BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Newport News -- Mariner's Museum -- USS Monitor Center

VA -- Newport News -- Mariner's Museum -- USS Monitor Center:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MARMO1_120922_008.JPG: USS Monitor's John Ericsson's unique design for this four-fluke anchor was developed specifically for the USS Monitor. At around 11:30pm, on December 30, 1862, Commander John Bankhead ordered the anchor dropped to help stabilize the Monitor as she fought a growing gale. In 1983, a scientific team found the anchor 400 feet off the starboard bow of the wreck. The anchor was the first large metal artifact recovered from the wreck of the Monitor by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Navy. It took almost three years for conservators to remove the marine encrustations of sand, salt, and marine life that can cause the iron to corrode, and to stabilize the metal.
2. MARMO1_120922_011.JPG: "Trophy No. 1": On May 10, 1862, Union forces took Norfolk, and regained Gosport Navy Yard. There they found the damaged gun and claimed it as a trophy soon thereafter. Since that time it has been on view in Washington, DC, Dahlgren, and Fredericksburg, VA. During conservation work here at The Mariners' Museum, conservators uncovered what is like 19th century graffiti. It seems everyone wanted to leave a mark on this gun!
3. MARMO1_120922_015.JPG: Captain Thomas Kevill: Lillian Freiman, c 1938 Kevill was captain of a group of 31 artillerymen from the United Artillery which was attached to the 41st Virginia Infantry as 1st Company E. They volunteered to serve aboard the CSS Virginia during the battles of March 8 and March 9, 1862. In his official report of the March 8th engagement, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan wrote of Kevill and his men: "The muzzle of their gun was struck by a shell from the enemy, which broke off a piece of the gun, but they continued to fire as if it was uninjured."
4. MARMO1_120922_029.JPG: CSS Virginia During the March 8, 1862 battle, intense gunfire from the USS Cumberland shot off the muzzle on the IV-inch Dahlgren gun mounted broadside on the CSS Virginia. Another of the Virginia's guns was also damaged, but the crew continued to fire both weapons. One crewman died and several were injured. The guns were removed from the Virginia following the battle on March 9, and returned to Gosport Navy Yard. The gun was originally cast at Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia in 1859. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861, Union forces attempted to destroy war materials at Gosport Navy Yard to keep them out of the hands of the Confederacy. You can see the marks where fleeing troops attempted to disable it. Yet it gained a new life on the Confederate ironclad Virginia.
5. MARMO1_120922_046.JPG: These two forensic facial reconstructions were created using resin casts of the two sailors remains who were recovered from the Turret of the USS Monitor in 2002 by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Navy. The work was done by Louisiana State University Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhanced Services (FACES) Laboratory. These faces were created in an effort to help identify the two men with the hope of eventually reuniting them with their families.
6. MARMO1_120922_058.JPG: USS Monitor's Engine Room Clock: The clock in the Monitor's engine room helped the Engineers keep track of the hours the engine ran. Regularly scheduled maintenance and lubrication were required to keep the Monitor's engine and other machinery running smoothly.
7. MARMO1_120922_062.JPG: USS Monitor's Engine Room Clock: The clock in the Monitor's engine room helped the Engineers keep track of the hours the engine ran. Regularly scheduled maintenance and lubrication were required to keep the Monitor's engine and other machinery running smoothly. When did the Clock Stop? The hands of the clock have largely disappeared due to rust, but the remains of the hour hand are pointing to one o'clock. This is about the time the Monitor's survivors said she went down. Will it run again? No.. the brass parts of the clock are in such good condition after conservation that it might be possible to get it running, but this would result in wearing out the original historic parts which no longer have the strength they once did. After nearly 140 years on the ocean floor all the steel parts and screws have corroded. These parts have been carefully re-created by Roger Conner of Virginia Beach and re-assembled to show the clock movement as it appeared before the sinking.
8. MARMO1_120922_068.JPG: Lantern, recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor: This brass lantern was discovered by NOAA archaeologists inside the Monitor's gun turret during archaeological excavations in 2002. It probably illuminated the dim interior of the vessel the night of the sinking and offered desperate sailors a glimpse of hope as they scrambled out of the turret and off the ill-fated ship. Conservators have preserved this lantern and it now sheds light on one of history's great stories.
9. MARMO1_120922_076.JPG: Wooden Drawer recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor: This drawer was excavated from the Monitor's turret in September 2002. Historians believe that it may have ended up in the turret when the ship turned upside down as it sank. Conservators removed marine encrustations and metallic salts, then immersed the drawer in polyethylene glycol (PEG) to fill the fragile cells of the waterlogged wood. The drawer was then freeze-died to complete the treatment.
10. MARMO1_120922_082.JPG: Ericsson's Folly. Cheesebox on a raft. Tin can. That was how people once described the USS Monitor. The CSS Virginia fared no better. They called her an iron coffin. Dante's Inferno. Some even called her by her former name, the USS Merimack. But when the two ships met in Hampton Roads on March 9th, 1862 -- in a battle that lasted a little over four hours - naval warfare changed forever. Neither vessel survived beyond 1862 - above water, that is. The Virginia was destroyed in May of that year by her own crew lest she fall into enemy hands. The Monitor succumbed to the elements of Cape Hatteras on New Years Eve, 1862. Discovered in 1973, the wreck site of the Monitor became America's first National Marine Sanctuary in 1975, under the protection of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) an agency of the US Department of Commerce. Since that time, hundreds of artifacts have been recovered, including the Monitor's propeller, engine, and revolving gun turret. Both vessels live on in artifacts, words and images.
11. MARMO1_120922_096.JPG: Spy Story: Civil War Spies and Leaks: It's hard to imagine a war without spies and intelligence leaks. Early in the Civil War, neither side managed to keep all of its sensitive information to itself. In the ironclad race, it was leaked information about the Confederate ironclad project that finally spurred northern naval leaders to build an iron ship of their own. Intelligence Leaks: When it came to wartime communication, the wide waters of Hampton Roads were no obstacle at all. Daily ferry service for civilians continued throughout the war. Two boats -- one northern and one southern -- would meet in the middle of Hampton Roads to exchange mail, newspapers, passengers, and prisoners. Some workers in Gosport were suspected of harboring northern sympathies, and it would have been easy for them to pass information about the CSS Virginia to contacts just across the Roads.
12. MARMO1_120922_100.JPG: Lack of Censorship: If you wanted to know how the two ironclads were coming along, all you had to do was look in a newspaper, for the press routinely ran articles about them. Both Scientific American and Harper's Weekly published detailed articles about the USS Monitor, and it didn't take much effort to obtain a copy. For their part, southern newspapers were so eager to praise the Virginia that some believe Mallory planted stories criticizing his ironclad just to mislead the north.
13. MARMO1_120922_106.JPG: The War from The Air: An early use of hot air balloons provided Federal forces with some overhead surveillance of Confederate defenses throughout the Hampton Roads areas, when John LaMountain ascended in a balloon from Fort Monroe on July 31, 1861. Both Union and Confederate balloons became a common site during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. "The woman had passed through the lines, at great risk to herself." Mary Louvestre was a slave working in the commandant's quarters overlooking Gosport Navy Yard during the conversion of the USS Merrimack into the Virginia. In late February 1862, she received permission from her owners to visit a sick relative in northern Virginia. Instead, she traveled to Washington, DC to meet secretly with Federal Navy Secretary Gideon Welles. Louvestre carried information concerning the Virginia she had obtained from a shipyard worker with Union sympathies. Louvestre informed Welles that the 'Merrimack' was nearly finished, had come out of the dock, and was receiving her armament. Welles recalled, "The woman had passed through the lines, at great risk to herself, to bring me information... [that] made us not less anxious for the speedy completion of the battery [Monitor]."
14. MARMO1_120922_111.JPG: Limitations of the Design: The CSS Virginia was a fearsome ship launched in remarkably short time, but she had her share of problems. She had inherited weak engines and a deep draft from the scuttled USS Merrimack, and these flaws would have serious consequences in battle. New problems cropped up, too: * The last-minute addition of the ram resulted in a cracked flange * The connection between the new casemate and the existing hull was not perfect * A miscalculation in the vessel's displacement caused an unexpected vulnerability in her hull. "Radically Defective" Engines: The Merrimack's engines had also been weak and prone to breaking down -- but then, the Merrimack was primarily a sailing ship that didn't need to rely on her engines very often. By the time the Confederates had raised the scuttled Merrimack, her engines had been laid up for fifteen months, including one month submerged in salt water. Chief Engineer William Williamson returned the Virginia's engines to working order, but they remained "radically defective."
15. MARMO1_120922_115.JPG: Deep Draft: The Confederates saved weeks -- maybe months -- by using the Merrimack's existing hull. But doing so meant that the Virginia was stuck with the 22-foot draft of an enormous sailing frigate. This would prove to be a problem in Hampton Roads, with its shallow shoal waters and shortage of deep channels. In the end, it was the draft that would be the Confederate ironclad's undoing.
16. MARMO1_120922_118.JPG: Faulty Ram: Mallory hoped the Virgina's ram would have the effect of the "bayonet charge of the infantry." But as luck would have it, a heavy sledgehammer used to attach the 1,500-pound ram seriously cracked one of the flanges holding the ram in place. While the ram succeeded in sending one opponent to the depths of Hampton Roads, it became a casualty of the battle itself and may still be lying near its victim, the USS Cumberland. Displacement Miscalculation: Displacement was a critical calculation, and Porter got it wrong. When the Virginia was launched in February 1862, the armored shield barely reached below the water's surface. As the ship consumed both fuel and ammunition in the course of combat, she would ride higher in the water, perhaps even exposing the wooden hull to enemy fire. Executive Officer Catesby Jones complained, "We are least protected where we need it most."
17. MARMO1_120922_122.JPG: Construction Delays on the CSS Virginia: The Virginia had a sizable head start on the Monitor. But the Confederates ran into problem after problem, beginning with a shortage of skilled workmen. Eventually three shifts of more than 1,500 men worked around the clock to finish the ironclad, but design changes, material shortages, and transportation snags delayed the project. So the ship that was supposed to have been launched in November 1861 was instead launched on February 17, 1862, more than two weeks after the Monitor. Iron Shortages: For the South, which had little large-scale industry, 1,000 tons of iron was a lot of iron. But that's how much Porter calculated would be needed to armor the CSS Virginia. By the summer of 1861, Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, the contractor chosen to produce the ship's plate, had already used up its pre-war supply of iron. Hundreds of tons of old tools, obsolete guns, and railroad iron had to be melted down and rolled into plate to armor the newfangled ship. Plate Thickness: Brooke was pretty sure that 1-inch-thick plate -- the thickest Tredegar could produce -- would not be enough to protect the Virginia. A test conducted on Jamestown Island in early October 1861 showed that he was right: solid shot from an 8-inch Columbiad shattered an iron plate and went 5 inches into the wood backing. Tredegar was forced to retool its machinery to produce 2-inch-thick plate, and the Confederates were faced with yet another delay.
18. MARMO1_120922_125.JPG: "A Means of Perfect Protection": By the summer of 1861, it was clear that the Confederacy had embarked on an ironclad building program in Hampton Roads. In response, the US Congress authorized $1.5 million for the construction of "Iron-Clad Steam Vessels" for the US Navy. Classified ads ran in newspapers throughout the North, and by early September 1861, 16 proposals had been submitted for consideration tot he newly formed Ironclad Board. The Monitor would be the seventeenth.
19. MARMO1_120922_138.JPG: CSS Virginia's Engines: From Auxiliary to Necessary: The Virginia's Engines: The USS Merrimack's "two horizontal, jet condensing engines" were designed to be purely auxiliary -- her primary power was through her sails. But the Virginia had no sails, and those same engines had spent time on the bottom fo the Elizabeth River. Still, her engineers made do with that they had and coaxed the cranky engines into service as the Virginia's primary mode of power. In smooth water, uninfluenced by wind or current, the engineers could expect a maximum speed of nine knots. The reality was more sobering -- the Virginia averaged about five. By the Numbers: The Virginia's engines were large and hungry. They occupied a space that was 20'3" long, 22'6" wide and they stood 12' high. The engines were powered by steam from four boilers, which, when filled with water, weighed an impressive 129 tons combined. Water was heated to 137 degrees Fahrenheit before it entered the boilers, and the furnaces consumed on average 3400 pounds of anthracite coal per hour.
20. MARMO1_120922_147.JPG: Bushnell, Lincoln & Ericsson: "On the Matter of Ironclad Ships": The Ironclad Board questioned the seaworthiness of Bushnell's USS Galena. However, a chance encounter with Cornelius Delamater at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, led Bushnell to New York to consult with John Ericsson. Ericsson quickly determined that the Galena was seaworthy, but asked Bushness if he had time to look at Ericsson's own design. Bushness was impressed with what he saw and took Ericsson's plan back to the Ironclad Board -- along with the Galena, of course. "It Strikes Me There's Something in It": The Ironclad Board was not pleased when it learned that the design Bushnell was promoting belonged to John Ericsson. But Bushnell would not give up. He used his friendship with Welles to insinuate himself into a meeting with President Lincoln and the Ironclad Board on September 13, 1861. Lincoln was impressed with Ericsson's model and reportedly said, "All I have to say is what the girl said when she stuck her foot into the stocking. It strikes me there's something to it." [I've talked to a number of people and we have no idea what this quote actually means.]
21. MARMO1_120922_152.JPG: "The image of nothing..." Commodores Smith and Paulding were willing to consider Ericsson's proposal. But Captain Davis adamantly refused, even with the President's endorsement. He told Bushnell to "take the little thing home and worship it, as it would not be idolatry, because it was in the image of nothing in the heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth." Bushnell realized the only way to truly persuade the board was for Ericsson to explain his strange version in person. "...worthy of the genius of an Ericsson." Ericsson was adamant in his refusal to speak with the Navy. Bushnell would have to play to Ericsson's vanity to get the imperious Swede to Washington. Bushnell told Ericsson, "Paulding says that your boat would be the thing to punish those Rebels at Charleston." He continued, "You have a friend in Washington -- Commodore Smith. He worships you. He says those plans are worthy of the genius of an Ericsson." Then he slyly mentioned that "Captain Davis wants a little explanation in detail which I could not give." But Ericsson could explain. So he announced, "I will go today!" "Your duty to the country..." On September 15, 1861, Ericsson appeared before the Ironclad Board, only to be told his plan had already been rejected. This was unacceptable to the enormously self-confident Ericsson, who told them, "Gentlemen... I consider it to be your duty to your country to give me an order to build the vessel before I leave this room."
