Unlike Anything That Ever Floated approaches the classic Battle of Hampton Roads between the Monitor and Virginia from two perspectives. It goes into extensive detail about the engineering and mechanical features of each vessel as well as the occurrences during the battle itself.

Although not the world’s first ironclad vessels, their iconic battle is widely considered to be a turning part in the history of naval warfare. There development is a classic example of an underdog attempting to employ advanced technology to compensate for inferiority in resources and the predictable response.

Though frequently referred to in history as the Merrimac(k,), that was really the famous wooden vessel that had been the pride of the U.S. Navy during the 1850s. The Confederates had been transformed it into the ironclad Virginia which was presumed to be impregnable to the ordnance of the day.

Monitor was a new design intended to meet Virginia’s challenge. Of metal construction with two guns in a turret, it was unwieldly, slow to reload but also impregnable.  Its name would describe similar vesssels to the end of the nineteenth century.

One respect in which Virginia and Monitor introduced a new era was in the lives of their sailors. The open-air decks of the Age of Sail and even the sail/steam propulsion against which they contended were replaced by hot, cramped, sealed interior spaces, that would reach their apex in submarines.

Author Dwight Sturtevant Hughes provides both verbal descriptions and drawings and photos to illustrate the devices that powered these vessels. Some photos are of the original vessels and others are of later models that had similar features.

I found the perceived threat presented by the advent of the Virginia to seem excessive. The specter of an ironclad leviathan marauding waterfronts from Washington to Boston spawned panic throughout the North, particularly in its political leadership. Secretary of War Stanton is identified as one of the most alarmed. Described by Secretary of the Navy Welles, “He was at times almost frantic”. He predicted that Virginia would change the whole character of the war and destroy every naval vessel and take Fort Monroe. Her existence dominated Hampton Roads for weeks, blocked Union operations toward Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond and hampered naval support of McClellan’s Peninsular campaign. Like the Bismarck in a later war, Virginia incited an “at all costs” counter.

On March 8, 1862, Virginia had its day against the Union fleet in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Relying on shot and ramming, it sunk Cumberland, destroyed Congress, and force Minnesota aground.

After having barely survived rough seas, Monitor arrived on the scene on March 9. Through hours of maneuver, shot, and attempted boarding, Monitor and Virginia fought to a draw, inflicting dents on each other’s armor and shock on their crews until Virginia withdrew from the contest. Neither could claim clear victory but Virginia would never again mount an existential threat to the Union or its navy. Throughout their lives, crewmen of both vessels could boast “I fought at Hampton Roads. “The sentiment was, according to Confederate Army Cpt. William Norris, ‘open sesame to the hearts and minds of our own countrymen. Ah! The thrilling moments of those halcyon days.’” P 143.

Both Monitor and Virginia would be models for their own navies. Iron armored rams built on existing hulls would be the formula followed by Confederate naval architects seeking to overcome by technology their inferiority in numbers, while swarms of monitors would overwhelm Confederate forces.

Neither vessel would survive 1862. After being forced up the James River and being lightened to the extent that its wooden hull was exposed, it was blown up to prevent its capture on May 11, 1862. Monitor floundered in a squall off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on New Year’s Eve.

This book is chronologically organized into chapters that cover the events of a few hours or days. The text is supplemented by pictures of individuals referenced, battle scenes and ships, including their blueprints and machinery. The images and the author’s note of their inaccuracies aid the reader to visualize the tales being told. The Suggested Reading is more detailed than most bibliographies in that it provides both the identification of the book but also a descriptive paragraph and a picture. The appendices on “Touring the Battlefield” ”Civil War Ironclads”, and The U.S. Monitor Center at The Mariners’ Museum and Park” aid those desiring to explore the vessels’ legacies. The Order of Battle is a valuable addition but an index would be helpful.

Unlike Anything That Ever Floated acquaints readers with both the technological details of the ships and the actions that etched their names in the America Pageant. It is a short but informative read for War History members interested in that moment in history when wood gave way to iron as the standard in naval construction or in the Civil War in which it occurred.

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