Monitor Ships Of The World ?

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

I have always loved Monitor ships. A sound design philosophy, and proven to be of use in combat.

The idea is to minimise the ammount of ship you actually expose to the enemy. Monitors, from the American Civil War, up till WWI, looked like warships that were about to sink - with only a foot or two of freeboard. It is such an interesting design philosophy, especially considering the fact that the later incarnations of this design could actually sail through heavy storms, with 3 foot waves washing over them, and still be safe.

However, I have never seen a book detailing all the different Monitor ships. Sure, there are some books on the USS Monitor, but there are actually a surprising number of Monitor designs that various navies, inspired by the USS Monitor, used in combat all the way up to (and past?) WWI.

Is there a book all about Monitor ships? Civil War to WWI?

2

There’s “Big Gun Monitors” by Ian Buxton, 1978, US Naval Institute, subtitled “the history of the design, construction and operation of the Royal Navy’s monitors”.

3

Osprey publishes a number of books on the subject:

  • Union River Ironclads 1861–65
  • Confederate Ironclads 1861–65
  • Union Monitor classes 1861–65

(www.ospreypublishing.com)

4

Vilkata-there were river monitors used by the USA in Vietnam as well.

5

Trowlfazz,

Your right! More freeboard than I’d expect on a ship called a Monitor, but they were certainly formidable beasts!

Are there any modern navies that use Monitor style ships? To this day, it seems like the concept would make for great river attack boats.



6


Swedish Monitor “SOLVE”
See David Hathaway’s Papershipwright page

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.hathaway/ps_web/catalogue_shipmodels.htm

David makes some paper models of Monitors from the original Ericcson design through to some Royal Navy monitors of WWI.

He has some free downloads of some of his models available from his website. If you are not into paper modeling you can laminate the parts onto plastic stock and use them as a basis for scratchbuilding these kits.

7

Vilkata-the river monitor’s high freeboard may have been due to weight and operating in very shallow water-but I’m no expert. Great model in your pix.

8

Say, can you possibly imagine a more un-nerving ship to be on than a Monitor?

I mean, look at these pictures. These ships aren’t sinking. THIS IS NORMAL!!!
If I were to go on one in choppy seas, I think I’d spend the entire time screaming! This is not supposed to be NORMAL! This is supposed to be VERY VERY BAD!



9

Vilkata-that’s funny can you imagine screaming on choppy seas aboard the USS Terror? Your second image.

10

Haha!

The very aptly named USS Terror…

11

There would seem to be a bit of a difference in desiln philosophy between the RN and some other navies regarding the use of Monitors.
The RN used their monitors for shore bombardment and not for ship to ship fighting.
Some even had their guns permanently fixed to fire to starboard in nonmoving casemates. The ship being moved to change the bearing.
Those riverine support ships were given the generic name of River Gun Boats and were given the class names of Birds and Insects to name two.
If you are interested in reading about the Royal Navys River Gun boats I can recomend
Armed With Stings by A Cecil Hampshire, The story of the Insect Class from WW1til the end of WW2. A very good read.
For monitors, including some river monitors but not RGBs, British Warships of WW1 lists all the monitors by class and has a photo of a member of each class.
Dai

12

If you haven’t already read it, you’d undoubtedly enjoy the book H.M.S. Saracen, by Douglas Reeman. It’s a novel about a fictitious British monitor that takes part in the invasion of Gallipoli during WWI, then, when considered thoroughly obsolete, gets caught up in the defense of Malta during WWII. It’s a terrific story, and, so far as I can tell, quite accurate in its details about life on board a British monitor.

Be warned, though: Reeman’s novels are addictive. He’s written a dozen or two of them about various WWI and WWII topics. Under the name Alexander Kent, he’s also the author of the “Bolitho” series of novels about the Napoleonic Wars.

13

Have any of you ironcladders watched the movie “Sahara”?

I thought it paid a nice tribute to the ship with the main characters searching for a Confederate ironclad believed to have escaped across the Atlantic with a load of Confederate gold. I loved the showing of the ship when they finally came upon it high and dry in the desert.

The movie overall is a great action/adventure movie in the vein of “Indiana Jones” or “National Treasure.” I was skeptical of the previews, but very much surprised at just how much fun it turned out to be.

14

Thank you all for all the great information and tips on books!

It has recently come to my attention that there are but two Monitors still afloat in this world today. However, there seems to be a bit of mystery surrounding them.

The oldest of the two, the Hungarian river monitor Leitha was launched in 1871 and became the first Danube monitor of the then k.k. Kriegsmarine. After 26 years, in 1894, she was re-armed and re-engined. She saw action in WWI, aswell as in the short lived Communist Hungary action against Czechoslovakia in 1919. Afterwards, she was disarmed and sold as a hulk, and has survived in various forms until present day.

The Leitha was originally a classic looking monitor, but later on in her 1894 modifications she was given an entire new superstructure and turrets. Does anyone have any good pics of her Post-1894 look? All I can find are images of her original configuration.


The second monitor still around is the little Swedish coastal defence monitor Sölve. Built in 1875 she was fitted with a non-moving turret. The 25cm gun was aimed by the traverse of the ship itself. Online information says that the Sölve stayed in service until 1922.

And thats where some confusion starts.

In my Janes Fighting Ships of WWI, it lists that of the original seven Sölve style monitors, only the Bjorn and Gerda were not deleted during WWI. (in Janes, the Sölve is miswritten “Silve”, but it is clearly the same ship) Furthermore, the old 25cm gun fitted inside fixed superstructure on the ships, seems to have been changed out for a long barreled 4.7 inch gun, fitted in a traversing sponson-style mount. Armament had been augmented further by the adition of three 6 pounders.

So, is Janes wrong? Was the Sölve actually one of the monitors left in service after WWI?

Also, does anyone have any good pictures of the Sölve, in either her first configuration, or later refit configuration?

I know there are paper models of both Leitha and Sölve, but they only show the original configuration. Of interesting note, is that both these ships served for almost exactly the same number of years! Both around 48 years of hardy military service. Obviously from a military standpoint, the Leitha is more siginificant because she actually saw combat.

Thanks in advance!