22. MARMO1_120922_157.JPG: "Wanted: Iron-Clad Steam Vessels" In early August 1861, a notice from the US Department of the Navy appeared in the major Northern dailies requesting proposals for "Iron Clad Steam Vessels..." for sea or river service." The Navy desperately wanted a vessel that could answer the USS Merrimack's challenge. The design criteria were introduced to produce a warship suited to the unique challenge of confronting the CSS Virginia in Southern waters. The ship had to have: * Shallow draft to navigate shallow coastal waters and rivers * Iron armor * Powerful guns * Sails and rigging * A fast-track construction schedule Some Outlandish Proposals: By early September 1861, the Ironclad Board had received sixteen proposals, including one for a rubber-clad ship. After much debate, the three officers chose two proposals for construction. Both designs represented only a moderate departure from traditional warship design. One of these would be named the USS New Ironsides, the other the USS Galena.
23. MARMO1_120922_160.JPG: The Northern Response: The Ironclad Board: Federal Navy Secretary Gideon Welles had made a dangerous mistake. As late as April 1861, he had rejected a proposal to build iron warships to control the Mississippi River, preferring instead to find wooden ships to enforce the Union blockade. But that was before intelligence had reached him concerning the conversion of the former USS Merrimack into a Confederate ironclad. Acting on this information, Welles recommended that the US Congress immediately appoint an ironclad committee. On August 3, 1861, Congress authorized $1.5 million for the construction of armor-clad vessels and established an Ironclad Board to review design proposals. "We have no experience in this department..." The naval officers Welles appointed to the Ironclad Board were all veterans of the traditional sailing navy. Sixth-four-year-old retired Commodore Hiram Paulding, had fought in the War of 1812. Commodore Joseph Smith, 71, was the chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Captain Charles Davis, 54, although younger, was no expert on either construction or steam machinery. Smith himself stated that, in terms of ironclad vessels, "We have no experience in the Department of naval architecture, and must depend on information obtained as best we can from across the Atlantic."
24. MARMO1_120922_166.JPG: "The Most Practicable One for Heavy Armor": Merrick and Sons of Philadelphia used the basic design of the French ironclad Gloire for the USS New Ironsides. With an angled casemate made of 4-1/2 inches of iron plate, a submerged ram, and a battery of sixteen heavy guns, the New Ironsides was the most powerful of the Civil War ironclads. New Ironsides: As the flagship of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the New Ironsides saw action more times than any other Union blockading ship. She took part in the assault on Fort Fisher in January 1865, an attack that led to the fall of Wilmington, the last Atlantic port controlled by the Confederates.
25. MARMO1_120922_170.JPG: The Inside Bid: The iron gunboat USS Galena was a 210-foot-long, sail-rigged vessel with six guns in her broadside. Designed by Samuel H. Pook of Connecticut, she featured a curved, sloped casemate, 3-1/4 inches of iron plate, and an unarmored deck. The conservative Galena was just the kind of ship the Ironclad Board liked, but she had a secret advantage too: Pook's design was submitted by Cornelius S. Bushnell, a powerful Connecticut financier with connections in Congress. Galena: It was not long before the Galena's design flaws began to show themselves. During her first engagement at Drewry's Bluff on the James River in May 1862, Confederates high on the river bluffs fired down on the ironclad's unarmored deck. She survived the encounter but was soon stripped of her armor and recommissioned as a wooden gunboat.
26. MARMO1_120922_190.JPG: The Contracts: The Navy's terms were strict. They included a money-back guarantee if the vessel failed in any way and a requirement for space to store provisions and fuel for up to three months. [? Not sure what this sentence actually means ?] The vessel would be 179 feet long and 41 feet wide, and be built for $275,000. But most surprisingly, the contract contained a requirement for masts, sails, and rigging, which would defeat the ship's most important design feature: her revolving turret. True to form, Ericsson simply ignored the various terms of the contract that he did not like. "All the labor necessary": Thomas Rowland's Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, would be the primary base of operations for constructing Ericsson's ironclad. In a contract dated October 25, 1861, Rowland agreed "to furnish all the tools and facilities, and do all the labor necessary to execute the iron work of an Iron Battery Hull... [and] to do the said work in a thorough and workmanlike manner and to the entire satisfaction of Captain Ericsson in the shortest possible space of time." The ink was barely dry on the contract when Rowland's workmen laid the keel of the ironclad that same day.
27. MARMO1_120922_207.JPG: Building the Union Ironclad: Ericsson claimed he could deliver an ironclad in 90 days -- the Navy gave him 100. But Ericsson had already been hard at work even before the contract was signed on October 4, 1861. They laid the keel on October 25th at the Continental Ironworks in Brooklyn. To save time, nine contractors and an unknown number of subcontractors worked simultaneously in at least seven different cities to produce the components for assembly at Continental. It was an extraordinarily complex manufacturing process -- but then, this would be no ordinary ship.
28. MARMO1_120922_210.JPG: A Gentlemen's Agreement: John Ericsson was not alone. Three other men, Cornelius Bushnell, John Winslow and John Griswold, helped him convince the Ironclad Board to take up his design. They also put up seed money in return for a quarter interest in the enterprise and an equal share in any later Ericsson ironclads. There was no written agreement regarding shares between the four. Winslow recalled that "it was simply a verbal agreement and nothing more..." Cornelius Bushnell: By the time the contract was awarded, Cornelius Bushnell had done most of his important work for the partnership. He had been pivotal in pushing the project, first through Congress and then through the Ironclad Board. He then shifted his attention to supervising the construction of his other ironclad, the Galena, at Mystic Bridge, Connecticut. John F. Winslow: John Winslow was just the man to find the iron and armor plate needed for the project. He was a managing partner of the Albany Ironworks and an investor in the Rensselaer Ironworks -- firms subcontracted to supply the angle and bar iron, and the spikes and bolts needed to assemble to vessel. John A. Griswold: John Griswold, another industrialist from Troy, oversaw the project's complex financing. Elected mayor of Troy in 1855, he became a congressman in 1862. The ironclad project was a nice coup for Griswold, who also happened to own the Rensselear Ironworks.
29. MARMO1_120922_217.JPG: Why "Monitor"? Almost everything about the ironclad was Ericsson's idea -- even her name. Throughout construction, the ship had been referred to as "Ericsson's Battery." In a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox, Ericsson wrote that the "impregnable and aggressive character" of the ship "will admonish the leaders of the Southern Rebellion that [their] batteries... will no longer present barriers to the entrance of Union forces. The iron-clad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor..." The name struck, and on January 20, 1862, the ironclad became the USS Monitor.
30. MARMO1_120922_221.JPG: Cowper Phipps Coles: While Theodore Timby was discussing his turret with Napoleon III, Cowper Coles, a captain in the British Royal Navy, was putting a turret into action near Sebastopol. The protective turret sat atop a raft and worked well enough that Coles drafted plans and applied for a patent as early as 1859. Coles continued to perfect his creation, and in 1866 the Royal Navy agreed to the construction of a low-freeboard turreted vessel -- the HMS Captain. Unfortunately the need for auxiliary sails and rigging to make the Captain a seagoing vessel also made her unstable, and led to the death of Coles, who went down with his ship in 1870. He was 51.
31. MARMO1_120922_223.JPG: Theodore Ruggles Timby: John Ericsson may be remembered for the first warship with a turret, but Theodore Timby was the American who held the patent on the turret. Born in Dover, New York, in 1822, Timby first conceived of the rotating gun turret when he was 19 years old. Between 1841 and 1848 Timby presented his plans to a variety of US government officials, including Jefferson Davis, but the government did nothing. In 1856 Timby sought an audience with Emperor Napoleon III of France to promote his turret concept but the emperor was also uninterested. But Timby's work had not gone unnoticed. Recognizing that Timby had a patent, Ericsson's financial backers arranged in 1862 to pay Timby a royalty for every turret constructed on an Ericsson vessel. Timby never received all the money due to him, and died in 1909.
32. MARMO1_120922_228.JPG: The Casemate: The casemate was what defined a Confederate ironclad. The Virginia's casemate, or shield, was 170 feet long, beginning 29 feet from the bow. The walls of the casemate were 28 inches thick, constructed in five layers of 8-inch-wide by 8-foot-long sections of timber and iron. The layers were arranged this way from interior to exterior: * 16 inches of pine laid vertically * 4 inches of pine laid horizontally * 4 inches of oak laid vertically * 2 inches of iron plate laid horizontally * 2 inches of iron plate laid vertically Constructed Like an Arch: The Virginia's shield was a clever piece of work. With alternating horizontal and vertical layers, it was resilient and nearly impossible to penetrate. The layers of wood provided shock absorption, and additional "knees" -- brackets of live oak -- were added under the original Merrimack gun deck to support the weight of the casemate. The roof and the casemate walls worked together like an arch, protecting the guns and gun crew.
33. MARMO1_120922_247.JPG: The Pilothouse: Seeing through the CSS Virginia's view slits was not easy. The pilothouse -- a conical cast iron structure protruding from the top of the casemate -- was designed for protection, not easy viewing. In order to see out, the captain had to stand on a platform inside the gun deck. When the Virginia was under way, the platform might hold the captain and his lieutenant, and one or two pilots. Acting Master William Parrish served as the principal pilot of the Virginia. He was assisted by four civilian pilots: William Clarke, Thomas Cunningham, Hezekiah Williams and George Wright.
34. MARMO1_120922_254.JPG: The Pivot Gun: Brooke installed 7-inch rifles of his own design in the CSS Virginia's bow and stern, each mounted on a pivot that allowed the gun to be aimed through one of three gun-ports at the ends of the casemate. This arrangement offered greater flexibility in aiming the gun without having to turn the ship.
35. MARMO1_120922_257.JPG: Recruiting the Crew: While there was an excellent pool of former US navy officers from which to choose, ordinary sailors were harder to find. When recruiting stations in Norfolk and Richmond failed to yield the 320 men needed to man the CSS Virginia, artillerymen from nearby Confederate Army units were recruited. Finally, on March 6, 1862, the last contingent was mustered when Captain Thomas Kevill and his United Artillery Company "volunteered to go on board the Ironclad Steamer Virginia." Lt. Catesby AP Roger Jones: Lt. Jones was watching the Merrimack conversion like a hawk. A noted US Navy ordnance expert, Jones had served on the Merrimack and in November 1861 Mallory appointed him executive officer of the ship in hopes that he'd be able to move the project along. Late on March 8, when the Virginia's commander was wounded, Jones would assume command, taking her into the historic battle with the USS Monitor the next day.
36. MARMO1_120922_261.JPG: Chief Engineer H. Ashton Ramsey: Like many other naval officers, H. Ashton Ramsey "went south," joining the fledgling Confederate Navy in May 1861. A talented 25-year-old engineer working on the conversion of the USS Merrimack, Ramsey was named acting chief engineer of the soon-to-be-christened CSS Virginia. It would be Ramsay [sic] who would coax the most out of the Merrimack's pathetic engines during the Virginia's assault on the Federal fleet and her historic clash with the USS Monitor the following day. Private Richard Curtis: Private Richard Curtis was a boatman before the war, he served in the Army of the Peninsula, and was a veteran of the Battle of Big Bethel in June of 1861. He was transferred to the Virginia to serve as an ordinary seaman -- a step below seaman, which required two years' experience. Curtis and his fellow crewmen received $18 per month plus 4 cents a day for grog, a traditional naval drink of watered-down rum.
37. MARMO1_120922_265.JPG: Lt. John Taylor Wood: Lieutenant John Taylor Wood had serious connections. A nephew by marriage of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and a grandson of President Zachary Taylor, Wood had taught at the US Naval Academy before the war but resigned his commission after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Like other US Navy officers who "went south," Wood was considered a deserter. He had to move several times to avoid arrest before joining the crew of the CSS Virginia. Captain Thomas Kevill: The ironclad's first battle was just two days away when Captain Thomas Kevill and 31 members of Company E, 41st Virginia Infantry Regiment, volunteered to serve on the Virginia and scrambled aboard. Company E was a pre-war militia group that happened to include several experienced sailors. Most of the men were assigned as gunners of the Virginia's Gun #9, serving under Kevill's command.
38. MARMO1_120922_268.JPG: Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan: For a while, no one knew for sure what Maryland would do. Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, a 61-year-old Maryland native and career navy officer, resigned his US Navy commission when it appeared that his home state would secede in April 1861. When Maryland did not secede, Buchanan applied for reinstatement, but Federal Navy Secretary Gideon Welles turned him down. Buchanan then joined the Confederate navy and Mallory quickly named him commander of the James River Defenses. The CSS Virginia was his flagship.
39. MARMO1_120922_275.JPG: The CSS Virginia's Gun Deck: The gun deck of the Virginia was a crowded and dangerous place. The sharp slope of the casemate meant only 7 feet of headroom and a beam of 30 feet. In order to allow room for recoil and loading, the guns had to be staggered along the two broadsides. Ten guns could fit on the deck this way, but handling the guns during combat was tricky. Still, Brooke wanted to give the Virginia the most devastating battery she could carry. Life on Board: There was nothing comfortable or healthy about life on the Virginia. There wasn't even enough space to bunk 320 men, so the crew usually quartered on shore until they went into battle. When they had to stay on board, they slept in leaky, poorly ventilated quarters. At any given time, at least one-third of the crew was sick and in need of transfer off the ship. The officers asked for replacements as often as they could.
40. MARMO1_120922_279.JPG: The Guns: The USS Merrimack's engines may have been weak, but her guns were not. In fact, the Confederates kept many of the Merrimack's original IX-inch Dahlgrens as part of the CSS Virginia's battery. The Dahlgrens were already powerful guns, but Brooke made them even more devastating by modifying two of them to fire hot shot. A special furnace was installed in the engine room to prepare shot for the guns during combat. Four more guns rounded out the battery. At the bow and stern was a 7-inch Brooke rifle on a pivot mount which allowed it to be moved to three available gunports. In the broadsides there were two 6.4-inch Brooke rifles.
41. MARMO1_120922_283.JPG: The walls were thick!
42. MARMO1_120922_295.JPG: A Novel Process to Build a Novel Vessel: It usually took about 550 days to build a warship, and Ericsson had 100. The task was enormous: constructing an entirely new kind of warship, made primarily of iron, with nine different fabricators and countless sub-contractors working in several states, in just over three months. But news of the CSS Virginia's progress at Gosport was a powerful incentive. Ericsson had no choice but to use a novel building process.
