1886 was a year of utmost importance to the US Navy. During the year a
pamphlet was published by LT. Jaques of the USN in which he summed up the state
of the navy. "But as at present circumstanced, it is of small moment
to the United States whether the modern gun or modern armour is superior. We
have neither the one nor the other – no gun mounted that can pierce an enemy’s
armor – no armour on a completed vessel, or on a fort that can resist an enemy’s
guns." On March 10, 1886 a Bill was presented in the House of
Representatives that amounted to the birth of the new steel navy. When it passed
the Senate it provided funds for the construction of five new warships, two
seagoing armored vessels, one swift cruiser, one 1st Class Torpedo
Boat and one Dynamite Gun Cruiser. The largest item in this new budget was for
the two seagoing armored vessels, which became the USS
Maine and USS Texas.
The second greatest expenditure was not for anything new but "For
compilation of 4 Double Turreted Monitors – Puritan, Amphitrite, Monadoch, and
Terror." (The Naval Annual 1886)
The Secretary for the Navy in his report to the President on December 1,
1888, said of these four monitors, "In the table the double-turreted
monitors will not be ships of a high class. Their completion was recommended by
the Department solely as a choice of evils, the question which was presented
being, whether several million dollars which had spent upon them should be
thrown away, or the balance necessary to complete them be appropriated." (The
Naval Annual 1888-9, at page 680) The next year a new monitor
made its appearance in the naval proposals. This one was to be of new
construction and initially was to mount one 16-inch gun, one 12-inch gun and one
15-inch pneumatic gun in the bow. This proposal became the USS
Monterey. Some in Great Britain advocated that the Royal Navy
follow suit and build monitors. The American writers are unshaken
advocates of the Monitor. They think that the Monitor, in its simplicity of
construction and the small mark offered to the enemy, combines elements of
fighting efficiency in a degree not found in later and much larger vessels. The
Monitor was found absolutely effective in the work it was designed to do. It
combined the maximum of offense with the minimum of vulnerability. Monitors
should be added to the British fleet for harboar, coast and Channel defence."
(The Naval Annual 1890,
page 207)
Because the intended armament would have been too heavy for the design, the
armament was changed to two 12-inch guns in the forward turret and two 10-inch
guns in the rear turret. Unlike the earlier five monitors (Puritan
and the four Amphitrite Class), which
had antiquated machinery and iron hulls, the Monterey
had triple expansion engines and a steel hull. Although the first five had been
building for almost twenty years, the Monterey
was completed ahead of all of them, except for Miantonomoh.
Originally the turrets were to be of a conical Eads type (see profile from The
Naval Annual 1892), that design was shelved in favor of
cylindrical turrets. When ordered and built, the Monterey
was considered a significant warship and investment for the USN. In the report
of the Secretary of the Navy of December 3, 1891, the total estimated cost for
the 4,048 ton Monterey was
$2,596,086.78, which was only slightly less than Texas
($3,002,692.29) or Maine
($3,549,041.75) and more expensive than any cruiser, except for New
York ($4,038,408.07), Cruiser No 12
(Columbia)($3,,149,214.86) and Cruiser
No 13 (Minneapolis)($3,104,355.80)(The
Naval Annual 1892, pages 494-95).
The Monterey also had a feature
that would allow her to intake water to reduce her freeboard from the normal
four feet to one foot in order to reduce the target and make her battle ready.
The West Coast built and based Monterey
was dispatched to the Philippines to bolster Commodore Dewey’s force. After
taking months to complete the voyage, in which she was towed half the time due
to her limited endurance, Monterey
arrived on August 4, 1898. At that time Dewey felt that he had the firepower to
deal with the remaining Spanish forts. (The US
Monitors, Part Two, Warship Volume VII, page 137) This
voyage and arrival was the pinnacle of the career of Monterey.
