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Until the Miantonomoh, which carried the Assistant Secretary of the Navy on a diplomatic mission to Russia in 1866, U. S. monitors had been generally regarded as brown water boats, fit only for harbor defense and coastal duty. Anxious to impress Europeans, Fox found that his ship alarmed many, including the British newspaper writer who bleated,
”The wolf is in our fold; the whole flock at its mercy. ”
79
During the first, dark days of the American Civil War, nearly all of Europe was technically neutral, but obviously sympathetic toward the Confederacy. The single exception—the only major European power that was clearly pro-Union—was Russia. While it might have been said that America and Russia were poles apart, indeed, the opposite was true; for the fact that America had refused to join the Old World powers in condemning Russia’s treatment of its Polish population had been gratefully noted by Russia. And, if there were vast dissimilarities between the Russian monarch and America’s roughhewn president, their deeds had bridged their differences, since the parallel to Lincoln’s freeing the slaves was accomplished in 1861 when Tsar Alexander II freed upwards of 20 million serfs. Yet, if Alexander could not truly be called a liberty-loving man, he had in common with Abraham Lincoln the desire to marshal his country’s growing economic might behind the shield of tariff barriers—an aim which put both countries on a continuing collision course with the world’s greatest free trader, England.
In September 1863, then, a Russian fleet had visited New York, and, the following month, a second, six- ship squadron had visited San Francisco.
The Federals were overjoyed by the Russian naval visit, believing it gave moral support to the Union cause, and would help deter England’s contraband trade with the South. Such an idea was remote from Tsar Alexander’s purpose. What he wanted was to get his ships in waters where they would be free from threat of destruction by hostile European navies.
The monitor Miantonomoh moves out into the Atlantic on her mission to Russia, with her escorts, the third-rate sidewheel steamers Augusta, ahead, and Ashuelot astern.
U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1973
The Russian fleet was ordered home in April 1864. A year later, President Lincoln was shot by an assassin and Russia sent condolences. On 16 April 1866, Alexander was saved from the attack of an assassin. Cassius Clay, U. S. Minister to Russia, sent a dispatch to Secretary of State William N. Seward reporting what had happened. In response, the Congress not only voted to send its congratulations to the Emperor but, for added significance, resolved to send a special envoy in a national vessel to carry the dispatch.
The Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus Vasa Fox, whose efficient administration of this office and role in the development of the monitor during the Civil War had won recognition both at home and abroad, was chosen as the American emissary.* Fox asked for, and got, permission to make the journey in a monitor, a class of vessel which had never before crossed the Atlantic. One of his reasons for the selec-
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tion of a monitor was to give European nations a look at this latest achievement of New World enterprise and ingenuity. The vessel chosen was the Miantonomoh. T«'<> wooden men-of-war, the Augusta and the Ashuelo<• were to accompany her.
Earlier, on 9 March 1862, Fox had been imprest by the new monitors while witnessing the action be tween the Monitor and the Merrimac at Hampton Roads. He had turned over the monitor program to John Ericsson. Probably because Ericsson did no[ bother to make tests on the construction, but simpb turned out drawings from which they were built, moS[ of the early ones had poor ventilation, were very slo* burned a lot of coal, and were not always buoyan1- It was Fox, too, who had persuaded John DahlgtO” to design a 15-inch gun for monitors.
The Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, gave Fo* additional instructions. He was to collect information about the most important naval stations in Europe;t0 observe their methods of building, repairing, and
Blue Water Monitor 81
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The Miantonomoh, under command of Captain John C. Beaumont, had been named for the chief Sachem of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Indians. Of the two- turret class, she had been launched at Brooklyn, New York, in 1865. She was slightly more than 259 feet long, 52 feet 10 inches wide, 14 feet 9 inches in depth of hold, and she drew 14 feet 9 inches. She displaced 1,225 tons and, while she normally carried 350 tons of coal, for this voyage, she was fitted with deck racks which carried another 100 tons of coal—and left her deck but two feet above the water.
