Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xlvh. the first iron clad--the "virginia" (merrimac.) No subject of general interest connected with the late war has been more discussed than the Confederate iron-clad Virginia, formerly the United States frigate Merrimac, and no two descriptions of her are said to agree. The author was in a position to know many facts connected with the origin of the vessel as an iron-clad, and, in addition to his own knowledge, has had access to fhe original drawings and specifications in the possession of her projector, and is therefore in a position to write advisedly, and, as the vessel was the result of the inventive genius of Portsmouth and Norfolk marine architects and the mechanical skill of Portsmouth and Norfolk workmen, it is appropriate tlrat her full history and description, together with the circumstances which led to her building as an iron-clad, should be recorded in this work and fully established in the interest of history. In 1840 the United States Government decided to build, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, an iron steam sloop of war, the Alleghany, for the purpose of testing, on a large scale, a plan of submerged propellers, invented by Lieutenant W. W. Hunter, of the navy, and Mr. John L. Porter, of Portsmouth, was ordered there, as Acting Constructor in the navy, to superintend her building, and, while engaged upon this work, Mr. Porter conceived the idea of an iron-clad vessel which would be able to go to sea and still be shot-proof. His plan contemplated an iron vessel, to draw nineteen feet of water, and all of the vessel above the water line and to a depth of four feet below it, was to be of a sufficient thickness of metal to render her shot-proof. His idea was that, with the ordnance in use at that time, three inches...
