Monitor followed earlier attempts to solve the armoured-warship problem. The United States' Stevens Battery, begun in 1854, the French Gloire, and the British HMS Warrior show that several navies were already exploring armoured steam warships before Hampton Roads. For the Union, the conversion of the former Merrimack into CSS Virginia turned that international technological race into an immediate wartime requirement. Monitor was one answer to an existing naval problem under the pressure of civil war.
Notable Point · 10:38-11:07
The ironclad race before Monitor
Monitor entered an international ironclad experiment already represented by Stevens Battery, Gloire, and HMS Warrior; Virginia's conversion made the question urgent for the Union.