The U.S.S Monitor was a ground-breaking vessel when her keel was laid in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in October 1861. When she was created by the genius of John Ericsson she was revolutionary in all aspects of her design. It is said that when she was built she carried patents for up to forty new inventions. The most obvious of these design innovations is the turret that housed the two main guns, another is the lack of freeboard which limits the ship's exposure to enemy fire. Many innovations were incorporated into the engineering spaces affecting the steam engine, turret rotation and the first use of forced air ventilation in a vessel.
When the Monitor was being built it had more than its fair share of nay sayers. Many of the best engineering and naval minds of the time felt the Monitor was doomed to sink as soon as she was let loose and floated into the East River. The Monitor of course floated and continued on to be fundamental in the battle of Hampton Roads, March 8–9th 1862, the first encounter between "Iron Clad" vessels subsequently changed the fundamentals of naval war ship design. Although the success of the Monitor can be argued in the conflict of Hampton Roads, the design concepts she utilized would lay the groundwork for all naval vessels to follow. The Monitor is singularly responsible for bringing to an end the era of wood and sail warships.
The history of the trials and tribulations of Ericsson in proving his design and ultimately having the Monitor built are lengendary. Suffice it to say his design was so revolutionary that it was very difficult for the majority of people to see the brilliance of it. So entrenched was the idea of wood and sail as the fundamental base for all vessels that many countries and leaders including Napoleon the Third, dismissed his concepts as fanciful and absurd.