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The Miantonomoh’s wooden hull was armored with 7-inch side plates and two-and-a-quarter-inch deck plates. Her twin turrets each had an inside diameter of 21 feet, were protected by 10-inch armor, and each housed two 15-inch Dahlgren guns. Her two-back-action engines had four cylinders of 30 inches diameter, with a 27-inch stroke, driving two 10.5-inch-diameter propellers. She had a crew of 25 officers and 121 men.
The Augusta was a third-rate, sidewheel steamer, rigged with sail. She displaced 1,310 tons, had four 9-inch Dahlgrens, one 6.5-inch Parrott gun, two four- and-three-eighths-inch Parrotts, and three rifled howitzers. Her captain was Commander A. Murray, who also commanded the Atlantic Squadron.
The Ashuelot, also a third-rate, double-ended, side- wheel steamer, rigged with sail, was rated at 786 tons and commanded by Commander J. C. Febiger.
The Crossing. The Miantonomoh took on board 415 tons of coal at New York and, on 5 May 1866, together with the Augusta, sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, a distance of 575 miles. She arrived there on 10 May 1866. At an average speed of 6.6 knots, the Miantonomoh had consumed 109 tons of coal. Encountering two days of heavy weather on the way, the monitor had cruised along unhampered by the force of the waves, which simply rolled over her.
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On 18 May, the monitor and the Augusta left for St. Johns, Newfoundland, a distance of 600 miles. On this trip they encountered thick fog, heavy seas, and
Gustavus Vasa Fox
many icebergs, before finally gaining entrance on 24 May, just before the harbor was closed by ice for five days.
The U. S. Navy Department had invited Britain’s Naval Attache, Captain John Bythesea, to cross the Atlantic with Fox. They left Washington together, with Fox carrying the Congressional Resolution for the Russian Emperor. They boarded the Ashuelot at Boston on 30 May and steamed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, arriving there on 3 June after a passage of three days and 22 hours.
Until the rendezvous at St. John’s, only a few people knew of the plan to take the Miantonomoh across the ocean. When the Assistant Secretary of the Navy arrived and it became known that he would be traveling in the monitor, there was some anxiety on the part of her crew, who believed that monitors were fit only for harbor defense and coastal duty. Other Navy men knew better, however, since the monitor Monadnock, sister ship of the Miantonomoh, had made a successful voyage around Cape Horn. Yet, sisters though they were, there was at least one important difference between them. The Miantonomoh's engine and firerooms had been designed by Benjamin F. Isherwood, the renowned naval architect, whose years at sea had taught him a great deal about ships—and how to make them livable. The Monadnock’s designer, on the other hand, had been John Ericsson, whose knowledge of ships was more theoretical than practical. As a result of Ericsson’s limited practical experience, the Monadnock’s engine and firerooms were almost unbearable underway, while the Miantonomoh's engineroom ^temperature ranged
from 96° to 105°, and her fireroom only ten degrees higher, which was quite livable.
On 5 June, at 9:00 p.m., the squadron moved out into the blackness. The Augusta routinely took the lead with the monitor in the middle. What appeared to be smooth sailing suddenly turned into something else as, on her way out of the narrow harbor, the Ashuelot rammed and sank a brigantine. The crew of the brigantine was rescued by another ship, but the accident j delayed the flotilla until midnight. The bad luck persisted. Soon after getting under way again, Commander Murray ordered a towline passed to the monitor to conserve her coal; but the line soon parted and the effort would not be resumed until three days later.
On the first day out, the wind was light and the sea smooth. The wind picked up the next day and the Ashuelot rolled 25° while the heavier Augusta rolled only 10°. To her escorts, the monitor seemed to be doing well enough, although the only parts visible were her turret tops and stack.
At noon on the 8th, in a heavy sea, the Augusta again made fast a tow line to the monitor. Commander Murray might not have become very concerned by seeing the monitor held under water had he not known that the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was on board. During the 40-minute tow-line operation, the Augusta was under full sail and rolling 10°; the Ashuelot was rolling 15°, and the monitor only 3°.
