Talk:Monitor (warship)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Monitor (warship) article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information and associated task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Associated task forces (general topics): Maritime warfare task force Military technology and engineering task force Weaponry task force Associated task forces (nations and regions): United States military history task force Associated task forces (periods and conflicts): American Civil War task force World War I task force World War II task force

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ships, a project to improve all Ship-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other Ship-related articles, please join the project. All interested editors are welcome.
Start	rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale
Top	rated as Top-importance on the assessment scale

Contents 1 Suggestions 2 Armament 3 Twentieth century -> Second World War 4 Ironclad vs. Monitor Terminology

[edit] Suggestions

I'm not expert enough to change the page, but I'd make a couple of suggestions which, if right, could be added to the page.

While much factual information is given, my understanding is that the monitors' role was essentially as a floating gun platforms with one or two (or more??) guns much heavier than normal for craft of this size, and slow speed. The article does not make this clear (as of 19 April 2005). I believe monitors were more used against land targets than for naval warfare, with the exception of the well-known USS Monitor.

Monitors continued to be constructed until World War II, Some monitors had 15-inch guns, while the largest guns widely used on battleships were 16-inch. (A few barrleships had 18-inch guns, but they had a reputation for more recoil damage to their host than gunnery damage to the enemy). The impression is given in the article that the monitors were superseded by ironclad battleshipe. The first ironclad battleship was commisioned in 1861 (HMS Warrior); it would be more appropriate to consider perhaps the bomb ketch (carrying one very large mortar) of about the time of the Peninsular war giving way to early monitors then to WWI and WWII monitors; and the old wooden ship-of-the-line giving way to increasingly powerful ironclad battleships from 1861 on. 213.208.107.91 03:10, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Armament

Quote: "One British monitor mounting an 18 inch gun was able to shell a bridge several miles inland". Question: Which? ((RJP 11:39, 13 January 2006 (UTC))

General Wolfe, one of the Lord Clive class monitors, the gun in question came from those for the "large light cruisers" (see Glorious class aircraft carrier) for an explanation. GraemeLeggett 12:26, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. (RJP 13:38, 13 January 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Twentieth century -> Second World War

In the sentence "Only one United States Navy monitor, the Amphitrite (laid down in 1874), still existed at the start of the war", the words (laid down in 1874) have just been added by me, because it is possible for a reader to assume that the Amphitrite was some sort of modern ship when it fact it is ancient. I was surprised to see that it was old as it was, as the reference gave no clue that this ship was anything other than an antique. Hi There 05:10, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ironclad vs. Monitor Terminology

The Ironclad article makes a clear definition of the required characteristics a vessel must possess to be categorized as an ironclad. The article for Monitor does not plainly make a similar statement. My point is that, if the USS Monitor is an ironclad, then what is a "monitor"--the very namesake of this term? I personally have never heard of a category of ship called "monitor" and have always believed the correct term to be "ironclad," but it appears to be well documented here. What isn't is the firm definition of how a monitor is significantly different from an ironclad. To me they seem to be synonyms.--Heavy (talk) 02:59, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

The opening makes clear to my mind the types of ship that have been called a monitor - the early ones were ironclads and the 20th century ones were steel hulls. GraemeLeggett (talk) 12:52, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

A monitor is either...

1. a low-freeboard ironclad turret-ship (1860s-90s) (named after USS Monitor)
2. a coastal bombardment vessel (1910-1950) (so called because Churchill liked the name)

The common features between the two are big guns and limited seakeeping ability. There are plenty of non-monitor ironclads. Regards, The Land (talk) 13:20, 7 February 2008 (UTC) this ship was very useful!