Thereafter, she was reassigned to Pearl Harbor and lingered around until
February 1922, when she was sold. It is ironic that this vessel, born of
concepts employed in the American Civil War, would survive long enough to see
the birth a new type of vessel that would predominate naval conflict in World
War Two to the present day, the aircraft carrier. (References:
American Steel Navy by John Alden; The US Monitors, Warship
Volume VII in two parts by Francis Allen; The Naval Annual,
various editions)
Resin Casting
The monitors were called "flatirons & galoshes". With the Iron
Shipwright USS Monterey, it is easy to
see how those derogatory names developed. The hull is extremely flat and wide
for a ship of its displacement. The low freeboard, shallow draft design makes
the Monterey unmistakable for
anything else, other than a monitor. The hull of the ISW Monterey
is extremely well detailed and cast, capturing this odd look.
The deck is loaded with detail from the numerous small circular plates that
shielded glass ports incorporated in an effort to alleviate the darkness that
was characteristic of the interior of the hulls of the monitor designs to the
unique anchor chain fittings at the bow. This hull has individuality and
character in abundance. The hull had a small resin pour runner attached to the
keel, which was easily removed with a dremel. Cleanup was extremely minor,
amounting to sanding the bottom to smooth the area of the runner attachment.
Other than some pinhole voids along the bottom of the hull, the only other
defects to the hull were some dimples in the tops of a few fittings. The
superstructure (01 level) is cast integral to the hull and has machinery, QF gun
deck plates and davit support pillars cast as part of the detail. Positions for
the QF guns on the deck are predrilled. However, there was a small error in that
department. The Monterey had six
6-pdr guns on the superstructure level. ISW provides all six guns but
base plates and positioning holes are only provided for four positions, the two
at the aft end and two at the forward end of the superstructure. The middle
positions were not indicated on the hull or in the instructions. It is a simple
correction to drill positioning holes for the two middle guns between the davits
on each side with a pin vice. The circular grates on the deck are convex on the
model but photos show that they were flat with the deck. I did not sand these
down but you may wish to if the raised detail bothers you. There was no breakage
to any of the hull. ISW seems to have reached a new level of casting,
first with the USS Brookyln (click
for review) and now with the Monterey.
In keeping with the monitor concept the designers kept the superstructure to
a minimum. The ISW kit has four major resin pieces for the
superstructure. The bridge platform, pilothouse, aft searchlight platform and
slab sided funnel. The pilothouse and funnel are stand out pieces. The
pilothouse has nicely inset windows and panels and the funnel has a delicate
steam pipe and the funnel bands that add greatly to the model. The platforms are
a trifle thick, so if you wish, a gentle sanding of the bottom of the platforms
will reduce this thickness. The only true defect was one void on the front edge
of the pilothouse deck, which was filled with gel superglue and sanded. The two
turrets of two different sizes round out the complement of major parts.
Obviously, the larger of the two is for the twelve-inch guns of the forward
position and the smaller for the aft ten-inch turret. The guns for the turrets
are also of two sizes and the banding of the barrels seems a fraction
over-scale. The turrets can use a light sanding on the bottom and sides.
A number of smaller parts round out the kit. Six-pdrs, boat racks, davits,
search lights, mast, main top, fighting top, anchors, boat boom, propellers, and
prop support struts comprise the smaller parts. Davits come in resin and
photo-etch and I used the photo-etch davits in my build. Sometimes propellers on
ISW kits will have voids in the blades but they were perfect in the Monterey
kit. The only defects were voids in some of the searchlight pieces. The anchors
do not come with stocks. The stocks ran at right angles to the anchor. The upper
stock was strait but the lower one was J shaped at the end. The length of the
lower stock was such that it would drag in the water when the ship was under
way. Both upper and lower stocks had balls at the end. Plastic rod was used for
the stocks. The J bend of the lower stocks and the stock ends were shaped by
blowing out the flame of a match and touching the rod with the still hot match
head. I didn’t get the right spherical shape at the end of the stocks. On
second thought, I should have added a small drop of white glue to get the
spherical shape.
Click for view of unassembled Components |
The kit goes together very smoothly and extremely quickly, due to the limited
number of parts. No problems were experienced at any point during the assembly.