The next day, the vessels stopped for an hour-and-a- half to rearrange the towing hawser. At noon, for the first time, Fox threw overboard a bottle containing a paper giving the date as well as the latitude and longitude of the squadron. His note requested that the finder write down on the paper the date and place found and send it to a specified government official. Fox repeated this practice several times during the passage. Three bottles were later found on the French coast, (one after drifting for more than four months and traveling more than a thousand miles).
The vessels continued to steam eastward, often covering as many as 176 miles in a day, but once covering only 137, with the monitor burning an average of 24 tons of coal a day. The wind varied, but was mostly strong, with the sea moderate to heavy.
On Sunday, 10 June, the vessels stopped for one hour and ten minutes for the Augusta to arrange her hawser. On Thursday, 14 June, there was another halt of one hour and 25 minutes for the Augusta to adjust machinery. On Friday, the 15th, the towline was cast off from the Augusta and there was a stop of one hour to bend cables.
The southwest coast of Ireland was sighted on Saturday, 16 June. The Ashuelot dropped back one mile and
Blue Water Monitor 83
a pilot was taken on board the Augusta and headed her for Cork harbor. The vessels arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, at 4:00 p.m., after a voyage of ten days and eighteen hours. The monitor had been in tow for 1,000 miles and had only enough coal left to steam two days. Thus, it is questionable whether she could have made the voyage alone in rough weather. The Augusta had a ten-day supply of coal left. The American vessels dropped anchor near the English flagship Black Prince and rendered a 13-gun salute, which was promptly returned.
Europe. Although the Miantonomoh must have looked insignificant between the two splendid English broadside ironclads, Achilles and Black Prince, her powerful guns could easily have obliterated both of them.
When Fox and Commander Murray called on the admiral in command at Queenstown, they found him high on a bluff, spyglass in hand, examining the monitor. After introductions, the British admiral asked Fox, "Did you cross the Atlantic in that thing?” Fox replied that he had, indeed, to which the admiral retorted, "I doubt if I would!”
Fox left the Miantonomoh at Queenstown and, after visiting Dublin, went to London, where a dinner was given in his honor. He was also presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace and given a tour of Royal Navy dockyards and vessels.
Before the Miantonomoh and Augusta left Queenstown for Portsmouth and the Ashuelot sailed for Lisbon, an English journalist reflected:
"A strange vessel, with a stranger name has just arrived. What Miantonomoh may actually signify we shall not proceed to inquire; what she represents is a matter of very great importance, indeed. She is a real, genuine monitor—a true specimen of that singular fleet on which Americans rely for their position on the seas. As these vessels resemble no other floating thing, it follows almost inevitably that, if the American shipbuilders are right, ours must be wrong, and it is our imperative duty to investigate the subject without prejudice or delay.”
V
European countries were also building ironclads at this time, but they were large, deep-draught, high-sided, iron-plated, floating batteries. France had built La Gloire, in 1859, and the British had built the 32-gun, 6,109-ton Warrior in I860. A good deal of controversy raged over the merit of these ships. From I860 to 1866, the Admiralty had built both large, wooden ships, protected by iron plates, and some iron hulls; but, significantly, after 1866, no large wooden-hull ships would be laid down. The Bellerophon, built in England
in 1865, carried 9-inch rifled guns.
On Friday, 29 June, Fox, the Duke of Somerset, the Comptroller-General of the Royal Navy, Rear Admiral R. S. Robinson, and several other high Admiralty officials, went to Portsmouth to board the Miantonomoh. The vessel was thoroughly inspected, and her guns fired. The Duke of Somerset, who was First Lord of the Admiralty, remarked to Fox that he did not think any cast iron made in England could endure such detonations.
At the Portsmouth Naval Station, British experts were allowed to board and inspect the Miantonomoh and many Englishmen agreed with the panicky London Times writer who bleated, "The wolf is in our fold, the whole flock at its mercy.”