43. MARMO1_120922_298.JPG: 1861: * October 4 -- Contract between government and the "Battery Associates" signed. * October 4 -- Chief Engineer Alban C. Stimers named US Navy's superintendent for project. * October 7 -- Contract to build shiphouse issued to Allen Dickerman. * October 8 -- Abbott & Sons contracted to produce all of the 1-inch iron plate. * October 19 -- Worthington Pumps purchased. * October 23 -- Construction of rudder begins.
44. MARMO1_120922_306.JPG: 1861: * October 25 -- Contract signed by Rowland of Continental to construct a "single-turreted ironclad at .075 cents per pound." * October 25 -- Keel laid at Continental. * November 6 -- Ericsson accepts offer from Clute Brothers to build the turret, engines, gun carriages, anchor hoister (windlass), and engine room grates. * November 11 -- Rowland advised Ericsson that he has 175 men at work on the project.
45. MARMO1_120922_309.JPG: 1861: * November 16 -- Iron deck beams installed. * November 23 -- Scientific American article on the 'Ericsson Battery' appears.
46. MARMO1_120922_314.JPG: 1861: * Early December -- Hull completed. * Early December -- Deck installed atop the hull. * December 5 -- Wooden bulwark installed. * December 17 -- Ericsson reports that the engine has been installed. * December 17 -- Stimers orders wrought iron shot for the XI-inch guns.
47. MARMO1_120922_318.JPG: 1861: * December 17 -- Ericsson reports that the engine has been installed. * December 17 -- Stimers orders wrought iron shot for the XI-inch guns.
48. MARMO1_120922_321.JPG: 1861: * December 31 -- Boilers installed. * December 31 -- Hull painted by E. Bootman & Son. * December 31 -- Chief Engineer Stimers tests engines and propeller. 1862: * January 5 -- Congressman Winslow informs Ericsson that if the 'Ericsson Battery' is successful he has obtained a guarantee that 20 ironclads will be constructed. * January 12 -- 100-day construction timetable expires.
49. MARMO1_120922_324.JPG: After the Deadline: 1862: * March 6 -- Ordered to Hampton Roads * March 4 -- Successfully completes sea trials * February 27 -- Steering malfunction due to a misbalanced rudder. * February 25 -- Monitor commissioned as a 4th rate ship. * February 20 -- Steering problems require significant repair * February 19 -- Monitor delivered to US Navy for testing at Brooklyn Navy Yard. * February 9 -- Turret assembled. * January 30 -- Ship launched at Continental at 10:00am. * January 30 -- All turret armor placed aboard by 4:30pm. * January 30 -- Ericsson advised that two XI-inch Dahlgrens will be transferred from the USS Dacotah. * January 29 -- Ericsson names the USS Monitor.
50. MARMO1_120922_329.JPG: USS Monitor 100 Days: John Ericsson originally submitted the designs for a floating battery to Napoleon III in 1854. Ericsson's design called for a relatively shallow-draft iron hull, topped by an armored raft that provided good protection against ramming and cannon fire. Freeboard was less than two feet, sufficient for coastal requirements, though a real problem when the ship went to the sea. The steam powered engines were modest, but sufficient to the need, and a Navy requirement for masts and sails was quite appropriately ignored. USS Monitor's construction resulted from a study of ironclad warships mandated by Congress in July 1861, as the Civil War moved rapidly from crisis to serious armed conflict. During August and September the study board's members, Commodores Joseph Smith and Hiram Paulding and Commander Charles H. Davis, reviewed seventeen proposals and selected three for construction. Two were relatively conventional designs and became USS New Ironsides and USS Galena. The third, unconventional in virtually every way, became the USS Monitor.
51. MARMO1_120922_333.JPG: USS Monitor 100 Days: Swedish engineer John Ericsson was personally responsible for the conception of the USS Monitor and the details of her design. On October 4, 1861, the Department of the Navy signed a contract with John Ericsson, Cornelius Bushnell, John F. Winslow, and John A. Griswold for the construction of an "iron clad battery."
52. MARMO1_120922_336.JPG: USS Monitor 100 Days: The Keel and the Hull: Continental Ironworks in Greenpoint, Long Island (now Brooklyn) fabricated the Monitor's iron keel and hull and assembled all the separate elements made by the other sub-contractors.
53. MARMO1_120922_340.JPG: USS Monitor 75 Days: Producing the Turret Plates: So much was at stake as Maryland teetered on the edge of secession. H. Abbott & Sons of Baltimore, the nation's largest iron plate rolling mill, began fabricating armor plate for the Monitor's turret in late 1861. If Maryland had secede earlier that year, Abbott's mill would have been rolling plate for the CSS Virginia instead. The evolution of naval technology and the outcome of the war itself might have been very different had Maryland swung the other way.
54. MARMO1_120922_343.JPG: USS Monitor 75 Days: Building the Monitor's Machinery: There was no debate when it came to choosing a contractor to fabricate the Monitor's engines in the country. And Cornelius Delamater and Ericsson had been friends and business associates for years. Delamater was the perfect choice to fabricate the main engine, boilers, propeller, and other machinery. The Clute Brothers Foundry in Schenectady, New York, fabricated the turret engines, gun carriages, anchor windlass, and engine room grates.
55. MARMO1_120922_346.JPG: USS Monitor 75 Days: Turret Assembly: The Novelty Ironworks in New York City bent the armor plate for the turret supplied by Abbott and then assembled the turret.
56. MARMO1_120922_349.JPG: USS Monitor 60 Days: The Turret Engine: The Clute Brothers Foundry in Schenectady, New York, fabricated the turret engines, gun carriages, anchor windlass, and engine room grates. Gun Port Stoppers: The Niagara Steam Forge in Buffalo, New York, manufactured the gun-port stoppers.
57. MARMO1_120922_353.JPG: USS Monitor 60 Days: Getting the Iron Parts: Holdane & Company of New York City supplied armor plate and bar and angle iron.
58. MARMO1_120922_358.JPG: USS Monitor 60 Days: Manufacturing Iron Parts: The Albany Ironworks and the Rensselaer Ironworks, both in Troy, New York, produced the angle and bar iron and the spikes and bolts to hold the Monitor together.
59. MARMO1_120922_362.JPG: USS Monitor 100 Days: Operating a War Machine: The Monitor was a true child of the industrial revolution. All her interior spaces were below the water line, so Ericsson had to devise all kinds of technologies to handle things like steering, ventilation, and waste disposal. For starters, he developed a separate engine and gear system so the crew could rotate the 120-ton gun turret. And he devised a communication system to give the captain in the pilothouse a direct link with the crew in the turret and the engine room.
60. MARMO1_120922_365.JPG: USS Monitor 45 Days: Turret Rotation System: Inside the Monitor, not an inch was wasted. The two small steam engines that turned the gun turret were located in the galley (kitchen) above the stove and directly under the turret. The steam engines were connected to a vertical drive shaft by four large horizontal gears. How many men did it take to set the 120-ton turret in motion? One.
61. MARMO1_120922_369.JPG: USS Monitor 45 Days: Life Support System: Fresh air was at a premium. To ventilate the enclosed crew space, Ericsson devised a forced draft air supply system. Fresh air was drawn into the engine room through two air intakes rising above the deck. Blowers distributed it to the crew areas from the engine through a duct system under the floor landing to registers in the cabins. Steam from the boilers went to radiators to keep the crew spaces warm.
62. MARMO1_120922_375.JPG: USS Monitor 30 Days: Communication System: The Monitor's communication system was simple yet ingenious. A speaking tube carried the captain's orders from the pilothouse to the turret and engine room. A cable linked an engine gong in the pilothouse to the valve chest of the engine. The captain could pull on this cable and indicate by the number of rings the speed he wanted the ship to go -- perhaps half-speed, full-speed ahead, or full stop.
63. MARMO1_120922_377.JPG: USS Monitor 15 Days: The Steering System: The only man on the Monitor who could really set out of the ship was the captain in the pilothouse. The rudder at the extreme stern allowed this ironclad to be steered. The rudder was connected directly to the ship's wheel in the pilothouse by two lines, or tiller ropes. The tiller ropes ran under the ceiling through the engine room and crew spaces along the ceiling on the port and starboard sides.
64. MARMO1_120922_380.JPG: USS Monitor 15 Days: The Propeller: The Monitor's four-bladed, 9-foot-diameter propeller -- a type still used in warship construction -- was actually an improvement over Ericsson's earlier screw propeller. The engine turned a crank, which turned a shaft, which turned the propeller. But the propeller's location 15 feet behind the stern made it inefficient. Later class Monitors were faster because their propellers were located much nearer the engine.
65. MARMO1_120922_384.JPG: USS Monitor 15 Days: The Engine: The Monitor was not particularly speedy: with her vibrating side-lever steam engine, she could make about 7 to 9 knots. The engine had a single 40-inch-diameter cylinder driving two pistons designed to deliver 400 horsepower to the propeller. Steam engine pistons had traditionally operated in a vertical motion and had taken up a lot of space. Ericsson designed the pistons to move horizontally, reducing the height of the engine and allowing it to be positioned safely below the water line.
66. MARMO1_120922_387.JPG: USS Monitor 15 Days; Sanitation System: The Monitor wasn't a submarine, but she might as well have been. And spending a week or more in a ship whose lavatory was under the water line could have been rather unpleasant. Again, Ericsson figured out what to do. He devised a waste tube and a pump that discharged to a port in the lower hull that opened to the sea. Essentially the same system was still in use in submarines during World War II.
67. MARMO1_120922_390.JPG: Living Beneath the Waves: Rosewood, black walnut, damask, and lace would not have been expected to be found on an iron warship, but there they were. Ericsson spared no effort in making the living spaces as comfortable as possible for the USS Monitor's officers. Still, she was a very small ship, so privacy was scarce. And despite Ericsson's efforts, poor ventilation and oppressive heat were a constant plague.
68. MARMO1_120922_392.JPG: Reversing the Social Architecture: The USS Monitor's engines were located in the stern of the ship,. close to the propeller. Therefore Ericsson put the captain's cabin in the bow. Higher-ranking officers occupied eight small cabins on either side of the wardroom behind the Captain's cabins. Beyond the officers' quarters lay the berth deck, a wide-open space for the rest of the crew, including some of the junior officers. Officers and crew were thus right next to each other rather than at opposite ends of the vessel. Traditional Naval Hierarchy: There was nothing random about the location of crew's quarters on a traditional warship. Military status always increased toward the stern. The captain's quarters were located aft, with the commissioned officers' staterooms just forward on either side of the wardroom. Steerage officers, including the new class of engineers, were quartered just in front of the wardroom. Forward on the old ships lay the berth deck, where the common sailors, petty officers, and firemen hung their hammocks -- far from the officers.
69. MARMO1_120922_395.JPG: The Captain's Stateroom: The captain had it all: his own lavatory and the privacy of a two-room suite. Elegant details such as rosewood walls and mohair cushions showed Ericsson's flair for style. Even though there were no windows, Ericsson insisted on installing draperies throughout the officers' quarters. William Keeler wrote, "I have been on board of nearly all the vessels that have left the Yard... & have seen no room as handsomely fitted up as ours."
70. MARMO1_120922_400.JPG: Pencil recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor: This pencil is similar to those we use today, with a graphite rod surrounded by two layers of wood. Pencils were preferred writing instruments on naval ships because their markings did not smudge if they got wet.
71. MARMO1_120922_406.JPG: The Pilothouse and Anchor Chain Locker: This was the door the captain and his men used to gain access to the anchor well and pilothouse. The special windlass, or "anchor-hoister," as John Ericsson called it, allowed crewmen to raise and lower the anchor from inside the ship, protected from weather and enemy fire. Directly behind the anchor well was the pilothouse, where the commanding officer, the pilot, and the helmsman were stationed. Inaccurate view of pilothouse on USS Monitor from Harper's Weekly: Often the artists had to make up images to satisfy the hunger of the audience for anything related to the Monitor. The real pilothouse was much smaller and only rose four feet above the main deck level> The captain, helmsman and pilot stood on a small platform below the pilothouse to gain access.
72. MARMO1_120922_410.JPG: The Captain's Cabin: Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was amazed at what he saw when he visited the newly built USS Monitor in March 1862. Ericsson had fitted her out with as many conveniences as possible: a washbasin set in a shelf with a hole cut out to hold it in place, and two closets and four drawers for the captain's personal items. Hawthorne declared, "It was like finding a palace, with all its conveniences, under the sea..."
73. MARMO1_120922_411.JPG: The Monitor's First Commander: He was only 43, but Lt. John Lorimer Worden had already served in the US Navy for 27 years when he was given command of the navy's newest and strangest vessel. Held prisoner by the Confederates for seven months, Worden had only recently been released under a prisoner exchange agreement. He received the USS Monitor commission in January 1862 and served until he was wounded during the engagement with the CSS Virginia on March 9. Lt. John I. Worden, the Monitor's first commanding officer: January 16-March 9, 1862 Lt. Worden wasn't your typical stern navy captain. In an age when naval officers often treated their crew like slaves, Worden won his crew's enduring affection and respect.
74. MARMO1_120922_414.JPG: The Captain's Head: The captain had his own private marine "head," or toilet, but it bore no resemblance to any that had come before: it was the first flushing toilet ever installed on a ship. When underway, most of the ship was submerged or awash but Ericsson's system of a pump and waste tube allowed waste to be discharged into he sea. It was important to follow the precise operating directions however, or the toilet would turn into an unwelcome bidet!
75. MARMO1_120922_416.JPG: Commanders After Worden: Lt. Samuel Dana Greene, second commander of the USS Monitor: March 9-March 10, 1862: Bone-tired from lack of sleep -- but confident -- twenty-two-year-old Lt. Samuel Dana Greene took command of the Monitor after Lt. Worden was wounded in the battle. But with only three years of naval service under his belt, and because of his "extreme youth," Greene found himself back in his role of Executive Officer on March 10. Lt. Thomas Oliver Selfridge, third command of the Monitor: March 10-March 13, 1862: Lt. Selfridge did not have long to enjoy the cabin and stateroom -- he was only in command from 7pm on March 10 until 1pm on March 13 when he was replaced by a more senior officer -- Lt. William Nicholson Jeffers. Selfridge had been on the USS Cumberland when the Virginia attacked here, and he had seen most of the gun crew blown apart by shellfire before the ship sank. [Thomas Selfridge, the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane when he was a passenger in an aircraft piloted by Orville Wright, was Thomas' grandson. Selfridge Air Force Base is named after the younger Selfridge.] Lt. William Nicholson Jeffers, fourth commander of the Monitor: March 13-August 18, 1862: Lt. Jeffers had the longest stint as commander of the Monitor, but he was the most disliked. Jeffers was a bad-tempered disciplinarian, and Paymaster Keeler quickly concluded that the new captain did not possess that "noble kindness of heart & quiet unassuming manner.... which endeared Captain Worden to all on board.... I can assure you we parted from [Jeffers] without many regrets."