The modeler will spend more time attaching the photo-etch and painting the model
than in assembling the resin parts. Because of the ease of assembly, the ISW Monterey
is suitable as a selection for the "first time" kit for a
modeler who has not built a multimedia, resin and brass kit before. I found that
it was faster and easier to assemble the Monterey,
than any of their WWII destroyer kits. The only other parts to be added by the
modeler were the two propeller shafts from plastic rod and the fore & aft
jacks from sprue.
Photo-Etched Fret
The photo-etched fret provided with the Monterey
is comprehensive and provides spares of different types. There is a lot of
photo-etch for such a small model and it is a positive joy with which to work.
It is easy to cut and sturdy in construction. The small one-pdr guns for the
platforms and fighting top are brass and have a very pleasing shape. Thwarts for
the ships boats are brass are brass and boat oars are provided, although only
ten. Mast pulley assembly and bow anchor crane are other significant brass
pieces. A high light of this fret is the photo-etched railing, both for the
platforms and main deck. The platform railings are pre cut to the correct shape.
There is no need to cut railing to get the proper fit. A few pieces need angular
bends to fit the deck to which they attach but these are simple bends. The only
piece requiring a curve is the railing atop the pilothouse. This is easy to do
by smoothing the piece around a paintbrush handle to get the right radius and
fit. As originally built, the Monterey
had a raised stack cap, with what appears from photographs to be a solid panel
at the top. With the brass stack grating piece, you can have the raised cap but
it does not have the solid panel. I cut the grating and inserted the piece into
the stack to replicate the stack after the original cap was removed.
Instructions
The ISW Monterey comes with four
pages of instructions. Page one is general instructions. Page two provides a
listing of resin and brass parts. The last two pages provide four diagrams of
assembly steps. However, despite the simplicity of assembly of this kit, certain
aspects were omitted from the instructions. As noted earlier, the placement of
the middle six-pdrs is not shown. Also the attachment of gun shields to these
pieces is not shown. The parts are there but they were missed in the
instructions. Likewise, the instructions do not show the correct shape of the
brass support for the aft searchlight platform. This part has four panels. The
part is bent in an open box shape with the middle two panels facing the rear, a
panel on both sides and the open end forward. The part fits perfectly and the
only confusion comes from the drawing included in the instructions.
For photo-etch attachment, certain pieces and steps are not shown. Although
the instructions show placement of inclined ladders running from the
superstructure deck to the bridge wings, they fail to show placement of inclined
ladders running up to the aft searchlight platform. The placement of all
inclined ladders on the superstructure is simple. Just install the platform
railings first. The platform railings are clearly designated by letter, matching
the lettered piece on the fret to specific location on the platforms. Once the
railings are in place the inclined ladder positions are obvious, due to the
break in the railings at their locations. The main deck railings come in four
pieces. The instructions do not differentiate as to their placement. However,
they are not interchangeable. Two of the brass railing pieces have ends that
drop to half-height. These runs should be used at the bow. The half-height areas
of railings were on either side of the anchor fittings and machinery. The brass
railing was very easy to attach to the curvature of the hull and no cutting is
necessary.
The photo-etch comes with four cross brace support, two with a single panel
and two with a double panel. The instructions do not show where they are
positioned. The single panel supports are located as slanting supports from the
superstructure sides to the outward ends of the bridge platform. The double
panel cross braces were provided as spares. These came in handy because
photographs of the Monterey showed a
unique support structure for the anchors. In a stowed position each anchor had a
cross brace support underneath the anchor and attached to the hull. In form they
resembled a sideways Roman X. To duplicate this fitting, all that was necessary
was to cut panels from the extra spares and attach it between anchor and hull.
Verdict
Iron Shipwright has produced a fine kit of a quirky, anachronistic design
that lingered on until the early 20th century, the monitor. The kit
is of high quality with only some minor defects. The photo-etched fret is
excellent. Although the instructions could be more comprehensive, all of the
parts are there. Assembly is easy, fast and fun. As Iron Shipwright
rapidly expands its USN New Steel Navy/Great White Fleet line, the ISW USS
Monterey would make a perfect initial kit for any modeler to
investigate the architectural delights of the era.
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