Ericsson's ironclad was far from perfect, and I have read about many notable gaffes in its design, such as the fact that it was not seaworthy, ventilation was bad, the turret was not stopped before firing the guns, and so no accuracy at all, and the vulnerable observation post at the front of the boat was hit, blinding the captain; for practical purposes stopping the battle and causing the Monitor to retreat to shallow water.
It should be understood that the Monitor was designed and built in great haste, and used a lot of methods that had never been used before. In the context of the war, and the urgency of needing a boat to effectively counter the South's own ironclad, one can better understand why there was not much time to fine tune the Monitor's design, much less prove new ideas.
You can imagine the difficulty of trying to troubleshoot a new design while being fired upon in battle.
The fact still stands though that naval warfare changed forever after the first ironclad battle.
It was the beginning of the end of wood warships.
Despite its flaws, the Monitor was and is (in my opinion) a very significant technical achievement, used at a very historical moment for the country, and so it will always retain its notoriety.
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It should be understood that the Monitor was designed and built in great haste, and used a lot of methods that had never been used before. In the context of the war, and the urgency of needing a boat to effectively counter the South's own ironclad, one can better understand why there was not much time to fine tune the Monitor's design, much less prove new ideas.
You can imagine the difficulty of trying to troubleshoot a new design while being fired upon in battle.
The fact still stands though that naval warfare changed forever after the first ironclad battle.
It was the beginning of the end of wood warships.
Despite its flaws, the Monitor was and is (in my opinion) a very significant technical achievement, used at a very historical moment for the country, and so it will always retain its notoriety.
.
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