Perhaps, as some argued, the Miantonomoh was superior to any fighting machine then possessed by England; but, after apparently reconsidering the matter, the London Times offered a far less strident appraisal of the vessel:
"The American Monitor is literally a floating gun carriage, nothing more. She has not the least resemblance to any ordinary man-of-war either in shape or arrangements, but she does carry guns—enormous ones, too, and the Miantonomoh has carried them across the Atlantic. These guns weigh upward of twenty tons, they have a bore of fifteen inches, and throw a four hundred and eighty pound shot. The monitor has two of these guns in each of her turrets. Now, if the calibre of a gun is to decide the advantage in action, we have certainly nothing to match the battery of the Miantonomoh. Our latest and most
successful gun is just half this size . . . Another advantage the Americans have is light tonnage with heavy armament; the Miantonomoh is but fifteen hundred tons with four, hundred and eighty pounders. The latest model the English have is a light cruiser, twenty-four hundred tons burden, with guns one quarter the size of the Miantonomoh's. Consequently, the Americans are far ahead of us in combining light tonnage with heavy armament. Of course, there are other points for consideration, where the Monitor might not appear to so much advantage. The speed of the Miantonomoh, for instance, in her voyage across the Atlantic was but seven an hour, and her maximum is only put at nine. Either the Warrior or the Achilles, therefore, would run across her with ease. Then her enormous guns are of a very peculiar pattern and capacity. They are made to throw very heavy shot with a very low velocity, a principle not approved by artillerists in this country. In fact, we have no evidence of the actual power of the Dahlgren gun against really good armour-plating, nor is it certain that the 300-pounders of the Bellerophon, if tried against the Hercules target, would not prove as effective as the 450-pounders of the Miantonomoh. What the Americans have shown is this—that they can send 450-pound guns to sea in a 1,500 vessel.”
The London Times article went on to discuss American naval policy:
"The Americans, however,.are reconstructing their
navy on a double principle. They have their Monitors but they also have cruisers built especially for speed, though carrying very powerful guns ... it is clear that the Americans ... are recognizing two classes of vessels—one built solely for offensive and defensive power, the other for power in combination with extraordinary speed. Our first-rate Ironclads are probably unequalled for the union of all these qualities together.
"We have no doubt that many a fault could be found in American and Italian ironclads, but, in the meantime, their weight of metal is far in excess of ours, and there is a strong and growing presumption that in future actions weight of metal may carry the day.”
The Miantonomoh next sailed to Cherbourg with John Bigelow, U. S. Minister to France. On Friday, 6 July, in the presence of Bigelow, Fox had an interview with Emperor Napoleon III. In the course of their conversation, Napoleon expressed great interest in the Miantonomoh and no little surprise that she had crossed the ocean with only two feet of freeboard.
Fox told him that he "had crossed sixty-four times, but never so comfortably nor with such a sense of security as in this monitor.”
Later in the week, Fox met with the Emperor’5 cousin, Prince Napoleon. This roly-poly, look-alike of his uncle, Bonaparte, had been christened Jerome, but was known irreverently as "Plon-Plon.” Capricious and irascible, Plon-Plon told Fox, "Do not be too friendly with Russia.”
Fox replied: "Russia and America have no rival interest. Russia has always been friendly to America, and we reciprocate the feeling.”
"But you can stand alone,” Prince Napoleon said. "You do not want friends.”
Fox answered: "When it was doubtful whether wf should ever stand again, at a time when most powerful nations menaced us, Russia felt and expressed her syn1' pathy for us, and America will never forget it.”
After a few moments silence, Plon-Plon retorted "Russia is for herself alone.” And the subject wa5 changed.
