During the 1860's, no one would know that a revolutionary nautical concept and design would change the way our current warships are constructed. When the tiny, cigar-shaped object named Monitor was being built in Brooklyn, many critics scoffed at the validity of such a ship to wage a naval battle, let alone even be able to float. John Ericsson, the Swedish designer, had to pitch this unique design to the Unites States Navy many times before it was decided to give this boat a chance during the Civil War. Her battle with the Confederate ironclad named Virginia ( Merrimack) is legendary and she sank in a storm while being reassigned to blockade service down in Charleston during a heavy December winter storm.
Nautical Research Group was one of the first to dive and explore Monitor in conjunction with NOAA. During our two years of diving to the ship, we conducted metallurgical / corrosion studies while creating a photometric record of the state of decay on major structural points on the ship. We were given permission to photograph and recover items from the ship by NOAA Monitor sanctuary manager, John Broadwater, which were placed on permanent display in the Monitor Center in the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Later this summer, we will be devoting a segment of our blog on the discovery of Monitor in the mid-1970's and give an update on the latest developments in the nautical archaeology and recovery of this historic vessel.
hey im doing a project on the USS monitor and i cant find any information
Posted by: rebecca | April 22, 2009 at 09:43 AM