76. MARMO1_120922_419.JPG: Last Commanders: Commander Thomas Holdup Stevens, fifth commander of the Monitor: August 18-September 10, 1862: The crew heaved a big sigh of relief on August 18 when Commander Thomas Stevens arrived to take Jeffers' place. The forty-three-year-old Stevens had "the reputation of taking a glass too much occasionally," wrote Keeler, but the change was welcome nonetheless. Stevens left the Monitor on the evening of September 10. Commander John Payne Bankhead, last commander of the Monitor: September 10-December 31, 1862: Forty-one year-old John Payne Bankhead, was a South Carolinian and cousin to Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder. But unlike most other Southern-born naval officers -- and contrary to strong family ties -- Bankhead chose to remain with, and fight for, the Union. Keeler described Bankhead as "a model officer" who "never forgot he was a gentleman."
77. MARMO1_120922_425.JPG: The Officers' Wardroom: The wardroom was the place for meals, official business, and socializing. Here the officers would read newspapers, re-fight old battles and even sing opera! Keeler recalled, "In the evening all gather around the warn room table & 'fight their battles o'er again' each one relating his individual experiences, stories are told & jokes cracked till 10 when all on board must be quiet & still." To improve ventilation for the wardroom and the cabins that flanked it, Ericsson designed the space with short partitions and doors with louvered panels. Unfortunately, the features that allowed air to circulate also allowed voices to carry. Keeler complained, "While writing now, every word spoken... around the ward room table is audible as if they were seated by my elbow."
78. MARMO1_120922_427.JPG: Artificial Light on the USS Monitor: For the most part, there was no natural light below decks. Therefore, Ericsson installed a series of oil lanterns every 6 to 9 feet along the port and starboard sides of the vessel. In addition, the officers' ward room would have had an elaborate lantern hanging over the table. These elegant brass fixtures were probably purchased ready-made from suppliers in New York. Elaborate lantern in wardroom of USS Montauk, from The Soldier in Our Civil War, Vol II: William Keeler had something to say about almost everything, including the lights in the staterooms: "The only objection is they are too dark. I have all my writing to [do] by candlelight & lamps are always burning in the ward room. If the sun ever shines again it may light us up a little better."
79. MARMO1_120922_433.JPG: Natural Light on the USS Monitor: The officers fared better than the seamen below decks. A series of decklights with iron-framed glass were set into 6-inch diameter holes to let light into each stateroom. The wardroom had two such lights. Although the decklights were often covered with water when the deck was awash, the light came through. According to Keeler, "when the sun shines bright it is sufficiently light to read and write without difficulty." The decklights could be opened to let fresh air in when conditions allowed. At least once, Keeler found his decklight used as a mailbox when a fellow officer delivered his mail through the opening.
80. MARMO1_120922_436.JPG: The Wardroom Table: For the officers, the wardroom table was their social center. There they would meet to discuss strategy, enjoy their meals, and smoke cigars and drink whiskey after dinner. Meals were stylish affairs: stewards served the food on dishes embossed with the ironclad's name in gilt letters. What was on the officers menu? For dinner, there was "a regular course, soup, fish, meats, puddings, fruits & nuts, winding up with a cup of strong coffee." Supper was less formal with "bread & butter, dried beef, cheese, crackers, coffee & tea."
81. MARMO1_120922_442.JPG: William Keeler's Cabin: Acting Assistant Paymaster William Keeler. It's lucky for us that William Keeler, who occupied this cabin, liked to express himself. A forty-year-old businessman from Illinois, Keeler became acting assistant paymaster on the USS Monitor, where he kept the ship's accounts, ordered provisions, and issued pay to the crew. He was a keen observer with time on his hands, and he wrote seventy-nine letters to his wife Anna in 1862 alone. These letters now offer us a window on the world of the Monitor. Hoping his wife would be able to picture his daily life, Keeler sent this sketch to her. "Here is a plan that will give you a little idea [of how my room looks] -- A is my desk, B ios the door let down to write on, the iron chest is placed underneath." Keeler continued, "C is the door, D is the shelf in which is my washbowl, underneath is another shelf in which holes are cut (remember that at sea nothing is placed on a shelf, but in it) for my slop jar... all of nice white ware with 'Monitor' ... in gilt letters. FF are two closets, ... but they are so high up & so far back that it is unhandy to get at them. Under the berth are four drawers. [They] ... are all of black-walnut, the curtains are lace and damask, or an imitation I suppose."
82. MARMO1_120922_445.JPG: "Medicine To Make Me Sick..." The surgeons who served on the USS Monitor spent much of their time administering medicines for minor ailments and injuries, including seasickness, gout -- and in the case of the gun crews during the battle with the CSS Virginia -- mild concussions. Fireman George Geer found that a naval surgeon's cure was often worse than the ailment. During a bout of jaundice, Geer lamented that, "what made [me] so sick then was that the Doctor gave me Medicine to make me sick to try and get the Bile thrown off of my Liver I threw up considerable..." Nevertheless, Geer found Daniel Logue "a much bettor Doctor than I had put him down for." The apothecary bottles in this cabin were recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor between 1994 and 2002, and are courtesy of NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
83. MARMO1_120922_449.JPG: The Surgeon's Cabin: Fortunately for the crew, the ship's surgeon was mostly idle. Unfortunately for Assistant Paymaster Keeler, the stateroom next to his belonged at first to the overly talkative surgeon Daniel C. Logue. Keeler wrote, "The Dr. ... bores me to death by wanting to read me all his correspondence with his lady love & the newspapers ... but he is a good, genial warm hearted fellow & I humor him when I am not too busy." Following Logue's reassignment, Grenville Weeks took over as the Monitor's surgeon.
84. MARMO1_120922_452.JPG: March 7, 1862: CSS Virginia: While the Virginia was considered ready for sea trials, she was far from finished. A storm kept her at Gosport on the 7th, allowing workers to continue readying her for service. USS Monitor: While the first day at sea for the Monitor was uneventful, March 7th was a different story. The same gale that kept the Virginia delayed at Gosport threatened to sink the Monitor off the coast of New Jersey. The ship began to leak as waves broke over the deck. The engine fires went out and suffocating carbon dioxide forced the officers and crew to the top of the turret. All night the men battled the elements. Assistant Payment William Keeler wrote that "things for a time looked pretty blue, as though we might have to 'give up the ship.' " Executive Officer Samuel Dana Greene said of his first five days underway on the Monitor, "I think I lived ten good years."
85. MARMO1_120922_455.JPG: March 6, 1862: CSS Virginia: The last gunpowder shipment had arrived, but the Virginia still did not have a full crew. Captain Thomas Kevill and 31 members of the United Artillery (Company E, 41st Virginia Volunteer Infantry) from Fort Norfolk volunteered, thus filling the Virginia's complement. Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan intended to move the Virginia down the Elizabeth River that night, but a growing storm delayed his departure. USS Monitor: In the late morning, the steam tug Seth Low took the Monitor in tow, in company with the steamers Sachem and Currituck. By 4pm they had left New York Harbor and were heading south. A vessel carrying new orders from Gideon Welles was unable to reach them. The orders read: "proceed immediately to Washington." But the Monitor was headed to Hampton Roads.
86. MARMO1_120922_458.JPG: The Race to Hampton Roads: The potential clash of the ironclads was on everyone's mind in early March 1862. Facts and rumors were flying in the Confederacy and the Union, and both navies felt the pressure to be the first to put an ironclad into battle. The CSS Virginia was declared ready for sea trials before work on her was even completed. Meanwhile, the USS Monitor was preparing to steam south. The race was on.
87. MARMO1_120922_463.JPG: The Battle of Hampton Roads: Where was the USS Monitor when the CSS Virginia attacked the Federal Blockading Squadron in Hampton Roads on March 8, 1862? Off the coast of Virginia, helpless to prevent the slaughter. But when the Monitor arrived on the scene that evening, and her men saw the damage that had been visited upon the Union fleet, they vowed vengeance. The battle that took place the following day left neither the Monitor nor the Virginia seriously damaged and both sides claimed victory. Ultimately, historians have called the battle a draw. But in fact there was a clear victor: ironclad technology. The age of wooden warships was over.
88. MARMO1_120922_464.JPG: Wood Meets Iron, March 8, 1862: Around 12:45pm on March 8, a crew-member of the USS Congress at anchor off Newport News Point was hanging his laundry in the rigging when he spied "a great black thing belching black smoke" steaming out of the Elizabeth River. The ships of the Union Blockading Squadron scrambled to prepare for battle. Within a few hours, the CSS Virginia had rammed and sunk the USS Cumberland and had set the stranded Congress ablaze. Only falling darkness and a receding tide saved the steam frigate USS Minnesota from the same fate. With a single devastating weapon -- the Virginia -- the Confederate Navy had become the most powerful navy in the world. But only for one day.
89. MARMO1_120922_467.JPG: Clash of Iron, March 9, 1862: It was the USS Monitor that fired the opening shot that morning. For the next four hours, the Monitor and the CSS Virginia circled one another, trading shot and shell but doing no significant damage. Each ship tried to ram the other. Each commander tried to find a weak spot in his opponent. When a shell from the Virginia wounded the Monitor's commanding officer, Lt. John L. Worden, the Monitor broke off the action and Lt. Catesby ap Roger Jones of the Virginia exulted, "Monitor has given up the fight." For his part, Lt. Samuel Dana Greene, now in command of the Monitor, saw the Virginia steaming away when he returned to action and declared, "We have evidently finished the Merrimac."
90. MARMO1_120922_478.JPG: After the Battle: Word of what had happened in Hampton Roads on March 9 quickly spread far and wide. Both North and South claimed victory, saying the other had broken off the fight first. Both ship's crews were eager to meet again. Today, most scholars believe the battle ended in a draw. The two ironclads remained in Hampton Roads for several months, but they never met in battle again -- and by the end of 1862, both had left the scene as dramatically as they had entered.
91. MARMO1_120922_482.JPG: Immediate Impact: Global reaction to the battle was swift. When the CSS Virginia took on the Federal fleet on March 8, it was plain to see that the Age of Sail was over. And when the USS Monitor took on the Virginia the next day, the fate of wooden ships was sealed. The great global ironclad race had begun. Shots Heard 'Round the World: The Times of London declared "Whereas we had... 149 first-class warships, we now have two... The Warrior and her sister Ironside. There is not now [another] ship in the English navy... that it would not be madness to trust to an engagement with that little Monitor." The Royal Navy's ironclads were oceangoing ships, so in fact the "little Monitor's" threat to British naval supremacy was small at best.
92. MARMO1_120922_486.JPG: 1862: A Fateful Year: The careers of the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor did not end on March 9, 1862. In the months that followed, the ironclads played limited, but important roles in the larger war -- the Virginia as an ever-present threat and the Monitor as the neutralizer of that threat. Two months after the historic clash, the crew of the Virginia would be forced to destroy their own vessel. Later in the year, the Monitor would disappear in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. But the age of the ironclads had just begun.
93. MARMO1_120922_489.JPG: The Ironclad in Pop Culture: A new broadside ballad hit the streets of Philadelphia shortly after the March 9 battle. It boasted: "The Monitor went smack up to the Merrimac, and upon her sides played Yankee Doodle Dandy, O!" Southern scribes were no less eloquent -- a broadside issued in late March focused on the terror the CSS Virginia had inspired in Washington. In it, Seward warns Lincoln that, "Jeff. is out in the Merrimac, he's laid the Congress on her back; and driven the Cumberland off the track, and will chase US yet out of Washington." Clearly the two ironclads had struck a chord in popular culture on both sides.
94. MARMO1_120922_494.JPG: Battle Between the Monitor and the Merrimack, Kurz & Allison, 1889 Scenes of the battle remained popular sellers throughout the 19th century. Artists would often depict the events of March 8 and 9 in the same print in order to sell more copies.
95. MARMO1_120922_501.JPG: CSS Virginia: March 10 - May 11, 1862: The presence of the Virginia effectively closed off the James River to the Federals, so it was urgent that repairs to the Confederate ironclad following the battle be made swiftly. Union troops transports were already underway in preparation for the Peninsula Campaign. Fortunately for the Confederates delays in starting McClellan's march allowed time for the Virginia to reappear in Hampton Roads -- complete with a new 12-foot long steel tipped ram and armor-piercing ammunition. "The Monitor-less Roads" The Virginia attempted to engage the USS Monitor several times during April and May, but the Union ironclad under orders, refused. Crews on both vessels were understandably frustrated at not being able to engage in battle, and Virginia crewmen grumbled about "roaming about the Monitor-less Roads." Crewman William Norris voices his frustration in a poem: Supra mud-flattibus Monitoribus jugattibus Non est come-attibus Virginiabus "Mingled Pride and Grief" With Union troops advancing in early May, Confederate Major General Benjamin Huger abandoned Norfolk in such haste on the 9th that he forgot to inform the Virginia of the evacuation. Unable to withstand the guns of Fortress Monroe, the Virginia could not make it out of Hampton Roads. Her deep draft precluded her from going up the James River -- even with all spare provisions, water and ballast thrown overboard. She could not risk capture. She must be destroyed. Chief Engineer Ashton Ramsay recalled how "with mingled pride and grief [we] gave her to the flames." The Virginia burned for several hours before exploding spectacularly on May 11. A court martial held in Richmond on July 5, 1862 granted Tattnall an honorable acquittal for the destruction of the Virginia -- stating that the scuttling was "deliberate and wisely done."
