Dilandu wrote:[
Time for some naval history study. The monitors COULD cross the seas. In 1866, the "Miantonomo" crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice, and "Monadnock" travel from Boston to San-Francisco.
P.S. And remember "Huascar". She were able to fight in not-so-calm sea.
Uhhh.. your history is sort of correct, but way incomplete. Both of the journeys were made in the best possible sea and weather conditions and the vessels were escorted and, in Miantonomoh's case, actually towed for almost half the voyage over. The early monitors had limited bunkerage so they couldn't travel very far. The Huascar ( please don't take offense if your Peruvian or Chilean ) ain't a monitor, not even close.
A brief summary of what I found....
Monadnock I actually saw service in the Civil War. On October 5, 1865 she started her trip around South America with USS Vanderbilt, USS Tuscarora, and USS Powhatan. No history on her performance but her engine room proved to be so daunting that replacement stokers received extra pay and spirits. The squadron made numerous stops along the coast, transitted the Straits of Magellan (the inside route) and finally arrived at San Francisco on June 21, 1866. Five days later she was moved across the Bay to Mare Island where five days later she was laid up. Please note the voyage was made during the summer in South America.
Miantonomoh I did in fact cross the Atlantic in June of 1866. She was accompanied by 2 steamships. One of the escorting steamships, the Augusta, towed her for much of the way. Starting from New York she stopped at Halifax, St. John's Newfoundland, Queenstown, Ireland, Portsmouth and finally Cherbourg. I should mention for you non-seafaring types the time and directon of the trip would find the North Atlantic at its most mild and the prevailing wind would be from behind.
After coastal-hopping and showing the flag in numerous ports for the fall and winter she departed sunny Gibralter for home on May 17, 1867. Again she was accompanied by Augusta but no information is given of how much of the voyage she made under her own power. She took the southern route this time stopping at the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, various Caribbean ports, the Bahamas ending at Philadelphia on July 22,1867. She was laid up 5 days later. I will point out again the time of year is not known for unsettled weather and the prevailing winds would be from the stern.
Monadnock2(BM3) was launched at Mare Island, CA in 1883 and was commissioned (finally) in February 1896. She crossed th Pacific and served in the Phillipines and China. She was decommissioned in 1919. The monitors in the Amphitrite Class were a little bit bigger than their predecessors. They had real superstructures with the turrets on the ends so they looked like real ships, not decks with turrets and a stack stuck on.
Miantonomoh 2 was launched in 1875 but was in and out of service until being re-commissioned in 1998 to serve in the Cuba Blockading Squadron. Her contributions as a blockader apparently were limited because she was the slowest ship iin the Squadron. She was decommissioned in 1907. Brought back to serve as a gunnery target in 1915 she was finally sold for scrap in January 1922.
Huascar was a brigantine-rigged, single screw steamship with raised structures aft and forward precluding fire ahead or astern. She had a Coles turreet in the midships well containing two 10” Armstrong guns. She won,and lost a number of battles and was once driven off by a British ship, HMS Shaw, that was firing a mast mounted Gatling gun. She's still around serving as a memorial/museum in Talcahuano, Chile. The only thing she has in common with monitors is her circular turret.
