Pilothouse
The armored pilothouse was approximately four feet by five feet and
rose four feet above the deck. It consisted of thick iron logs bolted
to oak beams below the armored deck. Quarter-inch gaps between the logs offered
the only view out. Inside, the pilothouse was a cramped 45-by-35-inch space,
not including the area consumed by the Monitor's wheel. From here the
quartermaster steered the vessel while the pilot watched the waters; the
Monitor's captain also crowded into the pilothouse when the vessel was
under way.
The Monitor's navigation equipment remains a mystery. A historical
reference discusses 'adjustments' to the ship's compass, but the effect of the
Monitor's iron mass on a small magnetic compass would have been
tremendous.
During the ironclad's famous battle with the CSS Virginia on March 8,
1862, a well-placed shot from the Confederate ironclad's stern gun landed
squarely on the Monitor's pilothouse. Captain John L. Worden happened to
be peering through the view slit where the shell hit. The impact blinded him,
though he would later recover sight in his right eye. Workers later repaired and
modified the pilothouse by adding angled sides around it. This is the
configuration seen in photographs of the ship.