網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

THE INVENTOR ERICSSON.

309

cial draft, which he had the satisfaction officials were thus insensible to the demof testing with remarkable success in a onstration before their very eyes, the inbrilliant prize exhibition on the small ventor found more appreciative observportion of the track then laid of the ers in two citizens of the United States, Liverpool and Manchester railway. Up who entered into his schemes with the to that time the highest rate expected warmest interest. One of these was Mr. from the locomotive engine was ten miles. Francis B. Ogden of New Jersey, himEricsson, assisted by John Braithwaite a self an experimenter in steam navigaLondon mechanician, with whom he had tion, and the other Captain Robert F. become associated in the enterprise, Stockton of the navy, who saw at once guided his engine, which he named the the importance of the application. So Novelty, at a rate of more than fifty heartily did the latter enter into the matmiles an hour. At this demonstration ter, ordering two iron boats for the Delathe shares of the company on the instant ware, and promising his aid in bringing rose ten per cent. Unhappily for our the invention before the Government at mechanician, another mode of producing Washington, that Mr. Ericsson was inthe draft was speedily brought out, which duced to leave England for the United superseded his design, and he derived no States. He came to this country in pecuniary benefit from his invention. He 1839, and by the exertions of Captain was, however, profitably employed in Stockton was employed by the governvarious other mechanical contrivances, ment in the construction of the propeller particularly in the construction of steam Princeton. Various improvements were fire-engines, which he introduced in Lon- introduced by him in this vessel in the don and at Berlin with eminent success. direct-acting engine, in placing the maIt was at this time that he worked out chinery below the water line, in the the plan of the propeller to be applied sliding telescope chimneys, and in the to steam navigation, proving the value management of her heavy ordnance. of his theory by a successful experiment After this work was completed, Mr. Eron the Thames. He then brought the icsson devoted himself to the completion invention to the notice of the British of the Caloric or Atmospheric Engine, Government, with the hope of effecting which he had projected in England where its introduction into the naval service, the plan met with favor from the distinand succeeded so far as to secure the guished chemists Faraday and Ure. In presence of Sir Charles Adam, the senior 1852, he had so far perfected the invenlord of the Admiralty, Sir William Sim- tion as to introduce it in the construconds chief constructor of the British navy, tion of the steamer Ericsson. There was Sir Edward Parry, Captain Beaufort, and some disappointment as to the speed exother scientific notables, at a trial on the pected from this vessel, but in other river. These eminent personages accom- points she was much admired. The conpanied the propeller in a barge, witnessed structor then applied his invention sucits excellent operation, and rejected the cessfully on a smaller scale, in engines improvement, preferring the old paddle- for printing, hoisting, and other working wheels. His Majesty's chief constructor, of machinery. When the war brought Sir William, it seems, was of the opinion all sorts of mechanical contrivances for that, "even if the propeller had the the furtherance of military operations power of propelling a vessel, it would into requisition, it was not to be supbe found altogether useless in practice, posed that the genius of so active an inbecause the power being applied in the ventor would remain idle. He accordstern, it would be absolutely impossible ingly applied himself to the necessities to make the vessel steer." While these of the day, and the perfect experiment

of the Monitor, wrought out and com- as to the propriety of completing those pleted with his accustomed rapidity-four steel-clad ships at three and a half the vessel was launched at Greenpoint, millions apiece. On these and many Long Island, one hundred and one days similar grounds, I propose to name the after signing the contract-was the tri- new battery Monitor." umphant first fruits of his labors.

The name of this new vessel, it was observed, was somewhat peculiar, being quite distinct from the usual sounding appellations given to this species of destructive craft, which are taken generally from natural objects, a popular hero or from some vindictive or patriotic association. The Monitor seemed quite out of the family of the Scorpions, Furies, Tuscaroras, General Jacksons, and the rest of this valiant brood of gunboats. On the contrary, its plain didactic designation seemed to savor more of the lineage of a New England school book than of the fiery race of sea warriors. In fact, the name was given with something of this very design, as an instructive lesson to the world in the art of naval construction. This appeared very clearly, when, in answer to enquiries on the subject, a letter was published in the newspapers, which, nearly two months before, on the 20th of January, Mr. Ericsson had addressed on this topic to Mr. Gustavus V. Fox, the assistant secretary of the navy. It read as follows: "Sir: In accordance with your request, I now submit for your approbation a name for the floating battery at Greenpoint. The impregnable and aggressive character of this structure will admonish the leaders of the southern rebellion that the batteries on the banks of their rivers will no longer present barriers to the entrance of the Union forces. The iron-clad intruder will thus prove a secure monitor to those leaders. But there are other leaders who will also be startled and admonished by the booming of the guns from the impregnable iron turret. Downing street will hardly view with indifference this last Yankee notion-this monitor. the Lords of the Admiralty the new craft will be a monitor, suggesting doubts

Fortunately, the success of the extraordinary machine was early demonstrated, for had the experiment lagged or been in any way defeated the venturesome boast and challenge to the Old World might have returned to plague the inventor, to whom it would have been a ceaseless mortification to be haunted by this grim iron monitor pointing to his miscalculations. The man of science, however, rested his pretensions on an unerring demonstration. It was not a creation of taste or fancy upon which he was vaingloriously anticipating the critical judgment of the public, but an irresistible argument of mechanical forces, obdurate and invincible. He might therefore, as an interpreter of the great powers of nature, indulge in some confidence in the result of his workmanship.

