USS Monitor

USS Monitor was a Union ironclad of novel design, built in about 100 days and fought at the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862 against the Confederate ram CSS Virginia, the first clash of ironclad warships. John Ericsson’s design placed nearly all the ship below water with a single revolving gun turret, the form that would shape the battleship. The Monitor foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras on 31 December 1862; her recovered turret and engine are conserved at the Mariners’ Museum.