96. MARMO1_120922_504.JPG: March 10th: The Ironclads Undergo Repairs: The battered CSS Virginia was placed in dry dock at Gosport after the battle. Workers fabricated a new ram to replace the one that had been left in the side of the luckless USS Cumberland. They also replaced armor plate that had been damaged in the battle. The USS Monitor had proved her worth on March 9, but she had also proved how desperately the US Navy needed her. The naval command ordered that the Monitor be "not too much exposed" to possible damage or -- worse still -- capture. March 12th: A New Commander for the USS Monitor: Lt. Worden left big shoes to fill. At 20, Executive Officer Samuel Dana Greene was considered too young to permanently replace Worden. Twenty-six-year-old Lt. Thomas Selfridge relieved Greene the day after the battle. On March 12, Selfridge was replaced by the unpopular 36-year-old Lt. William N. Jeffers, an ordnance expert and protege of John Dahlgren. March 17th: Peninsula Campaign Begins: In mid-March 1862, Major General George Brinton McClellan began the transfer of the Union's Army of the Potomac to Fort Monroe in Hampton. When the march finally began on April 4, it included 121,500 men, 14,592 animals, 1,224 vehicles, 44 artillery batteries, and a mountain of equipment. Post-Battle Modifications to the USS Monitor: The Monitor's pilothouse had been damaged in the March 9 battle. Chief Engineer Alban Stimers redesigned the piilothouse with sloped sides to deflect shot. The smokestacks were raised. Firearms, grenades, and cutlasses were stored in the turret in case of boarders.
97. MARMO1_120922_510.JPG: March 21st: A New Commander for the CSS Virginia: The Virginia needed a new commander, too. Secretary of the Navy, Stephen Mallory, appointed sixty-seven-year-old Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall to replace the wounded Buchanan. His directive from Mallory was to make the Confederate ironclad "as destructive and formidable to the enemy as possible. The enemy... believes her to be disabled -- and to be undergoing extensive repairs... hence we may be able to surprise him and strike him a heavy blow in the Roads." April 4th: A More Formidable CSS Virginia Leaves Gosport: As fate would have it, the Virginia was finally ready on the day that the Union's McClellan began his march up the Peninsula. With the Virginia threatening Union naval forces in the James River, Federal naval support of McClellan's campaign was initially weak. April 5th: Battle of Lee's Mill Halts the Campaign: McClellan's Army of the Potomac was halted at Lee's Mill where Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder's 13,000-man army held a 12-mile line across the Peninsula. Wanting to keep all of his resources in hand against the CSS Virginia, Union Flag Officer Louis Goldsborough, commander of the blockading squadron, refused to support McClellan's march. With no naval support to mount an amphibious operation to bypass Confederate lines, McClellan felt he had no choice but to besiege the Warwick-Yorktown Line.
98. MARMO1_120922_513.JPG: April 11th: The CSS Virginia Comes Out: The Virginia was itching to fight the Union Navy. But when she entered Hampton Roads early on April 11, Federal ships withdrew to the safety of Fort Monroe. The USS Monitor had strict orders not to engage the Virginia unless she moved into the deeper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. So "each party steamed back & forth before their respective friend's till dinner time," never firing a shot at the other. April 12th: Confederate Forces Reinforced and Reorganized: Magruder's troops were heavily outnumbered. So the Army of Northern Virginia under General Joseph Eggleston Johnston moved from the Rappahannock River to the Peninsula. Magruder's command and Major General Benjamin Huger's Department of Norfolk were combined into the Army of Northern Virginia. Johnston was given control of all Confederate forces on the Peninsula to ensure Richmond's safety. May 5th: Battle of Williamsburg: Johnston ordered his Confederate troops to withdraw to Williamsburg on May 3, but Union troops did not begin their pursuit until the following evening. On May 5, 72,000 men clashed in the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign. Union troops occupied Williamsburg while the Confederate Army continued its withdrawal up the Peninsula.
99. MARMO1_120922_516.JPG: May 6th: President Lincoln Arrives at Fort Monroe: President Lincoln was frustrated over the lack of progress in the Peninsula Campaign and was convinced that McClellan himself was to blame, saying of the general, "He has the slows." Concerned, Lincoln traveled to Fort Monroe to personally oversee military operations there. He visited the USS Monitor on May 7, where "he examined everything about the vessel with care." May 8th: Union Attacks on Fort Boykin and Sewell's Point: Lincoln ordered Goldsborough to launch his fleet against Norfolk and to open the James River in support of McClellan's advance toward Richmond. On May 8, the recently commissioned USS Galena and two other ships steamed into the James River and began bombarding Fort Boykin while the USS Monitor, the iron-hulled USRS Naugatuck, and three other vessels began shelling the Sewell's Point Battery. The shelling drew the CSS Virginia out of Gosport to challenge the Union assault, forcing the Federal fleet back to Fort Monroe. May 9th: Union Troops Land at Ocean View: Confederate Army Major General Huger asked for the CSS Virginia to position herself at Craney Island to cover the Confederate retreat from Norfolk and Portsmouth. But when Lincoln ordered a Union amphibious assault at Ocean View, northeast of Norfolk, Huger abruptly abandoned Norfolk without alerting the Confederate Navy.
100. MARMO1_120922_520.JPG: May 10th: Tattnall Faces a Choice: With Norfolk occupied by Union troops and the Confederate Army in retreat, Josiah Tattnall faced a difficult choice. He could attack the Union fleet, perhaps destroying several enemy vessels before going down in the blaze of glory. He could take the Virginia out to sea, where her fate would be uncertain. Or he could try to lighten the ironclad's load in order to clear the shallows at Harrison's Bar and take her up the James River. May 11th: Fate of the CSS Virginia: The crew threw almost everything overboard, but the Virginia's draft was still too deep to cross Harrison's Bar. Even worse, she was now so high in the water that her wooden hull was exposed. Tattnall gave the order to destroy the Virginia. After running her aground at Craney Island, the crew spread combustibles and left. Catesby Jones and John Taylor Wood set a fuse and rowed for shore "by the light of our burning ship." At 4:58am, she exploded. The sound brought the entire crew of the Monitor on deck. May 13th: Crew of the CSS Virginia Tapped to Defend Richmond: With Norfolk captured and the Virginia destroyed, what would stop the Federal fleet from steaming up the James River and capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond? The Confederates abandoned forts on the lower James and scrambled to strengthen positions upriver. Ordered to reinforce the Southside Artillery at Drewry's Bluff, the crew of the scuttled Virginia, under Lt. Catesby sp Roger Jones, hurried to build emplacements and mount heavy guns to harass the Union ships.
101. MARMO1_120922_527.JPG: May 15th: "That is not the way to Richmond": USS Monitor and her consorts anchored below Drewry's Bluff in the morning and began to bombard the defenses. But the Monitor was unable to elevate her guns enough to effectively participate in the bombardment. With high casualties and dwindling ammunition, the Union fleet retreated. From the bluff, Lt. John Taylor Wood shouted after the Monitor, "Tell Captain Jeffers that is not the way to Richmond." July 1st: Battle of Malvern Hill Ends the Peninsula Campaign: By the end of May, McClellan's army was nearing Richmond. Robert E Lee, now in command of the Confederate army, began his offensive, known as the Seven Days' Battle, on June 25 and had soon forced McClellan back to Malvern Hill. As part fo a Federal flotilla, the USS Monitor supported land operations and protected river transports during the Battle of Malvern Hill. The Federals fought off several assaults and retreated to safety at Harrison's Landing. But Lee's offensive had achieved its main objective: removing the threat to Richmond. July 9th: The USS Monitor Poses for the Camera: The summer was a mostly idle time for the Monitor's crew, whose main concern was surviving the heat and the mosquitoes. On July 9, after a visit from President Lincoln, officers and crew posed for photographer James Gibson, who took the only know photographs of the Monitor and her crew.
102. MARMO1_120922_530.JPG: September 30th: The USS Monitor Goes to Washington Navy Yard: The Monitor's new commander, John Payne Bankhead (who replaced Commander Thomas Stevens) received orders to take the ironclad to Washington Navy Yard for repairs on September 30. There the ship's hull was scraped, davits and cranes were added for handling the ship's boats, telescoping funnels were installed and interior changes made. The Monitor was a popular tourist attraction during her stay. Curiosity seekers came daily, and often left with unauthorized souvenirs. November 10th: The USS Monitor and "Merrimac-on-the-brain": On November 10, the Monitor returned to Hampton Roads to handle a new ironclad threat -- the "Merrimack II" (actually named the CSS Richmond) -- rumored to be nearing completion in Richmond. Impatiently awaiting the coming battle, Keeler complained, "Some of us will die off one of these days with 'Merrimac-on-the-brain.' The disease is raging furiously..." The Richmond would not be commissioned until 1863. December 24th: The USS Monitor Ordered South: In December, the USS New Ironsides arrived in Hampton Roads, freeing up the Merrimac for duty elsewhere. On Christmas Eve, Bankhead received orders to take the ironclad to Beaufort, North Carolina. Crewman Jacob Nicklis wrote home to his father, "They say we will have a pretty rough time a going around Hatteras but I hope it will not be the case."
103. MARMO1_120922_533.JPG: Ironclads Influence the Course of the Civil War: After March 9, both North and South put their ironclad-building programs on the fast track. Over the course of the war, the Union would build sixty-four monitors and nineteen other armored vessels. The Confederacy would build twenty-two casemate rams of the forty ironclads it built or bought. Some vessels were more successful than others -- but most were plagued by problems in the same areas as their prototypes: speed, power, stability, seaworthiness, and draft.
104. MARMO1_120922_536.JPG: Confederate Casemate Ironclads: The Confederates didn't have the luxury of building many ironclads to order, so they converted the hull of the blockade-runner CSS Finfal into the casemate ironclad Atlanta. During an engagement with two Passaic-class monitors in June 1863, the CSS Atlanta ran aground and was forced to surrender. Despite the Atlanta's undignified end, the Confederacy continued to build casemate-style ironclad vessels, though smaller and of lighter draft. The first of these was the CSS Richmond -- a flat-bottomed, shallow-draft design that was re-created in several lengths.
105. MARMO1_120922_546.JPG: USS Monitor: Summer on the James: March 9 was not the beginning of exciting things for the Monitor. After the threat of the CSS Virginia was gone, the Monitor was assigned to patrol the James River. Though the men of the Monitor tasted battle once more at Drewry's Bluff on May 15, 1862, the celebrated "Monitor Boys" spent more time fighting off mosquitoes and boredom than they did fighting 'the Secesh' -- as they called the Confederates. "Heat, Mosquitoes and a Gouty Captain": William Keeler lamented to his wife, "What with heat, mosquitoes & a gouty Captain have nearly gone distracted." The gouty captain in question was the unpopular Lieutenant William Jeffers. The crew missed their old commanding officer, Lieutenant John Worden, so much that they wrote him a letter begging him to return to the Monitor. Of course, that was not Worden's decision to make. To our dear and honored Captain... These few lines is from your own crew of the Monitor hoping to God that they will have the pleasure of welcoming you back to us again soon, for we are all ready able and willing to meet Death or anything else, only give us back our Captain again. We remain until Death your Affectionate Crew THE MONITOR BOYS
106. MARMO2_120922_063.JPG: In the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic': Myth and legend about the fate of the USS Monitor has persisted since she sank on New Years Eve, 1862. Despite numerous searches, the Union ironclad remained elusive for over one hundred years. When the wreck was discovered in August 1973, it was found very near where historical accounts from survivors aboard the Monitor and the log of the USS Rhode Island reported it to have been lost. It was only through rigorous research and advances in remote sensing technology developed in the 1970s that led to Monitor's discovery in the notoriously dangerous waters of the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic.'
107. MARMO2_120922_075.JPG: An Upside-Down Time Capsule: You are now standing on the ceiling of the USS Monitor's recreated gun turret. Keep in mind that the turret was upside down when it was recovered, and will remain upside down until it is fully conserved. Here you see the turret as it would have appeared in the fall of 2002 during various stages of excavation and conservation. All structural features are accurate including the Dahlgren and carriage, cannon dents, and texture fo the concreted sediment. Hundreds of artifacts were removed from the turret during the course of the excavation as well as the remains of two of the Monitor's crew.
108. MARMO2_120922_081.JPG: USS Monitor 2002: The Turret's Hidden Secrets: USS Monitor 2002: Recovering the Turret: In August 2002, NOAA and the US Navy recovered the Monitor's massive 235-ton revolving gun turret, which lay upside down off Cape Hatteras, NC for 140 years. After the turret was moved to The Mariners' Museum, archaeologists carefully excavated the turret and discovered hundreds of artifacts that survived the violent sinking and corrosive underwater environment. This recreation represents the turret as found upon recovery and after partial excavation. Note the thick layers of concreted material and marine life. The turret and shipwreck served as a living reef. The Turret Reveals a Surprise: Did the Monitor's XI-inch Dahlgren guns fall out of the turret when it overturned during the sinking? Were they buried beneath the sand? On July 11, 2002, Navy divers answered these questions when they uncovered the first of the two guns. Dr. John Broadwater, Manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary commented, "No one ever knew if the Dahlgren guns were still inside ... It had always been a mystery historians and Civil War buffs had speculated about over the years." The two Dahlgren guns were recovered from the wreck of the Monitor along with the gun turret in August 2002. The Dahlgrens and carriages were removed only after archaeologists performed significant excavations and conservators documented the condition of these large and fragile artifacts.
109. MARMO2_120922_084.JPG: Design of the Dahlgrens: The Monitor carried two guns in her single turret. They were standard XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns, weighing eight tons each. Ericsson had specified XII-inch guns, but those were unavailable. The XI-inch smoothbore was capable of firing a 130-pound shell and a 165-pound cast iron solid shot using a 15-pound powder charge up to 1,700 yards. Although the guns were standard, Ericsson did develop special sliding carriages in consultation with John Dahlgren. Interior View of the Turrets of the Monitor Fleet: Passaic-class monitors, such as the one pictured here, were designed to carry two XV-inch Dahlgrens, but because there were not enough of the large guns available, many Passaic-class monitors carried one XV-inch and one XI-inch Dahlgren, giving them a somewhat lopsided appearance.
110. MARMO2_120922_087.JPG: Recovery Reveals Dents Inside the Turret: Excavations revealed two identical dents on the aft wall of the turret. These were likely caused by Chief Engineer Alban Stimers before the Monitor left New York. While testing Ericsson's specially designed carriages he accidentally loosened the friction braking gear. Upon firing, the massive Dahlgren recoiled into the turret wall, leaving a dent and almost crushing a crewmember. A confused Stimers, shaken by undeterred, repeated his mistake with the second carriage causing an identical dent.
111. MARMO2_120922_089.JPG: Post-Launch Reinforcements: The recovery process also revealed diagonal bracing within the turret that John Ericsson did not include in his construction drawings of the Monitor. These braces must have been added sometime after the ship's launching. Ericsson likely added them to reinforce the structure due to critical stress from the guns. This bracing can be seen inside the as-found turret.
