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Concept
Monitor (warship)
Summary
A monitor is a relatively small warship that is neither fast or strongly armored but carries disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s, during the First World War and with limited use in the Second World War.
The original monitor was designed in 1861 by John Ericsson, who named it . They were designed for shallow waters and served as coastal ships. The term also encompassed more flexible breastwork monitors, and was sometimes used as a generic term for any turreted ship.
In the early 20th century, the term was revived for shallow-draught armoured shore bombardment vessels, particularly those of the Royal Navy: the s carried guns firing heavier shells than any other warship ever has, seeing action (albeit briefly) against German targets during World War I. The Lord Clive vessels were scrapped in the 1920s.
The term "monitor" also encompasses the strongest of riverine warcraft, known as river monitors. During the Vietnam War these much smaller craft were used by the United States Navy. The Brazilian Navy's Parnaíba and the Romanian Navy's three Mihail Kogălniceanu-class river monitors are among the last monitors in service.
In Latin, a monitor is someone who admonishes: that is, reminds others of their duties—which is how USS Monitor was given its name. It was designed by John Ericsson for emergency service in the Federal navy during the American Civil War (1861–65) to blockade the Confederate States from supply at sea. Ericsson designed her to operate in shallow water and to present as small a target as possible, the water around her acting as protection.
Nathaniel Hawthorne described Monitor thus:
It was a platform of iron, so nearly on a level with the water that the swash of the waves broke over it, under the impulse of a very moderate breeze; and on this platform was raised a circular structure, likewise of iron, and rather broad and capacious, but of no great height. It could not be called a vessel at all; it was a machine...it looked like a gigantic rat-trap.
Official source
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