A wooden bulkhead with a door in the center separated the wardroom and officers
quarters from the berth deck. Two portholes on either side of the door
offered the officers a view into the berth deck, allowing them to keep an eye
on the crew. Small-arms racks mounted on the wardroom bulkhead held muskets,
revolvers, and cutlasses, which were issued to crew members assigned to landing
parties or as needed to repel boarders.
Two small rooms just inside the bulkhead to port and starboard served as the
Monitor's dispensary and spirit locker, while the rest of the
9-by-15-foot compartment was the wardroom proper. Here the Monitor's
officers took their meals and gathered in the evenings to socialize or
entertain visitors. Furnishings included an oak table, hardwood chairs,
lanterns, and shelves, all for the comfort of the officers.
Monitor inventor John Ericsson realized the transition from
traditional warships to a semi-submerged ironclad would not be easy for naval
officers, so he strove to make the Monitor as comfortable as possible
for them. At his (and his investors') expense, Ericsson lavishly furnished the
officers' living areas with some of the best non-traditional materials he could
gather in New York.
He had the walls whitewashed and trimmed with fine walnut and oak moldings, and
he had the floor covered with a canvas oilcloth with a thick tapestry carpet
laid on top. Overhead, two deck lights allowed small shafts of sunlight and,
when opened on pleasant days, air to penetrate the area. Ericsson also
provided white ironstone china for the table settings. Each piece bore the name
Monitor in gold gilt, and one account alludes to monogrammed silver.
Blowers in the vessel's stern ventilated both the berth deck and the wardroom.
Air from the blowers reached the crew areas through the flooring. Ericsson had
the floor beams forward of the midships bulkhead perforated on the outboard
ends to allow air to pass through and up into the berth deck and wardroom.
Registers fitted into the floor controlled the volume of air fed into the
various living areas, while a radiator heated by the ship's boilers warmed the
area in cold weather.