“The drawings on which the vessels were to be built were of the crudest character; only a midship section and one or two vague longitudinal sketches being furnished as a guide or basis of construction.
“Notwithstanding, as I said before, we were the lowest bidder, thereby saving millions of dollars to the government, only one was awarded to us. The balance was offered to the other bidders at our price, and the offer was accepted by most of them.
“Having received our contract, we promptly visited New York to get the details of construction and engines in order to begin work and procure materials. The demand for materials was greater than the supply, and all were in a feverish state of excitement. To get our orders out quickly, I immediately made application to Mr. Stimers for plans, and had a long and detailed conversation with him and Theodore Allen over what plans they had developed, and numerous alterations were made to the plans as drawn.
“Their first plan permitted the boilers to come within three and one-half inches of the bottom plating of the ship, practically landing the boilers on the three and one-half inch angle-bars, which had at that time no floors.
“I suggested in a rather strong way that this would not do, and after considerable discussion they concluded to make the vessels a little deeper, give the deck more spring, and put shallow floors in. Other important alterations were made as the work progressed.
“We would have had our vessel overboard first, but the northward march of General Lee previous to the battle of Antietem interfered with the furnishing of materials, and also with our own working force in the shipyard.
“Our employees, with those of the rolling-mills supplying materials near Philadelphia, organized themselves into military companies for the purpose of defence. Two companies were formed in our establishment.
“While these delays affected us, they did not interfere with the progress of the monitor which was building in Boston; but when this vessel was launched, she sank to the bottom from lack of buoyancy, and a halt was called on the nineteen other vessels.
“These vessels had been constructed on very vague plans and conditions. Mistakes were made in the original design, and weights added without investigating the correctness of the original sketch, which, with the so-called ‘calculations,’ were furnished by Mr. Ericsson; at least they had been examined, approved, and signed by him. They were not furnished to bidders.