The success of the Merrimac in her first day's adventure was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the South, where projects of iron-plated defences, as we have seen in Charleston harbor, in the attack on Sumter, and in Hollin's "turtle" on the Mississippi, had from the beginning been in favor. "The iron-clad steamer Virginia," calculated the Charleston Mercury, "cost $185,000 to fit her up, and in one day destroyed over 1,100,000 worth of Yankee property." This was an economical method of estimating the glory of a victory. By the side of these figures was an extract from a private letter from Mr. John L. Porter, the naval constructor of the Virginia, which shows that the career of inventors is ever the same; exposed to doubts and shrugs and misgivings, till success crowns their work, and sets the croakers to clapping their hands. "I received," says he, To

*The Agincourt, Minotaur, Northumberland, and other costly iron vessels were then in process of construction in England.

A REVOLUTION IN NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.

311

work was interrupted. An equal sum, it was calculated, would secure her completion. Her plan, combining on a vast scale the various conditions now urged as the most important in the construction of iron-plated vessels, certainly entitled the eminent mechanicians, her projectors, to credit for priority in skill and invention in devices of this nature.

"but little encouragement from any one lars, of which half a million was furn while the Virginia was progressing. Hun-ished by the government, the rest by the dreds-I may say thousands-asserted projectors, were spent on her construcshe would never float. Some said she tion in about twenty months, when the would turn bottom-side up; others said the crew would suffocate; but the most wise said the concussion and report from the guns would deafen the men. Some said she would not steer; and public opinion generally about here said she would never come out of the dock. You have no idea what I have suffered in mind since I commenced her; but I knew what I was about, and persevered. Some of her inboard arrangements are of the most intricate character, and have caused me many sleepless nights in making them; but all have turned out right, and thanks are due to a kind Providence, whose blessings on my efforts I have many times invoked."*"

All this argued an entire revolution in naval architecture of a character which would have struck the soul of a Decatur or Bainbridge with dismay. In place of the lofty tapering spars, the white wings of canvas, and the beautifully modelled hull, the attributes of the gallant frigate of the olden time, on whose deck her As an experiment in the science of commander seemed to be in league with naval warfare, the encounter between the the noblest powers of nature, the free two iron-clad vessels was, at the time, of breath of the winds and the ceaseless peculiar interest. England and France play of waters, the proud eminence of were at the very moment constructing the quarter-deck was degraded to the iniron-plated ships of war of vast size, and glorious confinement of some well-riveted devising extraordinary batteries of a iron box or tube, half submerged, forging similar character for coast defence. The its way through the waters by a slavish British Parliament was debating the sub-mechanical power, with but little assistject, and inspectors, engineers, and lords ance from or dependence upon the versaof the Admiralty, were busy in testing various formidable contrivances, none of which, in economy of construction, lightness of draft, and general efficiency, appeared comparable to the unheralded work of Mr. Ericsson.

At home, attention was called anew to the subject of iron-plated vessels, several of which, already in hand, were approaching completion under government contract, and particularly to the forwarding of the Stevens battery at New York. This work, the most gigantic of its class, was first suggested to the government by Robert L. and Edwin A. Stevens in 1841, and was commenced at Hoboken, opposite the city of New York, in 1854. About three quarters of a million of dol

* Charleston Mercury, March 22, 1862.

tile will or quick inspiring intellect of man. In the steam frigate the captain or commodore shared his authority with the engineer, but he had still his deck to walk upon and his sailors to command. Here he was to be "cabined, cribbed, confined" in a gloomy apartment, fit only for a stoker, to be begrimed with smoke, and, in time of action, stunned with the shock of his iron ramparts. How would Nelson, who went into an engagement blazing with stars and orders, disdaining protection from the fiery hail around him, chafe and fret at his narrow quarters in a segment of a chimney-from which, if his physical powers were equal to the pressure of such an atmosphere, and he did not swoon on the instant, he might indeed conquer, but the

victory would be a triumph, not so much of mind as of matter of the iron shield rather than the iron will.

early limit to the weight of these iron structures on the ocean, checking the fierceness of attack, the opportunity for resistance will be much greater where there will be little necessity for movement. Batteries of the largest size may rest in quiet havens, and others of the smallest build may ply about their waters, powerful for purposes of protection, when neither could survive a passage on the broad ocean. In this way the dangers of invasion may be lessened, and wars be checked.

