Puritan and the Amphitrite class were to remain under construction for an extraordinarily long period due both to design changes and to the reluctance of the US Congress to appropriate funds for their completion.

On 1 October 1873, the American-flagged merchant ship Virginius was intercepted by the Spanish Navy on suspicion of supplying provisions and personnel to a Cuban insurgency.

[6] In the years following the American Civil War, the US Congress had allowed the Navy to fall into disrepair as the nation focussed its energies on reconstruction and westward expansion.

Continental Iron Works was the only firm to decline Robeson's offer, and consequently John Roach & Sons accepted the contracts to build both Puritan and Miantonomoh.

Thompson was shocked to discover the total indebtedness of the Navy to be in excess of seven million dollars, and he quickly slashed expenditures across the board by fifty percent.

[13] The four shipyards which had contracted to build the monitors were now forced to retain the cancelled ships in an unfinished state on their slipways at their own expense, while their debts went unpaid.

[16] Following this board's recommendations, Congress in August 1882 tentatively authorized the completion of the Amphitrite-class monitors to the launching stage, including the installation of engines and boilers.

[17] The new Board eventually recommended the construction of several new protected cruisers and a dispatch vessel, as well as the completion of the Amphitrite-class monitors including the extra armor for Puritan.

[4] Following their transfer to the Navy yards, the ships were to suffer even longer delays due to repeated design changes, and construction proceeded at a snail's pace.

Monitor warships suffered a variety of well known defects, the most obvious of which was the type's poor suitability to oceangoing service, due mainly to the very low freeboard—a feature originally included as a means of reducing the vessel's exposure to enemy fire.

Other problems which diminished the type's practicality for seagoing service were the low speed and short range due to a lack of space for fuel.

An additional problem was the lack of ventilation which often made for almost unbearable heat below deck (the engine room of one particular monitor once recorded a temperature of 200 °F (93 °C)).

For example, during one sortie to Puerto Rico, USS Amphitrite had to be taken under tow as she lacked the fuel reserves to travel there under her own steam, reducing the speed of the entire fleet to a mere seven knots.

[19] Monadnock, meanwhile, earned the distinction of becoming one of only two U.S. Navy monitors ever to cross the Pacific Ocean when she sailed for the Philippines theater in the same year, after which she remained in the Far East for the rest of her career.