"Monitor turrets" Topic

The original USS Monitor had an open grate-work top for ventilation. Did subsequent turret-style ironclads also have the open grate-work top?

TIA,

Dave

I have seen pics that show a tent like structure on the top. There seems to be a small gap between the tent & the top of the turret.

Not all of them at least. This picture of the USS Osage shows it had a roofed in top.

Wow, I guess I can still learn new things!

Dan

The original USS Monitor had an open grate-work top for ventilation

Not sure that is so. I have read (not recently) that she had railroad iron (rails) laid over support beams, and that artists may have misinterpreted that as an open grate-work.

I have read, Wikipedia I think, that there were plates to the upper surface that were not permanently affixed, but instead laid loose.

I also learned that during the battle of Hampden Roads the monitor crew allowed the turret to keep turning and fire only as the turret came around to face the target ~ Courtesy of the Newport News Mariner's Museum I visited over Thanksgiving.

The Wikipedia article also mentioned about the steam donkeys, two small steam engines for moving the turret. Apparently when the turret was facing starboard the entry way in the deck aligned with that of the turret, and only during this alignment could powder and shot be passed to the guns.

Yes, the thing was so new, they hadn't figured out how to precisely aim it and they didn't have the shutters on the front. So they just kept her spinning, fired when Virginia came into view and loading while the turret was facing away.

I recommend a visit to the Mariner's Museum. While there I picked up a copy of The Monitor Chronicles, the collected letters of the third engineer on the ship.