, D. C. and other cities, virtually unchallenged. Before ''Monitor'' could reach Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad had destroyed the sail frigates USS ''Cumberland'' and USS ''Congress'' and had run the steam frigate USS ''Minnesota'' aground. That night ''Monitor'' arrived and the following morning, just before ''Virginia'' was about to finish off the ''Minnesota'', the new Union ironclad confronted the Confederate ship, preventing her from wreaking further destruction on the wooden Union ships. A four-hour battle ensued, both ships pounding the other with close-range cannon fire, although neither ship could destroy or seriously damage the other. This was the first-ever battle fought between two armored warships and marked a turning point in naval warfare. After the Confederates were forced to destroy ''Virginia'' as they withdrew in early May, ''Monitor'' sailed up the James River to support the Union Army during the Peninsula Campaign. The ship participated in the Battle of Drewry's Bluff later that month and remained in the area giving support to General McClellan's forces on land until she was ordered to join the blockaders off North Carolina in December. On her way there she foundered while under tow, during a storm off Cape Hatteras on the last day of the year. ''Monitor''s wreck was discovered in 1973 and has been partially salvaged. Her guns, gun turret, engine and other relics are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. ==Conception== While the concept of ships protected by armor existed before the advent of the ironclad ''Monitor'',〔Bennett, 1900, pp. 212–13.〕 the need for iron plating on ships only arose after the shell-firing cannon was introduced to naval warfare in the 1820s. The use of heavy iron plating on the sides of warships was not practical until steam propulsion matured enough to carry its great weight. Developments in gun technology had progressed by the 1840s so that no practical thickness of wood could withstand the power of a shell.〔Baxter, 1933, pp. 3–9.〕 In response, the United States began construction in 1854 of a steam-powered ironclad warship, the ''Stevens Battery'',〔Gardiner, 1992, pp. 50–55.〕 but work was delayed and the designer, Robert Stevens, died in 1856, stalling further work. Since there was no pressing need for such a ship at the time, there was little demand to continue work on the unfinished vessel.〔Konstam, 2002, p. 12.〕 It was France that introduced the first operational armored ships as well as the first shell guns and rifled cannons.〔Bennett, 1900, p. 64.〕 Experience during the Crimean War of 1854–55 showed that armored ships could withstand repeated hits without significant damage when French ironclad floating batteries defeated Russian coastal fortifications during the Battle of Kinburn. Ericsson claimed to have sent the French Emperor Napoléon III a proposal for a monitor-type design, with a gun turret, in September 1854, but no record of any such submission could be found in the archives of the French Ministry of the Navy (''Ministre de la Marine'') when they were searched by naval historian James Phinney Baxter III.〔Baxter, 1933, pp. 184–85.〕 The French followed those ships with the first ocean-going ironclad, the armored frigate in 1859, and the British responded with .〔 The Union Navy's attitude towards ironclads changed quickly when it was learned that the Confederates were converting the captured to an ironclad at the naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. Subsequently the urgency of ''Monitor''s completion and deployment to Hampton Roads was driven by fears of what the Confederate ironclad, now renamed ''Virginia'', would be capable of doing, not only to Union ships but to cities along the coast and riverfronts. Northern newspapers published daily accounts of the Confederates' progress in converting the ''Merrimack'' to an ironclad; this prompted the Union Navy to complete and deploy ''Monitor'' as soon as possible.〔Clancy, 2013, p. 55.〕 Word of ''Merrimacks'' reconstruction and conversion was confirmed in the North in late February 1862 when Mary Louveste of Norfolk, a freed slave who worked as a housekeeper for one of the Confederate engineers working on ''Merrimack'',〔CIA: Historical Document: Black Dispatches''.〕 made her way through Confederate lines with news that the Confederates were building an ironclad warship. Concealed in her dress was a message from a Union sympathizer who worked in the Navy Yard warning that the former ''Merrimack'', renamed ''Virginia'' by the Confederates, was nearing completion.〔Davis, 1996, pp. 214–15.〕 Upon her arrival in Washington Mary managed to meet with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and informed him that the Confederates were nearing the completion of their ironclad, which surprised Welles. Convinced by the papers Mary was carrying he had production of ''Monitor'' sped up. Welles later recorded in his memoirs that ''Mrs. Louveste encountered no small risk in bringing this information ...'' 〔Allen, 2008, pp. 115–16.〕〔Tomblin, 2009, p. 161〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Monitor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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