Sister ship USS Amphitrite by Edward H. Hart, 1897. A splendid enlargement Source: Photographium.com
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The winners for longest build times in the modern industrial era are the armored monitors of the U.S. Navy in the late 1800s. To get around Congressional limits on spending during the period of Western settlement (1865-1900), the Navy Department took funds allocated for ship repair and instead used them to construct five coast-defense monitors -- at a snail's pace. Even so, the 21-year build time of the Monadnock broke the record. Ironically for a vessel named for a Granite State mountain peak, she was constructed on the San Francisco Bay. Originally contracted to the Continental Iron Works of Vallejo, CA, she was towed across the Bay to Mare Island Navy Yard after Continental's bankruptcy in 1882 -- a collapse likely hastened by the yard's large volume of work with the fickle Navy Dept. The ship spent a further 13 years of intermittent construction at Mare Island, near San Francisco. She finally mustered into the Navy in 1896, in good time to fight in the Spanish-American War.Originally designed to mount 15" Dahlgren smoothbore muzzle-loaders, she was eventually equipped with two turrets each mounting twin 10" rifles. In their long gestation, these monitors evolved. Low to the water, they were true to the spirit of the original Civil War monitor -- a floating raft with gun turrets on top. But influenced by the British breastwork monitors of the 1870s, a "breastwork" or midships superstructure was added, bringing the apertures of funnel and ventilators high above the waterline to guarantee they would not be swamped in a seaway. The ships thus had an odd appearance, sitting nearly flush with the water but with an incongruous high bridgeworks emerging amidships. They were built for coastal defense in such places as the Puget Sound, Massachusetts Bay, and the Chesapeake, but proved surprisingly seaworthy when put to the test. As noted, their artillery was changed during construction to modern breech-loading rifles. But these ships remained hybrids, with iron hulls, old horizontal steam engines, and composite armor of great weight but dubious protective power by the time they commissioned. The antiquated armor was, however, proof against bandits' bullets; the ships were deemed adequate to advance "gunboat diplomacy" in the hinterlands of Asia, where the United States was establishing its new colonial empire.
In 1898 some of the coastal monitors of the U.S. Navy were ordered across the Pacific to help complete the conquest of the Philippines. Adm. Dewey had seized control of the waters surrounding the capital in the first days of the war, but then had to wait for a troop buildup sufficient to occupy the country. It took until late July for 10,000 men to arrive under the command of Gen. Wesley Merritt, to complete the takeover at Manila. Here is the Monadnock in mid-Pacific, showing the dicey nature of the crossing. She is wallowing in the swell following a typhoon encountered off Guam, which delayed her arrival at Manila until after the city had surrendered to Merritt on Aug. 13, 1898. Her fellow monitor Monterey (top photo) took part in the one-hour bombardment of Manila that preceded the Spanish surrender. The old ships remained in Asia, often for the remainder of their careers, drydocking at Hong Kong when overhaul was indicated. After WWI the antiquated monitors were replaced by newer, purpose-built colonial vessels. Some of the old monitors were towed back to the West Coast for scrapping, but -- following stints as a target-tow tug and sub tender -- Monadnock was redesignated Hull IX-17 and sold for disposal in 1923. Her bones lie buried in Asian soil.
Specifications for the Amphitrite class monitors:
Dimensions: 263'0" x 55'6" x 14'6" Displacement: 4,054 tons standard. Armament (as built): (4) 10"/40 cal. (2x2), (2) 4"/40, (2) 6-pdr, (2) 3-pdr, and (2) 1-pdr guns. Armor: Compound type. Belt: 7"; turrets: 11½"; conning tower: 7½". Propulsion: (6) coal-fired boilers; (2) 1,600-hp horizontal compound steam engines; twin screw. Maximum speed: 12 kts. Crew: 191 (wartime), 150 (peacetime).
Ships in class: Amphitrite · Terror · Monadnock · Miantonomah
Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 80.2 x 16.91 x 4.47 meters. Displacement: 4,054 tons standard. Armament (as built): (4) 250 mm/40 cal. (2x2), (2) 100 mm/40, (2) 6-pdr, (2) 3-pdr, and (2) 1-pdr guns. Armor: Compound type. Belt: 178 mm; turrets: 292 mm; conning tower: 191 mm. Propulsion: (6) coal-fired boilers; (2) horizontal compound steam engines developing 1,193 kW; twin screw. Maximum speed: 22.2 km/hr. Crew: 191 (wartime), 150 (peacetime).
Monadnock under construction at Mare Island Navy Yard, early 1890s.
A moody dawn photo captures the Monadnock at her Mare Island mooring, raising steam for a day's duties on the Bay.
This photo shows the Monterey firing her forward (12") guns in target practice off Port Angeles, WA. The photographer apparently has captured a 12" shell in flight -- or is it just a boo-boo in the negative?
Profile view of the Miantonomah. Like the Monadnock, she crossed the Pacific in 1898 and became a denizen of the Far East for the rest of her career.
Profile view of the Monterey; photo courtesy San Diego Historical Society. This unique ship, laid down in 1889 and completed in 1893, was nearly identical in design to the Amphitrite class to which Monadnock belonged, but took advantage of technological advances: she was wholly built of steel, protected by Harvey armor, and propelled by more efficient vertical triple-expansion engines powered by Ward water-tube boilers. Designed to mount 15" guns, Monterey was completed with two 12"/40s in the forward turret and a pair of 10-inchers in the aft turret (note size disparity in the profile drawing below).
Profile view of the Arkansas class monitor Wyoming in 1907. The Wyoming and her three sisters constituted a later (1900) generation of coast-defense monitor mounting two 12"/40 guns in one turret and four 4" QF (click for schematic). Armor consisted of 11" KC belt and turret protection; 2,400-hp triple-expansion engines gave them a speed of 12 kts. The Arkansas class of four 3,235-ton ships was the apex of U.S. monitor design, remaining in commission through WWI for coast and harbor defense and working with the state naval militias. During the dreadnought building race, Wyoming surrendered her name to a new battleship, becoming the Cheyenne for the remainder of her service life; see Class Nomenclature below for a complete listing of the class name shifts. The same practice was applied to the Pennsylvania and Washington class armored cruisers in the same period, and for the same reason: the growth of the dreadnought battleship fleet, each new battleship requiring a state's name. From 1913 on, Cheyenne served as a submarine tender and training ship on the west coast. She was struck off in 1926 and her stripped-down hulk auctioned off to the scrapyard.
Class Nomenclature:
BM-7 ARKANSAS - Renamed Ozark
BM-8 NEVADA - Renamed Tonopah
BM-9 FLORIDA - Renamed Talahassee
BM-10 WYOMING - Renamed Cheyenne
- Listing of All U.S. Monitor Classes, 1875-1912
- Monster Monitor USS Puritan (1882/1896)
- Semi-Submersible Ironclad Torpedo Boat Spuyten Duyvil (1864)
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