Built by contract with John Ericsson at Green Point, Long Island, and launched January 30, 1862, the USS Monitor saw its first naval action at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March 9, 1862. Despite the CSS Virginia being almost twice its size, with ten guns, the Monitor with its two eleven-inch turret guns held its own. The engagement ended in a draw. The Monitor sank in a gale off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on December 31, 1862.