112. MARMO2_120922_097.JPG: Understanding the Turret: When the USS Monitor met the CSS Virginia on March 9, 1862 in the historic Battle of Hampton Roads, the men of the Monitor were understandably nervous about their untried vessel in combat. William Keeler recalled: "ours was an untried experiment & our enemy's first fire might make a coffin for us all." However, he continued, "if there had been a coward heart there its throb would have been audible, so intense was the stillness [before the battle]." Firing on the Fly: The crew of the Monitor had had virtually no time to become acquainted with their new-fangled ship and had little practice in operating the turret. During the battle it was quickly discovered that it was often difficult to stop the turning of the turret when the enemy was on target, so the guns fired while the turret remained in motion. A 'Moving Target': Although the Monitor's guns were frequently able to hit the Virginia, "firing on the fly" made it virtually impossible to concentrate fire on one particular spot, the Virginia's casemate. It also meant that the steadily rotating turret became a 'moving target' for the Virginia. This made it difficult for the Virginia to keep the Monitor's guns in its sights when she sought to disable them.
113. MARMO2_120922_099.JPG: Battle Between Virginia and Monitor, Oil Painting, Thomas Skinner: The Monitor's small size and quickness frustrated the Confederates, who tried to fire at the Monitor's gun ports, but found that the turret revolved too quickly. On the Virginia, Lt. Eggleston complained that, "we never got sight of her guns except when they were about to fire upon us."
114. MARMO2_120922_101.JPG: "Knocked Senseless" in the Turret: The Monitor's crew were apprehensive about their untried, experimental vessel going head-to-head against the apparently invincible Confederate ironclad. These concerns were quickly dispelled when the Virginia's first shots failed to penetrate the turret. Monitor Fireman George Geer wrote, "Our ship resisted everything they could fire at her as though they were spit balls." Still, the shots had some effect on the crew, knocking the men who had been leaning against the turret wall off their feet.
115. MARMO2_120922_103.JPG: Adding to the Record: Monitor's revolving gun turret will require many years of conservation. But this does not mean that her secrets are still locked away. By comparing original engineering drawings with archaeological data obtained from the gun turret after recovery, we have been able to clarify numerous details not previously known or understood about the turret, thus laying the groundwork for future study. Using this scholarship, Mariners' Museum and NOAA staff have been able to build this partial recreation of the Monitor's turret highlighting construction details such as the layering of plates in a staggered pattern (in order to leave no weak points) and the additional diagonal bracing that does not appear in Ericsson's original plans. CAD drawing of turret structure by Christopher Voll: Museum Exhibition staff took information from John Ericsson's original plans as well as from NOAA's archeological findings and created this cut-away view fo the turret. On the full-sized recreation, the first course of armor is shown in black, the other seven courses are shown coated with white zinc which was used as a corrosion inhibitor.
116. MARMO2_120922_109.JPG: Turret Features and Flaws: Staggered Iron Armor Plates: Ericsson was cautious and calculating in the design of his turret. Understanding that lining up each turret plate would result in weak spots or seams in the turret wall, he staggered the location of each plate in order to strengthen the overall structure. Archaeological evidence from the real turret, currently undergoing conservation, suggests the Ericsson's foresight proved invaluable. One exterior dent caused by cannon fire was so strong that it is clearly visible from inside the turret. A sot of this power would have easily penetrated any wooden warship of the era. Ceiling and Roof Structure: Prior to discovery, perhaps the least documented area of the revolving gun turret was the roof. The USS Monitor's roof was a combination of flat iron and perforated iron plates lightly bolted to inverted railroad rails that were mounted to cast-iron roof support beams. The perforations over the guns allowed heat and smoke to escape and offered some degree of light. The roof could not be overly fortified on the chance that structural repairs needed to be made inside the turret or to a Dahlgren gun. Guns: Although only one Dahlgren gun is visible, Monitor's turret held two XI-inch guns. At over 13-feet long, these guns occupied the majority of open space within the turret. In order to support the oppressive weight of these 8-ton monsters, Ericsson added additional diagonal bracing forward and aft that did not appear in his original drawings.
117. MARMO2_120922_113.JPG: Carriages and Gunslides: Ericsson was greatly concerned with the recoil of each gun within the confines of the turret. Therefore, he designed special "friction" carriages capable of checking the recoil. The carriages were simple; they rolled on wheels along iron gunslides similar to modern roller coaster cars. In addition, each carriage was equipped with a braking mechanism that gripped four wood beams on the turret floor. The iron gunslides and friction timbers are visible on the as-built turret floor. The Revolving Turret in Action: Ericsson's gun turret was so novel that Commander Worden and Lt. Greene had to learn how to operate it in the heat of battle. Greene elected to 'fire on the fly'' by rotating the turret until the CSS Virginia became visible through an open gun port and then fired a single Dahlgren. The experience of the Monitor's crew became invaluable to later class monitors.
118. MARMO2_120922_116.JPG: A Flaw in the Design: Although the turret performed admirably, there was one major design flaw. The ship's pilothouse was stationed forward of the turret. Although it provided the commander with a clear view of the battle, the position of the pilothouse was extremely vulnerable to enemy and even friendly fire. In subsequent monitors, the pilothouse was situated directly atop the turret, provided a nearly 360 degree field of fire.
119. MARMO2_120922_125.JPG: Monitor 2001 & 2002: Steam and Coal: Directly below you stands a reproduction of a coal bunker as it would have appeared in the engine room of the USS Monitor. This bunker is filled with anthracite coal recovered from within the Monitor's turret. One of the big surprises encountered during the turret excavation was an abundance of coal still remaining. It is estimated to weigh between seven and eight tons! Why was the Turret Full of Coal? The Monitor was only two days out of Hampton Roads on its way to Beaufort, NC, when she sank on December 31, 1862 with her coal bunkers filled for the journey. As the Monitor sank, she overturned and the hull came to rest on top of the inverted turret. The aft-most deck hatch of the port coal bunker ended up above the turret and eventually gave way depositing tons of coal into the turret. 'Coal Mining' in the Turret: The coal literally fused with the metal components of the turret. Coal dust mixed with silt and sediments, and over the years formed a sold [sic] matrix. This condition slowed excavation in the turret considerably. "On many days we felt like precision coal miners in our cave-like environment, hammering and chipping away at lumps that would only come out in slivers," said Jeff Johnston, NOAA Historian for the Monitor Sanctuary.
120. MARMO2_120922_128.JPG: Between 7 and 8 tons of coal were recovered from inside the Monitor's turret. Many personal artifacts were found buried beneath the coal. "Sometimes we would free up a mount of coal and find a beautiful piece of engraved flatware or a fragile hard rubber US Navy button buried underneath." -- Jeff Johnston, NOAA Historian for the Monitor Sanctuary Monitor 2001: Recovering the Steam Engine: The recovery of the Monitor's unique 'vibrating side lever' engine was one of the most complex underwater archaeological recovery projects ever conducted. The 2001 field season consisted of five expeditions to the sanctuary conducted in three phases, involving personnel from NOAA, the US Navy, the Mariners' Museum, and other organizations. In addition to recovery of the 30-ton engine, the expedition goals also included the removal of a section of the armor belt and initial archaeological excavation of the turret in preparation for its recovery in 2002. Rigging the Engine: The engine recovery structure remained in position over the stern of the wreck from Monitor 2000 Expedition. In 2001, NOAA and the Navy used the structure to slowly lift the engine out of the wreck. A spreader assembly was used to position the engine lifting frame (ELF) directly over the engine room. In order to safely recover the engine, Navy divers worked around the clock for four weeks to remove the remnants of lower hull plating and free the engine from the wreck.
121. MARMO2_120922_133.JPG: All Systems Go! Once rigged, the entire engine unit was raised two feet using hydraulic rams mounted on the spreader. The rigging was inspected and heavy-duty cargo nets were slung beneath the engine. It was then raised another four feet and inspected again. After a final check of the weather, steel lifting cables were attached to the ERS and the entire 120-ton structure was raised to the surface and placed on the waiting barge for transport back to Virginia. At 11:36am on July 16, 2001, less than a month after they began, NOAA and the Navy raised the 30-ton steam engine from the wreck of the Monitor.
122. MARMO2_120922_139.JPG: USS Monitor 2001: Using the Latest Dive Technology: Monitor 2001 employed the latest diving technology in the mission to recover the steam engine. For the first time, the Navy used a civilian saturation diving system that greatly increased dive time. The expedition also conducted open, deep-water salvage training using surface-supplied mixed gas divers. There weer more than 70 divers from 12 Navy Dive Command working on Monitor 2001. On a single day, the expedition achieved a record 26 hours of bottom time, 10 hours of surface supply diving and 16 hours of saturation diving. Saturation Diving: In Saturation Diving, the diver's tissue gases reach equilibrium with the pressure environment. In the case of the Monitor site, that was a depth of 240 feet. The Saturation Diving System consists of two pressure chambers, a central mating chamber, and a personal transfer capsule or diving bell. The diving bell transports saturation divers between the surface pressure chambers and the Monitor. Two SAT divers remained under pressure for a week or more and worked eight-hour shifts. Divers utilizing this system could accomplish more involved tasks than surface-supplied divers, who were limited to 30 or 40 minutes. Once the divers had completed their stay in saturation, they had to endure a decompression time of 66 hours!
123. MARMO2_120922_142.JPG: Surface-Supplied Diving: Surface-supplied divers used a mixture of 85% helium and 15% oxygen, allowing them to descend up to 300 feet without increased risk of nitrogen narcosis, or 'the bends.' The gas was supplied through umbilical hoses from the surface. The umbilical also allowed for two-communications. Video cameras and lights mounted on helmets enabled those on [the] surface to see exactly what the diver saw and allowed NOAA archaeologists to supervise the divers.
124. MARMO2_120922_144.JPG: MDSU 2: Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit TWO, located the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Norfolk, VA, was the principal naval command involved in the Monitor expeditions in 2001 and 2002. Over the years, MDSU 2 has earned the title of "Experts in Salvage" through participation in such unique operations as the recovery of victims from TWA Flight 800 in 1996, John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane in 1999, and the USS Cole in 2000. During the 2002 Monitor expedition, divers from MDSU 2 also assisted in the rescue of nine Pennsylvania coal miners who were trapped 240 feet underground.
125. MARMO2_120922_147.JPG: The Meaning of the USS Monitor: Immediately following the Monitor's historic engagement with the CSS Virginia, the northern section of the nation embraced "Our Little Monitor" as the savior of the Union. The public responded with a craze for "all things Monitor" that continues to this day. In the 1880s, the traveling Merrimack and Monitor Panorama, which re-enacted the battle, was a popular tourist attraction from Virginia to Alaska. The Monitor's unique image was used to lend its spirit of American ingenuity and victory to market commercial products, and John Ericsson, the Swedish-born designer of the Monitor, finally became an American hero.
126. MARMO2_120922_154.JPG: Dahlgren Guns and Carriages: These XI-inch Dahlgren guns were cast at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York, in 1859. Although they were originally intended for use on another ship, they were installed in the USS Monitor's turret in early 1862. Each gun weighs approximately 8 tons and is 13 feet long. The gun carriages were designed by John Ericsson specifically for use in the Monitor's turret. Conserving the Dahlgrens: Because the guns are all metal, conservators can rely strictly on chemicals to inhibit corrosion. Sodium hydroxide keeps the pH of the solution very high and allows the chlorides to leach out, thus preventing further corrosion. The gun carriages, however, have a wooden frame under the metal covering. Organic materials cannot be stored in highly alkaline solutions, so the gun carriages are treated with an impressed current system for corrosion protection.
127. MARMO2_120922_158.JPG: A Cat in the Cannon? An enduring legend surrounding the Monitor involves the Dahlgren guns. In an article published 23 years after the Monitor's sinking, Francis B. Butts, a crewman, wrote: I took off my coat -- one that I had received from home only a few days before (I could not feel that our noble little ship was yet lost) -- and rolling it up with my boots, drew the tampion from one of the guns, placed them inside, and replaced the tampion. A black cat was sitting on the breech of one of the guns, howling one of those hoarse and solemn tunes which no one can appreciate who is not fulled with superstitions which I had been taught by the sailors, who are always afraid to kill a cat. I would almost as soon have touched a ghost, but I caught her, and placing her in another gun, replaced the wad and tampion; but I could still hear that distressing yowl.
128. MARMO2_120922_163.JPG: Here Kitty Kitty... Despite the popularity of Butts's account, no evidence supports a cat on board the Monitor. No cat appears in any of the ship's photos, nor do any crewmen mention one in any of the letters or journals. In the fall of 2005, conservators excavated the bores of the guns. Because of limited space between the end of the muzzles and the tank walls, special tools were constructed with sectioned handles that screwed together. With approximately 98% of the bores excavated, conservators found no traces of boots, a coat, or a cat. Francis Butts evidently felt the truth about his fanciful tale would remain buried deep in the Atlantic Ocean. He could not have foreseen underwater archaeologists and conservators debunking his account.
129. MARMO2_120922_174.JPG: The Revolving Gun Turret: The USS Monitor's gun turret is constructed of eight layers of wrought-iron plates -- 192 separate plates in all. To insure that salts, accumulated in the iron after 140 years in the Atlantic, have been removed, the turret must undergo many years of desalination treatment before it can be allowed to dry out. Immersed in 90,000 gallons of water, the turret is now under an "impressed current system" to prevent further corrosion and to begin the chloride leaching process. The colored wires running across the tanks provide constant monitoring of the turret's corrosion potential and the acidity or alkalinity of the storage solutions. This overhead view was taken as documentation of the turret before any support pieces or the guns and carriages were removed from the turret. The four gun slides and several other support pieces were removed to allow access to the guns and carriages.
130. MARMO2_120922_189.JPG: The Engine and Condenser: 50 Tons of Mixed Materials: Of all the objects recovered from the USS Monitor, the 40-ton steam engine and 10-ton steam condenser are made of many different materials, including copper pipes, iron washers, rubber gaskets, and lead solder. Objects made from more than one material are called "composite" artifacts. Composite Challenges: Composite artifacts can be a challenge for the conservator. Treatments that are appropriate one one kind of material are often not suitable for the other. The preferred plan for treating a composite artifact is to take it apart so that each piece can be treated individually. During disassembly, thorough documentation of the object is essential. The parts can then be reassembled correctly after treatment.
131. MARMO2_120922_194.JPG: Problems can arise when organic materials like wood or leather are found with metal parts. Many of the consolidants commonly used to treat organics are corrosive to metals. Similarly, common treatments for metal can damage organic materials. If the object cannot be disassembled -- like this copper and wood ladle excavated from the Monitor's turret -- conservators must develop a compromise treatment plan that is acceptable for all the material types.