After his interview with Napoleon III, Fox returned to Cherbourg accompanied by many French dignitaries, all of whom examined the vessel. Perhaps it is no1 surprising that the country that produced Nicola^ Chauvin, and gave to the world the word "Chauvinism, should produce many other "experts” who would afl' nounce publicly that they thought that their country’5 most powerful ship could sink her in action. The^ French superpatriots pointed out that the America1’ monitor would only make 8% knots, whereas, in 1863'
Blue Water Monitor 85
the French ironclads Magenta, Solferino, Couronne, and Heroine had all showed a speed of 12 to 14 knots. To add fuel to the fire, it was reported that American officers had bragged that they would need only 45 minutes to destroy the Magenta. This was answered by a claim that the Magenta's speed and enormous strength would enable her to ram and sink "such a tortoise as this monitor.”
Before Fox left England, both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh had expressed a desire to see the Miantonomoh in the Thames. Anxious to please their Royal Highnesses, and also to give the inhabitants of the world’s largest city an opportunity to see the monitor, Fox ordered the Miantonomoh and her consort back to England as soon as the official French visit was over. On 10 July, the Miantonomoh and Augusta anchored at the Nore and were open to the public. The American monitor was anchored alongside the enormous British ironclad Lord Warden, then building. Compared to the Lord Warden, the Miantonomoh appeared almost insignificant.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Miantonomoh shortly thereafter. They were given a tour of the ship, and her machinery was shown to them in detail. During the Miantonomoh's stay in the Thames, thousands of people came down from London to the Nore to see her.
A prominent English naval and engineering journal had contended that monitors could not "swim,” but when convinced by seeing an American monitor in British waters, explained its previous doubts by editorializing: "Although we knew that monitors had within the last year or so gone on moderately long voyages, the details of those voyages never reached England. The only information to be had was gleaned from the pages of the American press, and we regret to say the standard of Yankee journalism is so low that it was difficult to take even the meagre statements made as being positive truths.”
An article in the London Times of 17 July lamented the fact that, every British warship,
... from the armour-plated Warrior, with 32 bigger guns, 6,109 tonnage, and 1,250-horse power, down to the fleet of screw steam gunboats, has suffered a certain depreciation by the fact of the Miantonomoh, and the forthcoming fleet of Monitors of which she is the precursor . . . the ships which twenty years ago were said to make England impregnable, and to console us for the want of unlimited armies, are now found to be useless against a ship that hardly shows itself above the water, and that can discharge with perfect steadiness and accuracy a projectile which even our best armour-plating is
not quite proof against. But if even our best and latest ships have now to consider how they may fare in the hands of this new antagonist, what hope is there for the swarms of obsolete curiosities now encumbering our anchorages?”
Into the Baltic. On Monday, 16 July, the Miantonomoh and the Augusta left the Nore for the Baltic, expecting to await the arrival of Fox at Stettin, a Prussian port.
Fox arrived at Copenhagen on 21 July. Learning that cholera had broken out at Stettin and in St. Petersburg, he telegraphed G. H. Yeaman, U. S. Minister to Denmark, asking him to stop the ships at Copenhagen.
The arrival of the American ships caused much excitement in the Danish city. While the Miantonomoh was in port, crowds of people came to visit the American wonder. Fox, and Commanders Murray and Beaumont, were formally presented to King Christian IX at the royal palace. The King made numerous inquiries in regard to the monitor, and in response to Fox’s invitation, the royal family visited the vessel. The King also gave a dinner for Yeaman, Fox, and Commanders Murray and Beaumont.
While he was in Copenhagen, Fox received dispatches from Cassius Clay announcing that the cholera had subsided at St. Petersburg. Fox thus decided to sail to Helsingfors, (Helsinki) the capital of the autonomous grand duchy of Finland, and await more information.
The 543 nautical miles from Copenhagen to Helsingfors was covered in 72 hours. Customary salutes
Christian IX
were exchanged as the ships passed the fortress and anchor was dropped in the harbor. High-ranking Finnish and Russian dignitaries came on board the Miantonomoh and, in the name of the Russian Emperor, welcomed the American mission to Russian waters. They announced that they had been directed by the Emperor to offer Fox the courtesies of the city. Their greeting was cordially received by the American officers, who rejoiced with their hosts that they had reached Russian territory safely after so long a voyage.
