From: Philip E Bacon <pboldtrix@juno.com>
>Sorry Dave -- The first ironclad was the converted sidewheeler Virginia
>( renamed Merrimac), a southern ship;
This sentence is a bit confusing. To clarify: There was a Union steamship
Merrimac. It was scuttled. The Confederacy raised it and built it into an
ironclad. It was re-named Virginia. The famous battle at Hampton Roads is
often called "The Monitor and the Merrimac". Although the Confederate ship
was called the Virginia at the time, people couldn't resist the
alliteration.
I couldn't tell you which ship was launched first, but the Union needed the
Monitor and the like-designed gunboats that followed, or the Virginia would
have made mincemeat of the Union blockade of the Confederate ports.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"It makes a nice noise when it goes faster"
- 4-year-old Adam, upon seeing a bitmap of Grandma Susie's TR4.
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