What two naval revolutions occurred during the civil war?

Question

What two naval revolutions occurred during the civil war?

Answer 1

I know the Ironclad was invented during that period.  

Answer 2

The first submarine was invented by the south and it was quite successful

Answer 3

Don't know for sure, but the first two answers were both wrong.

One revolution might be: The rotating gun turret.  

The USS Monitor was the first ship to use this design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor

Another might be: Torpedo boats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo_boa...

Ironclad warships predate the civil war.

The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859;[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironclad

A  submarine, David Bushnell's Turtle, was used in the American Revolution, long before the Civil War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine

Contrary to what another answer stated, the South's submarines were NOT particularly successful. One Northern ship was lost to the HL Hunley, but that submarine sank when it tried to return to base after the attack.

A footnote on the Hunley's supposed "success":  The HL Hunley actually killed more Southern sailors (21) than Northern sailors (5).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.L._Hunley

(Aside: The Wikipedia introduction puts the number of Sourtherners lost at 32, I believe that is an error from other sources. Three crews were lost, but one had 3 survivors.

One answer's description of the Battle of Hampton Roads is highly inaccurate and reads as if it were written by a Southern revisionist.  Both the Monitor and the Virgina (aka Merrimac) scored hits on each other.  As should be expected, the Monitor's 11-inch guns proved to be more effective than the Virginia's 9-inch guns. Here is a paragraph quote from the article linked below:

"Although the two ships both left the encounter fully functional, Monitor's guns were considerably more powerful than Virginia's and managed to crack Virginia's armor plate in several places whereas the Virginia only managed to dent the Monitor's armor. Significantly, Monitor's crew used primarily solid shot and aimed at Virginia's upper works. When he heard about this, designer Ericsson was furious, exclaiming that if the crew had used explosive shells and aimed for the waterline, they would have sunk Virginia with ease (quoted by Ken Burns in his documentary The Civil War, episode 2: A Very Bloody Affair: 1862)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_H...

The_moondog's comments on rotating gun turrets are annoying ignorant and unannotated.  The Monitor, unlike the Southern iornclad warships, was truely a revolutionary design, and its armored, rotating gun turret was an true invention during the civil war.

The HMS Dreadnought, although it set the pattern for all future gunned battleships,  was NOT the ship that lead to the adoption of rotating gun turrets. Most "predreadnought" battleships, such as the one pictured below, used rotating gun turrets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HMS_O...

Also, the HMS Dreadnought was not a 19th centrury ship. Its keel was laid in 1905, and it was commissioned in 1906.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadno...

I don't understand we the_moondog dragged the North Carolina and Bismark into the discussion. Neither ship was revolutionary.

Answer 4

The ironclad warship and the submarine.

Ironclads were being developed in Europe before the war, but the American Civil War show there first use in combat.  

The submarine was developed by both the Union and Confederate navies, though only CSS H.L. Hunley was able to sink an enemy warship, USS Housatonic.  However, CSS Hunley was also lost in the attack.  It would not be until the 20th century that an effective submarine would be built.  

Answer 5

the precursor to the modern warship, the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimack, the first clash of ironclad ships. The fight ended in a draw- the monitor couldn't puntcure the armor of the confdederate ship, while the Merrimack couldn't depress it's guns low enough to hit the more nimble monitor, which stayed in too close.

The CSS Hunley- the first operational submarine, sank the USS Housatanic in Charleston, SC, by using a sticking a barbed harpoon in the side with a waterproof keg of explosives. The hunley never came home, and was found over 100 years later by a search team led by Clive Cussler (author and shipwreck expert), it was later raised, and, after an inconclusive investigation into the cause of it sinking, the skeletal remains that had been immedeatly covered and preserved by the silt in the harbor, were interred at the Civil War Confederate Cemetery in Charleston, SC with full military honors.

ecmfw's answer is techincally correct, but the american civil war was the first time that any of it was actually used in combat. While the rotating turret existed, it saw almost no real use until the british navy unveiled the HMS dreadnaught battleship in the late 19th century, and this would become the basis for all battleship designs up until the 1930's with the KMS Bismark and USS North Carolina battleships, which became known as the "Fast Battleship" design, as they were built for speed as well as power.