January 30, 1862: First Ironclad Warship Launched (USS Monitor)

Tut tut tut CR4 Researchers! Or if you prefer Tsk tsk tsk.

USS Monitor may have been the first American iron-clad warship, but she was not the first ever. As much as it pains me to say this, that honour goes to the French ship La Gloire. Your thread title is, therefore, somewhat misleading and your text doesn't make things any more accurate.

Of course, being the patriot I am, I didn't look up La Gloire's history, but that of Britain's answer to La Gloire, HMS Warrior, which was commissioned in 1891...and believe me, commissioning takes places some time after launching, so your "Launched" in the title and "commissioned" in the text could use some more detail.

One final complaint: it is usual to refer to ships as "she" and not "it".

I think an abject apology is called for - or else the "Special Friendship" and Entente Cordiale maybe in danger....

I expect they used it to capture that Enigma machine.
We'll probably find the Americans will be claiming victory at Agincourt next.
Don't mention the war... well you started it etc...Oh no that was the Germans
Del

Yeah. What?

There is no truth in the rumour that USS Monitor was crewed by giant lizards.
That was just propaganda to scare the enemy...
Del

You Brits are SOOO critical. Is it safe to say the USS Monitor was the first PURPOSE BUILT iron clad?

All the ships that you have listed so far were wooden ships with plates bolted to the sides. The Monitor was the next evolutionary step.

-A-

Critical? Us? And all because we demand a tiny bit of historical accuracy.....

Mind, we're willing to overlook Raquel Welch in a fur bikini fighting dino's but there are limits doncha know.
Del

Keep in mind that all governments skew the history books that are taught in school to put their own countries in a more favorable light. So what we each view as historical accuracy is often times influenced with propaganda.

WAR OF 1812 - Any victories won in that war is kind of like kicking in a goal after time has run out on the clock because a treaty was signed in England before most of those battles were even fought, have to thank "Fair Winds and Following Seas" for getting the word out. One time had a Canadian tell me They won that war because they burned our Capitol Building. Fact of the matter is, they burned our Capitol Buiding in retaliation for us burning down half the Canadian Capitol City of York now known as Toronto.

WWI - French were ready to throw in the towel, they had nothing left to fight with, Enland was not fairing well either and Germany felt they had enough resources to finish Engand. Austria, what the hell did they do but start the war, did they really have anything else significant to add? USA, they just showed up. That's pretty much it, didn't really contribute much as far as any real victories, the real weapon with the USA was all the fresh troops arriving by ship that influenced Germany into surrendering. We can thank France for their part in getting their ass kicked and wanting revenge with such a passion that they really put the screws on Germany. All Germany did was enter the war because they had a pact with Austria, stupid Astrians got off light. We can probably thank France for bringing us WWII, which bit them in the butt again in WWII, they're too arogant to learn. In my opion, France is the weakest link.

WWII - USA could have provided a lot more help to the Allies sooner then we did, however, we had too many companies providing support to Germany and had a slow time getting these company to start producing for the US war effort, we had to seize companies for treason, however no one was brought to trial on charges for treason, the Corporations and Banks are above prosecution in this country. Delay for D-Day had nothing to do with weather, it was our Corporations and Wall Street that was our hold up.

And by the way - My Uncle was the Commanding Officer of the Criminal Investigation Division in Europe during the Denazification of Germany. Lt. Col. William Karp. He relieved Brig. Gen. Pappy Weems of duty. My Uncle was responsible for keeping England and France and USA from being flooded with countfeit money manufactured by the Nazi's, it was a back up plan of the Nazi's to flood the world with counterfeit money. My Uncle was also a retired Secret Service Agent and worked in that area, he was also a body guard for the King and King of England when they visited the United States in the 1930's. Before US entrance into WWI, he was a volunteer ambulance driver during WWI, so he was part of that war during the entire time, and received a battlefield commission during his service over there.

Thanks for this. The supply of goods to Germany by US companies is often written out...along with support for the Nazis in many of the influential families in the UK.

You've got to ask - was it really his relationship with Wallace that forced Edward VIII's abdication?

And was the assassination of an Archduke really worth all-out war? Or were the oil fields of Persia (Iran/Iraq) a tad more valuable?

The answer to the last question is absolutely not.

You know everyone in the world would get along just fine if the Governments would just keep their hands out of things.

Define "Purpose Built".

I don't know about La Gloire (she being French), but HMS Warrior was, according to the website I linked, designed to be ironclad....she was not some old tub with a few sheets of iron bolted over her wooden sides.

If USS Monitor was ironclad, as in the description, then she too was a wooden boat with iron overlay. Or are you telling me she was all-iron? (I didn't get that impression from the OP). If the latter, then she can't be described as an ironclad, can she?

Jeesh - no rest for the pedant

Sooooo.
To sumarize, it's a great blog, but the title is completely erroneous.
had it been
"First 'modern' shaped Ironclad launched"
We'd all have been happy.
Del

I don't know about modern shaped. The Monitor type ships were mostly sunk because they rode too low in the water and flooded by rough seas.

I'd say the first real use for Iron hulled ships with success where the Windjammer Sailing ships.

As for Sailing ships, I actually got to see one still in use, it was of Russian registry, a Cutty Sark type that pulled into Seattle, Wa. in 1992 or there abouts. They have a sailing craft that sits in Lake Union in Seattle and take it out on the water but never under sail. The Russian Ship sailed in under sail. Probably the last one in service. Although both of these ships are wooden. The windjammers were iron.

HaHa.

Rated you with a good answer.