Fox, his secretaries, and Commanders Murray and Beaumont, paid official calls in the city, and attended,
in company with the officers of the ships, a banquet given by the Governor of Helsingfors. At this time Fox expressed his thanks for the hospitality and stated that his visit had a double purpose—to congratulate the Emperor on his escape, and to thank the Russian people for the "friendly disposition” which they had always shown toward the United States, and particularly during the "late struggle in our country.”
On hearing that the cholera epidemic at Kronstadt had passed, Fox decided to proceed there at once. The Miantonomoh and the Augusta got under way on the morning of 5 August amid salutes from the batteries.
After leaving the mouth of the harbor, the Russian ironclad fleet was sighted.
As the Augusta neared the Russian ships, she hoisted the imperial ensign and saluted it with 21 guns. The Sevastopol, Imperial Russian flagship of Rear Admiral Likhatcheff, Commander-in-Chief of the Tsar’s Navy, answered the Augusta's, salute gun for gun. The Russian rear admiral then signaled "Welcome. I will escort you to Kronstadt. Take the lead; your squadron between my lines.”
Blue Water Monitor 87
On approaching port, the Augusta ran up the Rus- Slan ensign and fired the national salute of 21 guns. The public had been notified that the fleet would arrive, and a steamboat—with a band on board playing "Hail Columbia”—went out to meet the Americans. The pier wss crowded with cheering spectators. The Miantono- Woh was visited by many dignitaries and her crew was congratulated on their safe arrival. Invitations were sent by the government to visit the different cities.
Fox and Commanders Murray and Beaumont went ashore to pay their respects to the military governor °f Kronstadt, after which they went to St. Petersburg °y steamer.
On arriving in the Russian capital, Fox paid his Aspects to U. S. Minister Cassius Clay, and gave him a written report of his arrival.
In St. Petersburg, Fox, Clay, Commanders Murray ar>d Beaumont, and other Americans went to the palace °f Peterhof to present the Congressional Resolution to Alexander II. Court officials met the party at the railway station, and they traveled by carriage to the palace, where they were received by the Tsar and His Excellency Prince Gortchakoff, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Fox read the Resolution in English and' the Tsar responded in a speech which was translated by Prince Gortchakoff into English as follows: "His Majesty said that he rejoiced at the friendly relations exist- lng between Russia and the United States, and he *as pleased to see that those relations were so well aPpreciated in America.” The Tsar closed by remarking that the cordial reception which had been given to his
squadrons in the United States would never be effaced from his memory.
While at Kronstadt the Miantonomoh went into the navy yard to have some work done and have the towing cable repaired. The Russians fashioned a new towing cable—13 inches in diameter and 165 fathoms long, fitted with bridles—but refused to accept payment for it. This generosity was typical of the Russian hospitality and entertainment that were showered upon the Americans.
On 8 August 1866, after his audience with the Tsar, Fox sent a telegram to Secretary of State Seward. This first message ever transmitted from Russia to America over the newly-laid Atlantic cable informed Secretary of State Seward:
"RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS PRESENTED
PERSONALLY TO EMPEROR OF RUSSIA AT
ONE TODAY.
FOX.”
Fox, his secretaries, Commanders Murray and Beaumont, Clay, and Jeremiah Curtin, Secretary of the U. S. Legation at St. Petersburg, then proceeded to Kronstadt to join the squadron, and assist at the reception for the Tsar, who had indicated his desire to visit the ships.
The Emperor first boarded the Miantonomoh, and after examining the monitor, he and his retinue proceeded to the Augusta. From the deck of the Augusta, the Tsar witnessed an Imperial Salute, fired by the Miantonomoh's 15-inch guns. It was the first salute ever rendered by this class of gun.
Charles XV
The American mission lunched with the Tsar on board his yacht. During the repast, His Majesty offered a toast: "I drink to the prosperity of your country, and hope that the fraternal feelings which now exist may continue forever.”