132. MARMO2_120922_197.JPG: ASM International has designated USS Monitor A Historic Landmark "With innovations such as a revolving gun turret, steam-driven propulsion, and its iconic ironclad construction, the USS Monitor heralded the arrive of the modern warship." 2010
133. MARMO2_120922_200.JPG: Panoramic Interior View of the Turret: There are a number of interesting features visible in this image of the interior of the Monitor's turret as it was undergoing excavation. See if you can find the gun port shutters, the roof rails, the turret sights and, of course, the dents. Some dents were made from cannonballs hitting the outside of the turret, while others resulted from the recoil of the guns inside the turret. It's not aas easy as it looks -- remember everything is upside down!
134. MARMO2_120922_204.JPG: March 8, 1862: The Confederates: "Sink before you surrender" -- The last signal inserted into the CSS Virginia's signal book by Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan on the morning of March 8. "... our ram had opened her side wide enough to drive in a horse and cart" -- Lt. John Taylor Wood, Virginia, describing the hole made in the USS Cumberland. "We've sank the Cumberland ... our cleaver fairly opened her side". -- Flag Lt. Robert Dabnet Minor, Virginia, after ramming the Cumberland. "... frying from one end to the other." -- Midshipman Hardin Littlepage, Virginia describing how the Virginia's sides, coated with grease, began to crackle and pop in the heat of battle. "Jack, don't this smell like hell?" "It certainly does, and I think we'll be there in a few minutes." -- Jack Cronin and John Hunt, Virginia, talking about the heated grease on the casemate.
135. MARMO2_120922_208.JPG: March 8, 1862: The Federals: "I wish you would take the glass and have a look over there, sir... I believe that thing is a-comin' down at last." -- Quartermaster Edward Shippen, USS Congress, on first seeing the CSS Virginia "... [our shot] glanced off like pebble stones." -- Lt. Thomas O. Selfridge, USS Cumberland, describing the effect of shot and shell on the Virginia "I could see the iron ram projecting... it was impossible for our vessel to get out of her way." -- Pilot AB Smith, Cumberland, looking on the Virginia's prow "Give them a broadside boys, as she goes." -- Lt. George Upham Morris, Executive Officers and acting commander Cumberland, as the Cumberland was sinking. "Our hearts were so very full and we vowed vengeance on the Merrimack." -- Lt. Samuel Dana Greene, Executive Officer, USS Monitor, on arriving at the scene of the Virginia's rampage in Hampton Roads on the evening of March 8.
136. MARMO2_120922_211.JPG: March 9, 1862: The Confederates: "It must be confessed that both sides were queer-looking craft, as grotesque to the eyes of the men of '62 as they would appear to those of the present generation." -- Chief Engineer Ashton Ramsay, CSS Virginia, remembering the two ironclads on the 50th anniversary of the battle "Why are you not firing, Mr. Eggleston?" "Why, our powder is very precious, and after two hours incessant firing I find that I can do her just about as much damage, by fashing [snapping] my thumb at here every two minutes and a half." -- Lt. Catesby ap Roger Jones to Lt. John Randolph Eggleston, Virginia, during the battle with the USS Monitor "Monitor has given up the fight... had there been any sign of the Monitor's willingness to renew the contest we would have remained to fight her." -- Lt. Catesbu ap Roger Jones, acting commander, Virginia, on seeing the Monitor break off battle after her pilothouse had been hit
137. MARMO2_120922_214.JPG: March 9, 1862: The Federals: "Gentlemen, that is the Merrimack, you had better go below." -- Lt. John L. Worden, Commanding officer, USS Monitor, on seeing the CSS Virginia enter Hampton Roads ".... much to my astonishment [the Monitor] laid herself right alongside of the Merrimac, and the contrast was that of a pygmy to a giant." -- Captain Gershom Jacques Henry Van Brunt, USS Minnesota, on seeing the Monitor block the Virginia's path to the Minnesota "The sounds of the conflict were terrible... the crash of solid shot against our sides and the bursting of shells all around us. Two men had been sent down from the turret, knocked senseless by balls striking outside the turret while they happened to be in contact with the inside wall of the turret." -- Acting Assistant Paymaster William F. Keeler, Monitor "Gentlemen, I leave it with you, do what you think best. I cannot see, but do not mind me. Save the Minnesota if you can." -- Lt. John L. Worden, Commanding Officer, Monitor, after being temporarily blinded when the pilothouse was hit "We have evidently finished the Merrimac." -- Lt. Samuel Dana Greene, acting commander, Monitor, on seeing the Virginia steam toward Sewell's Point "... you have saved this place to the nation by furnishing us with the means to whip an ironclad frigate, that was, until our arrival, having it all her way with out most powerful vessels." -- Chief Engineer Alban Stimers, Monitor, in a telegraph to John Ericsson after the battle
138. MARMO2_120922_219.JPG: The Battles of Hampton Roads: It wasn't really the Battle of Hampton Roads that changed naval warfare forever, but the Battles of Hampton Roads -- for what happened on March 9, 1862, cannot be separated from what had taken place the day before. On March 8, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia entered Hampton Roads to challenge the Federal Blockading Squadron. By the end of the day, she had destroyed two of the Union's finest warships and threatened to turn the tide of war. It looked as if nothing would be able to stop the Virginia's rampage. Then the Monitor appeared.
139. MARMO2_120922_223.JPG: The World Is Watching: Everyone wanted to catch sight of her: as the CSS Virginia steamed down the Elizabeth River, both banks were crowded with people. Many were just curious about the ship's strange appearance. Some refused to believe in her, shouting "Go on with your old metallic coffin!" Those with a richer sense of history realized that the day had finally come: that "here was to be tried the great experiment of ram and iron-clad in naval warfare." The time seemed fight for some heart-swelling words. As the Virginia neared Craney Island, commander Franklin Buchanan said, "Sailors, in a few minutes you will have the long awaited opportunity to show your devotion to your country and our cause. Remember that you are about to strike for your country and your homes... The Confederacy expected every man to do his duty, beat to quarters!" Then he reminded them, "The whole world is watching you today." Privately, Buchanan must have had mixed feelings. Like so many others in this war, he would soon be opening fire upon his own flesh and blood. His brother Thomas McKean Buchanan was the Paymaster on board the USS Congress.
140. MARMO2_120922_228.JPG: CSS Patrick Henry: The CSS Patrick Henry was the former passenger and freight steamer Yorktown which ran between Richmond and New York. Virginia seized the ship in April of 1861 following secession. This model shows the Patrick Henry as she may have looked on March 8, 1862. She was reconfigured later that year when she became the home of the Confederate States Naval Academy on the James River. He career ended on April 3, 1865 during the evacuation of Richmond when she was burned in order to prevent her capture.
141. MARMO2_120922_234.JPG: The Berth Deck: The berth deck was a large open space 16 feet by 25 feet stretching from the staterooms to a point beneath the turret. This was where the crew of about 49 men slept in hammocks, taking turns keeping watch. Oil lamps provided most of the light, as there were no deck lights to let daylight into the crew's quarters. When the upper hatches were opened, the crew enjoyed more light and air. Storerooms, including the powder magazine and the shell room, bordered the berth deck. Writing from the berth deck: Sitting just 20 feet away from Keeler's elaborate cabin, Fireman George Geer wrote to his wife Martha: "I have for my desk a water pail turned upside down..." In another letter, Geer apologized for not writing more, saying, "If you could see how I am writing this you would not expect a very long one. I am on the Hammocks, where I cannot sett up strait and can hardly move my arms."
142. MARMO2_120922_237.JPG: Executive Officer Lt. Samuel Dana Greene: Lt. Samuel Dana Greene had packed a lot into his first 20 years. Executive Officer on the USS Monitor throughout her 10-month career, Greene was second in command on the ship and gave orders to the gun crew in the turret during the Battle of Hampton Roads. He took over command of the ship when Lt. Worden was wounded during the battle, but a more senior officer replaced him the next day. This was Greene's stateroom.
143. MARMO2_120922_245.JPG: 2nd Assistant Engineer: The new class of engineering officers was looked down upon by the line officers on conventional ships. The engineers worked below decks like common sailors, and became grimy with coal dust and machine oil. But on a ship like the USS Monitor, which relied entirely upon machinery, engineers got a little more respect. The higher-ranking engineers even had staterooms. Albert B. Campbell, one of the 2nd assistant engineers, may have occupied this one.
144. MARMO2_120922_249.JPG: Who Won the Battle? Today, most historians agree that the clash ended without a clear winner. But both sides had reason to claim victory: The USS Monitor had scored a tactical victory by preventing the Confederate ironclad from destroying the entire Federal Blockading Squadron. The CSS Virginia had achieved a strategic victory by delaying the Federals from approaching Richmond, the Confederate capital, via the James River. A century and a half later, the popular debate goes on. Who do you think won the battle? Cast your vote here.
145. MARMO2_120922_255.JPG: From the Galley of the USS Monitor: With easy access to supplies from Fort Monroe and points north, the Monitor crew ate well in Hampton Roads. The officers usually had fried oysters, beefsteak, fish balls, mutton chops, and vegetables for breakfast. The crew had a portion of whiskey with hard biscuits and coffee. Lunch was whiskey and crackers. Supper was also modest. According to Keeler, "dinner" -- served around 2:00 pm -- was "... the meal. Soups, Stew'd Oysters, boiled Salmon ...., & so on through a whole hotel bill of fare with all the sauces... Don't imagine we are going to Starve." Poor Meals on the James River: The food situation went downhill dramatically while the Monitor was on James River duty from March through August. Keeler couldn't keep sarcasm out of his letter when he wrote in July, "To add to the enjoyments of this patriotic [duty] ... we have come to the bottom of our larder, so that calling upon our Steward for edibles in like calling spirits from the vasty deep -- the don't answer the call..."
146. MARMO2_120922_257.JPG: "This is Not a Seaworthy Ship" On Christmas Eve 1862, orders came in for the USS Monitor to proceed to Beaufort, North Carolina. While they waited for the weather to clear, the crew placed oakum between the turret and its brass deck ring. They bolted and caulked the gun-port shutters, caulked the pilothouse slits, and secured iron covers over the deck lights. Two massive hawsers linked the Monitor to the vessel assigned for the ocean tow -- the side-wheeler USS Rhode Island. The Monitor's small boats were transferred to the Rhode Island where they could be kept safe.
147. MARMO2_120922_266.JPG: At the Washington Navy Yard: By late September, the USS Monitor was in need of some serious maintenance. Her hull was fouled with marine growth, her engines had been "deranged" periodically, and her interior spaces needed reconfiguring. The men needed some time off as well. Granted nearly a month's leave, the officers and crew began to disperse. On their return in early November, the men found that their ship had undergone significant changes. A telescoping smoke pipe some 30 feet high had been installed and everything gleamed with fresh paint. The berth deck had been raised up significantly to afford storage space underneath. "Our Ward Room Filled with Ladies..." News of the Monitor's arrival in Washington spread quickly, and crowds quickly assembled to see the already historic ironclad. Thousands of people queued up on a Saturday to tour the ship. Women were particularly interested in the Monitor. William Keeler recalled, "Our decks were covered & our ward room filled with ladies... we couldn't go to any part of the vessel without coming in contact with petticoats." The crew particularly enjoyed the "extensive display of lower extremities," revealed as the ladies climbed up and down the ship's steep ladders.
148. MARMO2_120922_272.JPG: The Dahlgrens in Action: Loading and firing Dahlgren guns would have been routine for any guncrew. Working the guns in the worlds' first revolving gun turret was anything but routine, however. In order to resupply the ammunition, the turret hatches had to be aligned with openings in the deck below to allow powder and shot to be passed up from the magazine below decks. Two men transferred the 11-inch shell by hand using a shot hook. A timed brass fuse was inserted into the shell, the shell was placed in the barrel, and the guncrew rammed it home with a wooden rammer. "Fire!"
149. MARMO2_120922_275.JPG: The Half Charge Controversy: The 15-pound powder charge propelled every shot from the Monitor on March 9, 1862. While XI-inch Dahlgren guns would eventually be proofed to fire a 30 pound charge, they had not been tested with that amount when the Monitor went into battle. As a result, none of the shots fired by the Monitor penetrated the hull of the CSS Virginia.
150. MARMO2_120922_283.JPG: USS Monitor 2002: Raising the Turret: On August 5, 2002, at 5:47pm, NOAA archaeologists and US navy divers accomplished what some thought was impossible -- the recovery of the Monitor's rotating gun from 240 feet below the ocean's surface off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC. This spectacular feat was the culmination of five years of planning and successful recoveries from NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Raised from its watery grave with all of its contents intact, the turret was a veritable time capsule from December 31, 1862 Planning and Preparation: In 1996, when the Monitor was deemed "at risk," NOAA devised a comprehensive plan for shoring up the crumbling hull and recovering some of the ship's key components. In preparation, the wreck site was surveyed and documented and the weak areas shored up. Because the turret was resting upside down underneath the stern portion of the hull, several major components of the Monitor had to be removed before the turret could be safely accessed. Anxiety prevailed until the turret landed safely on the recovery barge, Wotan, on August 5, 2002.
151. MARMO2_120922_286.JPG: A Floating City at Sea: In the summer of 2002, NOAA and the US Navy made the last major expedition to the Monitor wreck site. For forty-one days, they lived aboard the 300-foot derrick barge, Wotan, which was equipped with saturation and surface diving equipment, a 500-ton crane, and an underwater remotely operated vehicle. The expedition objectives including removing decking and a section of armor belt that lay atop the turret and partial excavation and recovery of the turret.
152. MARMO2_120922_288.JPG: Monitor Recovery Expedition 2002: On June 24, NOAA and US Navy personnel departed Norfolk, VA aboard the Wotan for NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. After arriving they deployed eight 20,000-pound anchors to maintain position over the wreck. Next, they removed debris from Monitor's stern. A 30-ton section of hull structure was removed after cutting through layers of iron and wood. After nine days, Monitor's turret was completely uncovered for the first time since it sank on December 31, 1862. Preparing for Turret Recovery: With the turret exposed, divers began to install the 57,000-pound lifting frame, known as the "spider" and began excavating the interior of the turret. The turret was filed with layers of iron fragments, iron concretions, coal, and other hull debris. Excavation proceeded smoothly until July 10 when the weather turned. Squalls, thunderstorms, and strong bottom currents slowed operations. By 4:00am on July 10, surface-supplied diving had to be suspended, but saturation dividing continued. Two Mysteries Solved: On July 12, NOAA archaeologists uncovered one of the Dahlgren guns within the turret, ending speculation about their location. Then on July 24, a Navy saturation diver uncovered railroad rails that made up part of the turret's roof. "For years, historians debated whether or not the roof would still be in place because the Monitor's designer, John Ericsson, designed the roof for quick removal in two sections," said NOAA Historian Jeff Johnston. "We were very happy to see them."
