Stars & Stripes Forever by Harry Harrison Page A

this entire 120-ton turret revolves!"
    He bent and ran his hand along the bottom of the turret's armor. "Machined flat as you can see. At sea it will rest on a smooth brass ring in the deck—and its great weight will make a watertight seal. In action the turret will be jacked up so that it will rest on these wheels. Below it is this steam donkey engine that will drive this circular gear situated right below the deck—operated by a lever in the turret of course. It will take less than a minute for a complete revolution."
    Fox nodded with appreciation. "It is a great concept, Mr. Ericsson. Your ironclad will change the face of this war."
    "Not ironclad," Ericsson said angrily. "That is what your idiots in the Navy Department do not realize. This is a machine, the creation of an engineer, an iron, steam-powered vessel of war. A fabricated iron hull filled with complex machinery that bears no similarity to the wooden sailing ships of the past. Yet in the specifications your people say, a moment, I have it here." He took a wrinkled and much-folded sheet of paper from his pocket and read it aloud.
    "They want me to... here it is. 'To furnish Masts, Spars, Sails and Rigging of sufficient dimension to drive the vessel at the rate of Six knots per hour in a fair breeze of wind.' Impossible! The power is steam and steam only as I have said many times in the past. No masts, no sails, no ropes. Steam! And the cretin who wrote this proves that he knows nothing of ships when he writes of 'knots per hour'! One knot means that a vessel covers a distance of one nautical mile in one hour as you know."
    "I do indeed," Fox said and hurried to change the subject. "Have you a name for your floating battery?"
    "I have been giving that a good deal of thought. Consider that the impregnable and aggressive character of this structure will admonish the leaders of the Southern Rebellion that their batteries on the banks of their rivers will no longer present barriers to the entrance of our Union forces. This iron-clad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor to those leaders. But there are other leaders who will also be startled and admonished by the booming of the guns from this impregnable iron turret. Downing Street will hardly view with indifference this last Yankee notion, this monitor. On these and many similar grounds, I propose to name the new battery Monitor."
    "A most excellent point," Bushnell said, "and I shall recommend it to my committee."
    "I concur," Fox said. "I will put it to the Secretary of the Navy as well. Now if you gentlemen will excuse us for a few minutes, I need to have a few words about naval matters with Mr. Roland."
    In the ironworks owner's office, Fox got right to the important matter at hand.
    "It has been pointed out to me that in addition to your being an entrepreneur, you are also an engineer of experience, not only in ship building but in the construction of marine steam machinery as well."
    "I am indeed. In the past I have submitted designs to your Navy Department." He pointed to the wooden model on his desk. "This was one of them. A twin screw ironclad with twin rotating turrets."
    "The design was not accepted?"
    "It was not! I was told it would not bear the weight and provide stability."
    "But will it?"
    "Of course. I have discussed it with John Ericsson, who did the mathematic equations to analyze its design. He has proven that the weight of the engines in the hold will counterbalance the weight of the turrets above. He also suggested design changes in the hull that will make for higher speed." He opened a drawer in his desk and took out a set of drawings.
    "A week after our talk John gave me these. He designed a new kind of boiler that he calls a surface condenser, where steam is condensed in an evaporator consisting of horizontal copper pipes. With his newly designed engines he estimates the ship will do fifteen knots."
    "This will be a larger ship than the Monitor, more seaworthy?"
    "It will indeed. This ship