Ads 150 Years Ago Sought Iron Ship Technology

For Immediate Release

Ads 150 Years Ago Sought Iron Ship Technology

Newport News, Va. - (August 2011) - in summer 1861, with news that the Confederates were building an ironclad battleship, The Navy Department saw the necessity of building its own ironclad, and quickly.

But the Navy Department didn’t solicit designs covertly, working through channels. Rather, the Navy took out newspaper advertisements.

The newspaper advertisements were published from Aug. 7 to 15, 1861 in five Northeast cities, including Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and Washington, D.C. The ads ran about six times in each newspaper.

The wording was identical in all of the advertisements, which read, in part: “The offer must state the cost and the time for completing the whole, exclusive of armament and stores of all kinds, the rate of speed proposed, and must be accompanied by a guarantee for the proper execution of the contract, if awarded.”

The deadline for proposals was Aug. 21, 1861.

In all, seventeen proposals were submitted. While three designs were approved, the first ironclad built was the USS Monitor. Monitor designer John Ericcson submitted his design not because he read a newspaper ad, but because New York industrialist Cornelius Bushnell asked Ericcson’s advice on some ironclad proposals. Ericcson called his ship Monitor, to reinforce that it was “in charge.” Others, however, called it “Ericcson’s folly,” insisted an iron ship would not float, and predicted it would sink to the bottom of the East River upon its launch in New York.

What did Abraham Lincoln have to say when he saw the Monitor plans?

“All I have to say is what the girl said when she stuck her foot in the stocking. It strikes me there’s something in it.”

That, with the blessing of the three-man Ironclad Board, was enough to proceed. The ship was built in 100 days, and launched–without sinking, and with Ericcson defiantly positioned on the deck–on Jan. 30, 1862.

On March 9, 1862, it would engage the Confederate’s ironclad, The CSS Virginia (Merrimack) in the first-ever meeting of ironclad ships in battle. The two ships fought to a draw as hundreds of spectators watched from the shoreline of the body of water called Hampton Roads. Cannonballs were unable to penetrate the respective iron hulls.

But the battle warded off the threat the CSS Virginia had posed to the Union naval blockade. And in the confines of one afternoon, every wooden warship in the world had been rendered obsolete.

As the Union advanced on Norfolk two months later, the CSS Virginia was scuttled within view of its nemesis, the Monitor. On Dec. 31, 1862, the Monitor–never intended for the open seas–sank 16 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., with 16 of 62 crewmen perishing.

In 1973, the Monitor wreck was discovered, and in time, the site was designated the NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, its artifacts protected by federal law. The official repository for the artifacts is The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, home of the USS Monitor Center, which opened in 2007. At The Mariners’ Museum, hundreds of Monitor artifacts–including its steam engine and iconic gun turret–are treated in the expansive Batten Conservation Laboratory Complex.

For more information:
Contact: John Warren
(757) 591-7746
E-mail: pr@MarinersMuseum.org 
 

The Mariners' Museum, an educational, non-profit institution accredited by the American Association of Museums, preserves and interprets maritime history through an international collection of ship models, figureheads, paintings and other maritime artifacts. The museum is open from 10 A.M. until 5 P.M. Wednesday through Saturday, and 12 to 5 P.M. Sunday. It will be closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. For information, visit www.MarinersMuseum.org, call (757) 596-2222 or (800) 581-7245, or write to The Mariners' Museum, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606.

The Mariners' Museum and The South Street Seaport Museum of New York City are partners in America's National Maritime Museum, an innovative alliance recognized by an act of Congress in June 1998 to share collections, exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and other endeavors.