USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Monitor and Merrimack, two American warships that fought the first engagement between ironclad ships. When, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Union forces abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Va., they scuttled the powerful steam frigate Merrimack.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Merrimack (Virginia) was destroyed by Confederate soldiers when the Union took over the port at Norfolk, Virginia in 1862. The Monitor sank during a storm off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on December 31, 1862. The wreck of the Monitor was located in 1973 and some of the ship was salvaged.

Detailed explanation-3: -Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, also called Battle of Hampton Roads, (March 9, 1862), in the American Civil War, naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbour at the mouth of the James River, notable as history’s first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare.

Detailed explanation-4: -On March 9, 1862, one of the most famous naval battles in American history occurred as two ironclads, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia fought to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Detailed explanation-5: -Built upon the hull of the USS Merrimac, it was a wooden vessel covered with iron plates, and it had fixed weapons. Still, she was a formidable threat. Iron covered, the ship measured 275 feet long 38.5 feet across its beam, and 27.5 feet deep. It was angled such that cannon shot would harmlessly bounce off its sides.