Many dinners and parties were given the American mission and a new piece of music, the "Miantonomoh Gallop,” was even composed in its honor. Many toasts were drunk to the two countries as the American naval officers toured the Russian cities and inspected Russian ships and their armament.
Alexander II presented Fox with 282 rare volumes, all of which eventually found their way into the Smithsonian Institution. There were also a number of other gifts given to Fox and the mission, including gold snuff boxes, commemorative medals, photographs, and diplomas of honorary citizenship.
On 15 September 1866, the American squadron left Russia, the martial music and cheering throngs drowned out from time to time by the thundering volley of salutes from the forts. The monitor, conceived as an instrument of destruction, had become a vehicle for international fraternity.
The next stop was Stockholm, Sweden, where Fox, and his captains were presented to King Charles XV at the Royal Palace. As had by now become customary, the Swedish monarch and members of his court visited the American ships. Fox received them on board the Miantonomoh with the customary honors.
The American ships arrived at the Prussian port of Kiel on 1 October and, after a short stay, they made the short journey to Hamburg. Here they remained a
guns
week and the monitor experienced the usual flood of visitors. On the 15th, the Miantonomoh put to sea in [ heavy weather, carrying the Russian admiral who had commanded the squadron that had visited San Francisco. When she arrived at Cherbourg three days later, the admiral expressed his delight with the performance of the vessel.
During the winter, the American vessels then cruised around the southern part of Europe. They visited, in order: Brest, France; Lisbon, Portugal; Cadiz, Spain; Gibraltar; Malaga, Cartagena, and Barcelona, Spain; the French ports of Marseilles and Toulon; Mahon on the Spanish island of Minorca; and the Italian ports of Genoa, Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, and Naples.
On 2 May, the ships left Naples for the return trip to Philadelphia. Their second trip across the Atlantic was made under very favorable weather condition* except for two days—the second day out of Napfa and the day before arriving in Delaware. The MiantoM moh was in tow, "as a matter of convenience and precaution rather than necessity,” the greater part of the way—1,900 miles. The return trip was somewha1 slower; her average speed dropped from seven to si*' and-a-half knots.
Coal was taken on at Barbados Island, after 13 day* and two hours at sea. The Miantonomoh took on 417: tons, of which she burned 348 tons, or 24 tons p° day, on the return trip. Improvised sails were made her awnings. From Nassau the vessels took a dire° route to Philadelphia, arriving in that port on 22 July 1867.
In retrospect, Gustavus Fox’s odyssey in the Mia0 nomoh seems almost quaint, a droll vignette wherei" "dining with the crowned heads of Europe” and escof1' ing bejeweled damsels became almost a bore. Was i1, then, much pomp and circumstance, but a journey 1,1 very little consequence?
One outgrowth of the mission was the report ai^ the recommendations Fox would make to SecretaP Welles on the monitors’ potential as seagoing fighting cruisers. He noted that, in a moderate gale, head-011 to the seas, the monitor would take about four fa of solid water. This would be broken as it swept afanf the deck but, after reaching the turret, the water’s fofa was still sufficient to prevent the firing of the 15-in01 guns in a forward position. The turret guns were nafa easily and safely handled in a seaway than guns of broadside vessel.
The axis of the bore of the 15-inch
six-and-one-half feet above the water, and the extrefa lurch observed when lying broadside to a heavy & and moderate gale was seven degrees to windward 0, four degrees to leeward, (or a mean of five-and-one-1’^
Blue Water Monitor 89
degrees). Under the same conditions, the average rolls of the sail-steadied Augusta and the Ashuelot were, respectively, 18° and 25°. A vessel attacking a monitor in a seaway thus had to approach quite close in order to have any chance of hitting her low hull; and, even then, the monitor was under three or four feet of water half the time, thus protecting herself and confounding her enemy’s gunners. From these facts, Fox concluded that the monitor type of ironclad was superior to the ship that fired broadside, not only for fighting purposes it sea, but also for cruising. A properly-constructed ironclad monitor, possessing all the requirements of a cruiser, however, ought to have only one turret, should be armed with not less than 20-inch guns, and should have two independent propellers and the usual proportion of sail.
