turret with heavy shot could bend the spindle, which could also jam the turret. To gain access to the turret from below, or to hoist up powder and shot during battle, the turret had to rotate to face starboard, which would line up the entry hatch in the floor of the turret with an opening in the deck below.Wilson, 1896, p. 30. The roof of the turret was lightly built to facilitate any needed exchange of the ship's guns and to improve ventilation, with only gravity holding the roof plates in place. The turret was intended to mount a pair of smoothbore Dahlgren guns, but they were not ready in time and guns were substituted, weighing approximately each. Monitors guns used the standard propellant charge of specified by the 1860 ordnance for targets "distant", "near", and "ordinary", established by the gun's designer Dahlgren himself. They could fire a round shot or shell up to a range of at an elevation of +15°. The top of the armored deck was only about above the waterline. It was protected by two layers of wrought iron armor. The sides of the "raft" consisted of three to five layers of iron plates, backed by about of pine and oak. Three of the plates extended the full height of the side, but the two innermost plates did not extend all the way down. Ericsson originally intended to use either six 1-inch plates or a single outer plate backed by three plates, but the thicker plate required too much time to roll. The two innermost plates were riveted together while the outer plates were bolted to the inner ones. A ninth plate, only thick and wide, was bolted over the butt joints of the innermost layer of armor. Glass portholes in the deck provided natural light for the interior of the ship; in action these were covered by iron plates. After the duel between the two ironclads at Hampton Roads there was concern by some Navy officials who witnessed the battle that Monitors design might allow for easy boarding by the Confederates. In a letter dated 27 April 1862 Lieutenant Commander O.C. Badger wrote to Lieutenant H. A. Wise, Assistant Inspector of Ordnance, advising the use of "liquid fire", scalding water from the boiler through hoses and pipes, sprayed out via the vents and pilothouse window, to repel enemy boarders. Wise who was aboard and inspected