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186]
I shall now briefly comment on the various qualities of the monitors.
1st.
Capacity for resistance.
2d.
Power of ordnance.
3d.
Draught of water.
4th.
Speed.
5th.
Number of crew.
1st.
Endurance.--During the operations against
Morris Island the nine iron-clads fired eight thousand projectiles, and received eight hundred and eighty-two (882) hits.
Including the service at
Sumter in April and the
Ogeechee, the total number was eleven hundred and ninety-four, (1194), distributed as follows:
Service of Iron-clads.
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Shots fired and Hits received by them during Operations against Morris Island.
| vessels. | no.
Of shots fired. | hits. | hits, April 7, 1863. | hits at Ogeechee. | total hits. |
| 15-in. | 11-in. |
| Catskill | 138 | 425 | 86 | 20 | | 106 |
| Montauk | 301 | 478 | 154 | 14 | 46 | 214 |
| Lehigh | 41 | 28 | 36 | | | 36 |
| Passaic | 119 | 107 | 90 | 35 | 9 | 134 |
| Nahant | 170 | 276 | 69 | 36 | | 105 |
| Patapsco | 178 | 230 | 96 | 47 | 1 | 144 |
| Weehawken | 264 | 633 | 134 | 53 | | 187 |
| Nantucket | 44 | 155 | 53 | 51 | | 104 |
| Ironsides | | 4,439 | 164 | | | 164 |
| Total, | 1,255 | 6,771 | 882 | 256 | 56 | 1,194 |
| | No.
of shots fired. | Weight of proj.
fired, in tons. |
| By Ironsides | 4,439 | 288 1/2 |
| 11-inch, by Monitors | 2,332 | 151 1/2 |
| 15-inch, by Monitors | 1,255 | 213 1/2 |
| | | |
| Total | 8,026 | 653 1/2 |
Of the eight monitors, one was always absent at
Warsaw (
Nahant or
Nantucket) to blockade the rebel ram. The
Lehigh did not arrive until August thirtieth, therefore was only able to participate in the operations of the remaining seven days, but did good work.
For some time only five monitors were available for general attack, and then six, which was the greatest number disposable at any one time.
The consequences of the protracted firing and hard usage to which the monitors were exposed during these two months of incessant service, were unavoidably very considerable in the aggregate; and the greater, also, that all repair which could possibly be dispensed with was postponed to the conclusion.
It was therefore necessarily extensive when entered upon.
The battering received was without precedent.
The
Montauk had been struck two hundred and fourteen (214) times; the
Weehawken one hundred and eighty-seven (187) times, and almost entirely by ten-inch shot.
What vessels have ever been subjected to such a test.
It is not surprising that they should need considerable