But everything, however unpleasant, has its compensations. If war is thus to lose something of its beauty and attractiveness, the end for which wars are undertaken may be more speedily and surely attained by agents so destructive, unless both parties being equally well provided, like the mailed knights of the middle ages, they batter one another with no ill effect beyond a few dints on the armor. It might be thrown out, in- In another light, the cost of these gideed, as a curious subject of speculation, gantic engines gives to the nation, able whether these enormous engines of solid to procure or produce them, an immense iron and these vast rifled diameters dis- superiority over less wealthy or less scicharging hundred-weights of the wrought entific countries. As invention advances metal in a single ball, will really lead to they will become more expensive, and the suppression of war. May they not the disparity between first and second rather, while the passions of men furn-class powers will be greater. A great ish the fuel, tend only to promote a rivalry in the mechanical arts; nation striving against nation to produce bulwarks and artillery of the greatest strength and size. The most powerful empire will then be that which has the largest forges and the most cunning artificers. One result, however, certainly will follow. Greater security will be given to home defences. Forts may be strengthened, and harbors guarded beyond all precedent; for while there must be an

advantage also will be gained by the nation first in the field with these destructive agents. Political problems hitherto difficult of solution may be solved by earlier possession of the iron-mailed sea warriors. It is hardly too much to say that any power who shall be permitted to enjoy any considerable superiority in the new weapon, whose triumphs are foreshadowed in the exploit of the Monitor, will be, for the time, mistress of the world.

CHAPTER LIX.

THE BATTLE OF NEWBERN, N. C., MARCH 14, 1862.

ROANOKE ISLAND and the region of North Carolina resting upon Albemarle Sound, as we have seen, were taken possession of by the army of General Burnside and the fleet of Commodore Goldsborough, early in February, 1862. These valuable points commanding direct communication with Norfolk having been thus secured, the Union forces were left

free to push their conquests below in the important portion of the State, presenting a ready means of approach by the waters of Pamlico Sound and its tributary rivers. Washington, on Pamlico river, and Newbern, on the Neuse river, were the chief depots in this quarter of the staple productions-the lumber, tar, turpentine, and naval stores of the coun

THE EXPEDITION TO NEWBERN.

try. Newbern, in its size and position, was one of the chief cities in the State. Though numbering, according to the Census of 1860, but 5,432 inhabitants, its population exceeded that of the capital, Raleigh, by several hundreds, and was second only to the seaport Wilmington. In social consequence, having formerly been the seat of government, its possession was of no little influence in the State. It was, moreover, by the Atlantic and North Carolina railroad, immediately connected with Beaufort on the ocean forty miles below, and with Goldsboro' sixty miles in the interior, the chief station on the Wilmington and Weldon railway. Situated at the junction of two rivers, the Trent and the Neuse, once gained, it might, without difficulty, be held by gunboats. In every way, as a healthy and convenient location for the troops, for its control of the trade of a large district, and as a base of military operations for a descent upon Beaufort, or for further advances inland, its possession would be of the utmost value. Newbern, in fact, was the next desirable prize for the Union army in North Carolina.

The first week in March saw the preparations in progress for a reëmbarkation of the troops from the headquarters of General Burnside at Roanoke Island. The immediate destination of the gunboats and transports was Hatteras Inlet. The force intended for the expedition was assembled at that place on the 11th, and the following morning was set in motion in the direction of Newbern, the new point of attack. The day was unusually calm and pleasant, and its favorable influences were more keenly appreciated in contrast with the severe storm of hail and rain, a not unusual visitor of the locality, which had raged but a day or two before. The water, indeed, in this storm-haunted region of Hatteras, was so smooth, and the light north-westerly breeze so gentle, that the sailing vessels were entirely dependent for their ad

313

vance on the steam transports which took them in tow.

The military force of the expedition, in all about 8,000, was composed of the three brigades of Generals Foster, Parke, and Reno-the regiments of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts soldiers, who had encountered the hardships at Hatteras, and fought at Roanoke. The fleet of gunboats, six in number, in the absence of Commodore Goldsborough, whom the bold and destructive raid of the Merrimac had recalled to the waters of the Chesapeake, was commanded by flag-officer S. C. Rowan, the next in rank.

Early in the morning, previously to starting, the following order from General Burnside was read to the various regiments: "The General commanding takes pleasure in announcing that the Army of the Potomac, under General McClellan, is now advancing upon Richmond, and was, at the latest dates, occupying Centreville, the enemy having evacuated all the advanced fortifications before Manassas, and those on the Potomac. He again calls upon his command for an important movement, which will greatly demoralize the enemy, and contribute much to the success of our brothers of the Potomac Army. He has full confidence in the ability of this force to produce the desired result." To coöperate with the main army, to promote the interests of his friend, the commander-inchief, to advance the cause of the Union, were, far beyond any thoughts of himself, the paramount motives of General Burnside at this crisis. A more selfdenying order was probably never issued on the eve of so important an engagement. The General's thoughts were of others, not of himself.

The distance from Hatteras across the Sound, some fifty miles, was traversed during the day without difficulty, and at evening the vessels of the expedition were anchored off the mouth of Slocum's

« 上一頁繼續 »