USS Monitor (rotating-turret warship)
USS Monitor (buque con torre artillera giratoria)
- Date
- 1862 · confidence high
- Place
- Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, United States
- Credited to
- John Ericsson
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A low, flat-hulled ironclad with a single armoured rotating turret mounting two guns that could aim in any direction without turning the ship. It fought CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads (March 1862) and transformed naval design.
Theodore Timby patented a rotating turret in 1841 and Cowper Coles built his in HMS Prince Albert; Ericsson achieved the practical success.
What it led to
- turreted battleships (Dreadnought)
- the end of broadside-battery ships
- naval warfare of armour against shell