This picture was nominated as a featured picture candidate in April 2009.

This picture has an incorrect tag. This is not the USS Monitor but the USS Patapsco.

The evidence for not being the USS Monitor:

1. Pilot house on top of turret, not forward deck. 2. Gun ports are of different sizes. Only Roanoke and Passaic class monitors had this feature. 3. No rod wrapped around turret near the top. 4. Bullet shield was added to USS Monitor at the Washington Navy yard just before her loss.

The evidence for being the USS Patapsco:

1. Only Roanoke- and Passaic-class monitors had gun ports of different sizes. 2. I can identify only three Passaic class monitors with bullet shields: the Patapsco, Sangamon, and Nahant. The Nahant bullet shield was reported to be painted green, while the Sangamon and Patapsco shields were said to be painted black. 3. The turret ring/base of turret was “lead grey" on the Nahant, black on the Sangamon and white on the Patapsco. Looking to the right and left of the fourth seated figure from the left you can see the white base of the turret/turret ring. 4. The picture appears to show a black pilot house, a black bullet shield, and a black turret with a narrow white band at the top and base.

Conclusion:

1. The ship is not the USS Monitor, but a Passaic-class monitor. 2. The USS Patapsco is the only Passaic-class monitor painted with a black pilot house, a black bullet shield and a black turret with a narrow white ring on top of turret and another white ring at the base of the turret.