Fox’s recommendation of sail for monitors, was tried by the British in 1870 on the monitor Captain which was designed by Captain Cowper Coles and christened in his honor. She capsized during a squall on the night °f 6 September 1870, while cruising with the Channel Fleet. Only 18 men were saved; 458, including Captain Coles, perished.
But, whether or not Fox’s crystal ball may have been somewhat clouded as he tried to foresee the long-range prospects of monitors, his gifts as a seer were confirmed by his choice of the Miantonomoh to carry him to Europe. The vessel more than fulfilled his hope that she would be an impressive example of American tech- nology, power, and potential. Embodying as she did the U. S. Navy’s willingness and, in fact, eagerness to strike out in new directions, the Miantonomoh would exert a profound effect on the drawing boards and in the shipyards of the Old World.
Finally, the Miantonomob's mission had a side effect which, although unnoticed at the time, and largely 'gnored since, was to have ramifications that will continue to echo down the corridors of time. For Fox and his diplomatic efforts made a contribution to the sale °f Alaska by the Russians in March 1867.
American folklore persists in embellishing the myth °f how the canny Yankee bamboozled the greedy, gullible Russian. Those short-sighted Russians, the legend goes, were desperate to get rid of what they considered to be the world’s largest ice cube. Americans, on the other hand, really knew how valuable it was; but, by pretending they weren’t interested in Walrussia,” they got it for the same kind of bargain pnce they had obtained "Louisiana” from France in 1803.
Actually, Russia needed friends and immediate cash m°re than it needed territory. After its own misadventures in North America, Russia was content to let America own the Alaska-Aleutians’ bridge, over which,
as one contemporary Congressman so tastelessly put it,
. . we could carry our instructions and laws to the East.” Thus, the 580,107 acres of Alaska were purchased for $7 million, and an additional $200,000 was paid for a previously established fur station.
How great a role Fox’s diplomatic mission played in the transaction is conjectural, but the Tsar was not likely to forget quickly Fox’s emotional statement when, in Moscow, he saw the Russian and American flags flying together:
"If the hearts of the Americans present could be uncovered, there would be found what I now behold, the flags of Russia and of America intertwined. May these two flags in peaceful embrace be thus united forever.” The Tsar would live for another 15 years, but, ironically, Alexander II, whose survival of one assassination attempt had been the reason for the Miantonomoh’s mission, died at the hands of another assassin in 1881.
Fox and the Miantonomoh were, in fact, nearing the end of their 13-month, 17,700-mile cruise when, on 30 March 1867, Russian and American negotiators agreed upon a price—which would later compute to about two cents an acre—for the vast, enormously rich region of Alaska and the Aleutians.
Unfortunately, the Miantonomoh did not survive either to test Fox’s naval theories or to bask in the reflected glory of the successful mission. She had very early developed rot in her wooden underhull, a disease that would prove to be terminal. Decommissioned within four days of her arrival back in Philadelphia, the principal character in a short-lived drama was broken up in 1875, and part of her was used in the building of an iron-hulled namesake.
No curtain calls marked the close of this unusual, latter-day odyssey, but any professional review of the Miantonomoh’s performance must include Frank Bennett’s observation, in "The Steam Navy of the United States,” that "No one can now regret that the Miantonomoh went to England when she did, for the story of her peaceful conquest of a nation’s prejudice is one of the most pleasing incidents in the annals of our steam navy and is fully as worthy of being a source of national pride as would have been the career of destruction of which the Miantonomoh was capable.”
Mr. Knowles has been a museum specialist in the division of Water Transportation at the Smithsonian Institution since 1958. He studied American History at Johns Hopkins University and Naval Architecture with Westlawn School. He has recently implemented a computerized system for classify ing ship plans at the Smithsonian. The author is the great grandson of Chief Engineer James M. Adams, who was a member of the Fox mission to Russia in 1866.