153. MARMO2_120922_291.JPG: The turret recovery team including personnel from NOAA, the US Navy, and The Mariners' Museum.
154. MARMO2_120922_295.JPG: The Recreated USS Monitor: What you see before you is a full-size replica of the exterior of the Monitor. She is shown in "battle trim," similar to her appearance on March 9, 1862, when she engaged CSS Virginia in the historic first "Battle of the Ironclads." The replica was designed and built by the men and women of the Northrop Grumman shipyard in Newport News. Built of large steel plates that are welded together, rather than smaller wrought iron plates riveted together, the replica provides the "feel" of the original Monitor. Imagine yourself alongside her crew by walking onto her deck through the doors to your left and right. You can also access the lower hull of the replica from the lower level.
155. MARMO2_120922_298.JPG: Design and Construction of the Monitor Replica: The Northrop Grumman shipyard in Newport News built the replica as a contribution to the Monitor Center. Shipyard designers worked closely with historians and archaeologists of NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, and with the curators and conservators of The Mariners' Museum to design a replica that could be built using modern materials and processes. The steel used in construction was donated by the US Navy.
156. MARMO2_120922_300.JPG: The replica was constructed as 22 large sub-assemblies in the Apprentice Gallery of the shipyard's structural fabrication shop. Most fo the work was performed by apprentice shipfitters and welders under the tutelage of experienced employees. About 200 apprentices, designers, and production employees of the shipyard supported the Monitor project during one phase or another. When construction of each sub-assembly was completed in the fabrication shop, it was loaded onto a special flatbed truck and transported from the shipyard on city streets to the erection site at The Mariners' Museum. There it was lifted into place with a large mobile crane, carefully fitted up to the adjacent sub-assemblies, and then welded.
157. MARMO2_120922_303.JPG: A traditional keel-laying ceremony was held in March 2005 to mark the official start of erection and assembly. Nancy Briggs Petters, wife of shipyard president Mike Petters, was the ship's sponsor. During the next several months, successive sub-assemblies were trucked to the site and lifted into place. A key milestone was reached in March 2006 when the turret was lifted into place on the deck of the replica.
158. MARMO2_120922_306.JPG: The Revolutionary Gun Turret: The USS Monitor was a unique warship and many features of John Ericsson's design were innovative. What made the Monitor truly revolutionary, however, was its rotating gun turret. The revolving gun platform replaced the traditional broadside arrangement of guns on warships. Ships no longer had to be maneuvered into new positions to re-aim the guns. The rotating turret allowed the crew to aim at enemy targets regardless of the position of the Monitor. The development of the rotating gun turret made traditional wooden sailing ships obsolete and radically altered naval warfare.
159. MARMO2_120922_308.JPG: The Turret Exterior: John Ericsson designed the Monitor's revolving gun turret like a fortress. Eight layers of 1-inch thick iron plates formed an impenetrable wall of armor against any enemy projectile. One-hundred ninety-two separate wrought iron plates were bolted together forming a cylindrical battery 9 feet tall and 21 feet 6 inches in diameter. This design proved virtually indestructible to cannon fire of the era. Although they were severely battered, no turret of any of [sic] monitor-class vessel would ever be pierced in battle. The Turret Interior: The turret was structurally supported with center stanchions and adjustable diagonal braces. The roof was constructed of 1/2-inch thick iron plates resting on inverted railroad rails which were laid over the main roof beams. The roof plating was perforated over the two Dahlgren guns to provide ventilation. The roof was also fitted with two sliding hatches. The turret floor was constructed of wooden timbers laid over the main deck beam and perimeter deck ring. Four floor hatches provided access to the berth deck and powder magazines. Two 3,000-pound cast-iron pendulums served as port shutters that covered the gunports.
160. MARMO2_120922_364.JPG: The USS Monitor Below the Deck: Welcome below the deck of the Monitor. What you see in this large gallery are recovered and conserved components of the Monitor's stern areas, a glass panel print of her vibrating side-lever steam engine, and a view from below deck into the as-built revolving gun turret. These features have been recreated to add context to the recovered elements. Step back in time more than 140 years and experience life aboard the Monitor!
161. MARMO2_120922_367.JPG: Propeller Shaft recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor: On June 5, 1998, divers from NOAA and the US Navy's Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit-TWO (MDSU-2) recovered the Monitor's propeller and this 1900 lb segment of wrought iron propeller shaft. The shaft was later removed from the propeller to better conserve both pieces. A jagged gash in the shaft is the result of an unsuccessful recovery attempt in 1995. Why does it look like wood? Wrought iron contains metal and impurities introduced during forging, which leads to a wood-like appearance when corroded.
162. MARMO2_120922_376.JPG: John Ericsson's Propeller: The 9-foot diameter propeller was an improvement of John Ericsson's own revolutionary design of the screw propeller. The USS Monitor's four-blade configuration was more efficient than the three-blade type and it became the standard for subsequent iron and steel warships. This design is still prevalent in modern warship construction. The propeller, recovered by NOAA in 1998, underwent six years of conservation and is believed to be the only existing example of an Ericsson screw propeller.
163. MARMO2_120922_379.JPG: Operating the Propeller: The propeller was linked to the engine by the propeller shaft, which passed through the 'stuffing box' at the point where the shaft entered the hull. The stuffing box was an elaborate seal of leather and linen that kept water from leaking into the ship's interior. Two independent cylinders in the engine ran the propeller. The throttle and the reversing wheel at the forward end of the engine block controlled the speed and forward or reverse movement of the ship. The Propeller's Performance: Ericsson positioned the propeller almost 15 feet aft of the lower hull. Although the efficiency of the four-blade propeller was better than the three-blade type, the distance of the USS Monitor's propeller from the lower hull actually decreased its overall efficiency. Ericsson never explained why the propeller was located so far from the hull. On the next monitor-class vessel, the USS Passaic, however, Ericsson located its propeller much closer to the stern post.
164. MARMO2_120922_382.JPG: Protecting the Propeller: Positioned beneath the extreme stern of the deck, the propeller was also protected by the armor belt of the upper hull. A cannonball fired at the propeller, or any other submerged part of the vessel, would have to pass through a massive wall of water to reach it. No projectile at that time could travel through that much water and retain enough velocity to do any damage. Ericsson also notched out a well in the underside of the overhand near the stern to give free sweep to the propeller blades. Damage to the Propeller: NOAA archaeologists discovered that three propeller blades were heavily damaged. Historical accounts state that the engine was shut down the night it sank -- it was not turning. The USS Monitor then landed upside down on the seabed with the propeller projecting up from the inverted deck. The propeller was probably damaged sometime after leaving the Washington Navy Yard in November 1862, but before the engines were shut down on December 30, 1862.
165. MARMO2_120922_392.JPG: Keeping the Fires Banked and the Coal Ready: The furnace doors of the boilers faced aft, in an area known as the fire room. Here the firemen tended the boilers and the coal heavers shoveled coal. The temperature in this space reached astonishing levels, especially in the summer when temperatures as high as 140 degrees were recorded in the engine room. The boilers were so hot to the touch that Ericsson provided stanchions along the outboard side of each boiler, allowing the men to safely walk through this narrow passage, even in rough seas. The Firemen: Firemen were enlisted men. Their primary duty was to tend the boilers, which required constant attention to main the correct steam pressure. The fires had to be kept banked to produce even heat. During the process, coal turned to ash and accumulated in the ash pit beneath the boiler. It was removed by heaving it up through an overhead deck hatch. Firemen also maintained moving parts of the engine with regular oil lubrication. The Coal Heavers: Coal heavers were drawn from unskilled enlisted men and they loaded coal into the bunkers through deck hatches. The bunkers, actually a series of connected compartments, opened next to the boilers. The Monitor's bunkers held up to 80 tons of anthracite coal, or enough for five to seven days under steam. It was the coal heavers' duty to constantly rearrange the coal in the bunkers to keep it where it was needed.
166. MARMO2_120922_395.JPG: The USS Monitor -- Forward: Forward of the midships bulkhead was the berth deck. This is where the Monitor's enlisted men "strung" their hammocks. The outboard sides of the berth deck were lined with storage closets, the ship's powder magazine and shell room. One ladderway provided access up into the turret, while another led up to a deck hatch forward of the turret. "Officer's country" was separated from the berth deck by a wood bulkhead. Forward of that bulkhead were eight officer's cabins, the wardroom, and the Captain's cabin and state room. The anchor windlass and pilot house were located forward of the Captain's quarters.
167. MARMO2_120922_398.JPG: In the USS Monitor's Engine Room: You are now standing where the Monitor's two Martin boilers would have been. The diamond plate floor pattern marks the extent of the engine room floor. The port coal bunker in front of you was matched by an identical coal bunker on the starboard side. Space was tight and the atmosphere was very hot. As many as seven or eight men worked in the engine room. Engineers supervised all operations there. Firemen tended the boilers, and coal heavers kept the coal supply ready for the fires. The Engineers: Before the development of ironclads, officers-of-the-line had little regard for engineers. But with the introduction of ironclads, beginning with the Monitor, line officers became dependent on engineers. Their expertise was essential in the operation of a ship relying solely upon steam power. The engineers monitored closely the critical conditions, such as steam pressure and the salinity of the water in the boilers.
168. MARMO2_120922_401.JPG: The USS Monitor -- Aft: Directly below the turret, bisecting the ship, was the Monitor's main bulkhead which provided the structural support for the 120-ton gun turret. The bulkhead also served as the boundary that separated the living areas in the forward part of the ship from the galley and machinery spaces aft of the bulkhead. Access through the bulkhead was through two oval hatches that also provided an air-tight seal. This seal was critical to the successful operation of Ericsson's "forced draft blower" system that fanned the boiler fires and circulated outside air through the rest of the ship. Aft of the Bulkhead: The Monitor's galley was directly aft of the midships bulkhead and the stove backed up to the ship's two Martin boilers. Aft of the boilers was the "mechanical heart" of the Monitor. Here the crew tended to their hourly routines of maintaining the Monitor's steam engine and pumps. Aft of the bulkhead, Ericsson used cast iron floor plates with a raised diamond pattern instead of wood decking. This surface was not susceptible to fire from wayward embers and provided a non-skid surface. Off to each side were the ship's coal bunkers which held about 80 tons of coal.
169. MARMO2_120922_406.JPG: Inside the Monitor: Sideway cutaway of Ericsson's Monitor. Built in just 98 days, it contained some 40 patentable devices. The Monitor was the first ship to have the entire engine and all living quarters below the waterline.
170. MARMO2_120922_410.JPG: The Engine: In front of you is a glass-plate representation of the USS Monitor's vibrating side-lever engine. Ericsson's design was revolutionary because he turned the engine on its side, greatly reducing its height by allowing the pistons to move horizontally. Formerly, steam engine pistons had operated in a vertical motion, which took up a great deal of space. In a warship, these engines were vulnerable to enemy fire since they were higher than a vessel's waterline. Ericsson's new engine could be mounted below the waterline -- safe from enemy fire. Disassembling, Conserving, and Rebuilding the Engine: Because of the complex nature of its composition and the presence of so many different materials, including cast and wrought iron, brass, glass, and leather, the engine will be disassembled to allow for proper conservation. Different materials require different treatments and will therefore be conserved separately. After each engine component is conserved, it will be reassembled and the real engine will take the place of this glass-plate engine image.
171. MARMO2_120922_432.JPG: Turret Archaeology: When excavations began, NOAA archaeologists divided the turret into quadrants based on a clock face. The area in front of you was the 12-9 (l.) and 9-6 (r.) quadrant. The 9-6 quadrant was where the largest concentration of artifacts was located including the skeletal remains of two of the USS Monitor's crewmen. The first crewman (designated Monitor One) was removed during the turret recovery expedition, while the second (designated Monitor Two) was removed during excavations at The Mariners' Museum. As the excavations continued, the archaeologists were further surprised when they encountered flatware scattered among the roof rails. The large concentration of artifacts within this quadrant led archaeologists to believe that this is the part of the turret that hit the sea floor first.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Mariners' Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mariners' Museum is located in Newport News, Virginia. It is one of the largest maritime museums in the world as well as being the largest in North America.

History

The museum was founded in 1932 by Archer Milton Huntington, son of Collis P. Huntington, a railroad builder who brought the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to Warwick County, Virginia, and who founded the City of Newport News, its coal export facilities, and Newport News Shipbuilding in the late 19th century.

Archer and his wife, the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, acquired 800 acres (3.2 km�) of land that would come to hold 61,000 square feet (5,700 m�) of exhibition galleries, a research library, a 167 acre (676,000 m�) lake, a five mile (8 km) shoreline trail with fourteen bridges, and over 35,000 maritime artifacts from around the globe. After acquisition took place, the first two years were devoted to creating and improving a natural park and constructing a dam to create Lake Maury, named after the nineteenth-century Virginia oceanographer Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury.

Artifacts, paintings, models

The museum’s collection totals approximately 32,000 artifacts equally divided between works of art and three-dimensional objects. The scope of the collection is international and includes miniature ship models, scrimshaw, maritime paintings, decorative arts, carved figureheads, working steam engines, and the world's only known existing Kratz-built steam calliope. The museum holds important collections of paintings and drawings by marine artists James Bard and Antonio Jacobsen. The museum offers educational programs for all ages, a large research library and archives, as well as publications and Internet resources for teachers.

USS Monitor Center

The Mariners' Museum is home to the USS Monitor Center. In 1973, the wreck of the ironclad USS Monitor, made famous in the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 during the American Civil War was located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The wreck site was designated as the United States' first national marine sanctuary. Monitor Sanctuary is the only one of the thirteen national marine sanctuaries created to protect a cultural resource, rather than a natural resource.

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is now under the supervision of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Many artifacts from Monitor, including her innovative turret, propeller, anchor, engine and some personal effects of the crew, have been brought to the museum. For several years, they were conserved in special tanks to stabilize the metal. The new USS Monitor Center officially opened on March 9, 2007, and a full-scale replica of the Monitor, the original recovered turret, and many artifacts and related items are now on display. Current efforts are focused on restoring the engine.
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