Re: USS Monitor Photo

Jack Linthicum wrote:
Alexander Thesoso wrote:
There is a famous photo, reproduced ad-nauseum, of the USS Monitor. Looking
at the turret, there are two guns, greatly mismatched in size. The
story/spec. of the Monitor is that it had 2 11-inch guns.

What is the story of the mismatched guns? Did one blow up?

Monitor was intended to have 2 twelve-inch Dahlgren smoothbores but
none were available at the time of launching. The builders pulled 2
eleven inch guns off the steam sloop Decotah. The 11 inchers were only
half-loaded, fearing of explosions US Navy restricted Monitor's gun
crews to use only half of the usual powder charge (thus projectiles
lack power to penetrate Virginia),.
http://www.wm.edu/niahd/journals/index.php?browse=entry&id=3844

I can only guess after scanning my copy of Monitor by James deKay and
several google spots that someone found a 12 inch Dahlgren later, after
the Virginia battle, and put it in the Monitor turret.

I've seen what might be the photo he's referring to. It's of the Passaic, not the Monitor; it has an 8" rifled Parrott and a 15" Dahlgren smoothbore. The Dahlgren is too large to fit through the gunport - it looks like the ball it fired barely did! - and it had something called a "smoke box" added inside to keep the muzzle blast / smoke out of the turret.

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