Feb 28th 1844

[Anav]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princeton_Disaster_of_1844

[csadn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princeton_Disaster_of_1844

Which incident very nearly prevented the Union having USS _Monitor_ for the American Civil War -- the incident was blamed on the gun's designer, one John Ericsson; Ericsson was so infuriated by the impugning of his name (as well as the navy refusing to pay him for his work), he refused to have anything to do with the naval establishment (to where he even refused to set foot inside Washington DC). It took some serious cajoling by Cornelius Bushnell (another shipwright) to convince Ericsson to submit to the US Ironclad Board the design for _Monitor_.