There was a lot of fanfare during the Duel of Ironclads in 1862. The duel was the first meeting of ironclad warships. The world was eager to see how the ships would fare to make decisions on whether to build similar warships or to stick to the type they already built. Despite the inability to destroy each other, both The Monitor and The Merrimack encountered several challenges.
Many scholars argue that the Monitor won the war between the two ships. Due to this assumption, many warships were built to resemble The Monitor. However, the Monitor did encounter several problems due to its make. The first major problem was the weight of the sip. Due to the heavy weaponry that had been installed, it was much heavier than the Merrimack. In addition to this, the warship was also described as suicidal. The soldiers and staff that were inside had no way of getting out safely if the ship was damaged. Any person who would try to jump out of the ship would have been killed by the massive turbines that were underneath the ship. Similarly, the ship had a very weak undercover that started seeping in water during the battle.
The Merrimack, although nicely designed, also encountered several problems. The first problem was its wooden hulls. The wooden hulls were easy to penetrate. It suffices to mention that the ship had started inserting rams to help support the hulls. However, this was not enough. In addition to this, the warship was too slow. It was heavily built in an attempt to make it indestructible. Lastly, the ship was also a death trap as it had only one way out.