Divers recover U.S.S. Monitor turret 2002
On this day in 2002, the rusty iron gun turret of the U.S.S.
Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight for the first time in
140 years. The ironclad warship was raised from the floor of the
Atlantic, where it had rested since it went down in a storm off Cape
Hatteras, North Carolina, during the Civil War. Divers had been working
for six weeks to bring it to the surface.
Nine months before sinking into its watery grave, the Monitor had
been part of a revolution in naval warfare. On March 9, 1862, it dueled
to a standstill with the C.S.S. Virginia (originally the C.S.S.
Merrimack) in one of the most famous moments in naval history–the first
time two ironclads faced each other in a naval engagement. During the
battle, the two ships circled one another, jockeying for position as
they fired their guns. The cannon balls simply deflected off the iron
ships. In the early afternoon, the Virginia pulled back to Norfolk.
Neither ship was seriously damaged, but the Monitor effectively ended
the short reign of terror that the Confederate ironclad had brought to
the Union navy.
Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the Monitor had an
unusually low profile, rising from the water only 18 inches. The flat
iron deck had a 20-foot cylindrical turret rising from the middle of the
ship; the turret housed two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. The shift had a
draft of less than 11 feet so it could operate in the shallow harbors
and rivers of the South. It was commissioned on February 25, 1862, and
arrived at Chesapeake Bay just in time to engage the Virginia.
After the famous duel, the Monitor provided gun support on the James
River for George B. McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. By December 1862,
it was clear the ship was no longer needed in Virginia, so she was sent
to Beaufort, North Carolina, to join a fleet being assembled for an
attack on Charleston. The Monitor served well in the sheltered waters of
Chesapeake Bay, but the heavy, low-slung ship was a poor craft for the
open sea. The U.S.S. Rhode Island towed the ironclad around the rough
waters of Cape Hatteras. As the Monitor pitched and swayed in the rough
seas, the caulking around the gun turret loosened and water began to
leak into the hull. More leaks developed as the journey continued. High
seas tossed the craft, causing the ship’s flat armor bottom to slap the
water. Each roll opened more seams, and by nightfall on December 30, the
Monitor was in dire straits.
That evening, the Monitor’s commander, J.P. Bankhead, signaled the
Rhode Island that he wished to abandon ship. The wooden side-wheeler
pulled as close as safety allowed to the stricken ironclad, and two
lifeboats were lowered to retrieve the crew. Many of the sailors were
rescued, but some men were terrified to venture onto the deck in such
rough seas. The ironclad’s pumps stopped working, and the ship sank
before 16 of its crew members could be rescued. The remains of two of
these sailors were discovered by divers during the Monitor’s 2002
reemergence.
Many of the ironclad’s artifacts are now on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
(More Events on This Day in History)
-
American Revolution
- 1779 DeLancey and Hull battle for the Bronx
-
Automotive
- 1914 First electric traffic signal installed
-
Civil War
- 1864 Union scores a victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay
-
Cold War
- 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed
-
Crime
- 1998 Mother charged with smothering her eight children
-
Disaster
- 1948 Earthquake causes deadly landslides in Ecuador
-
General Interest
- 1858 First transatlantic telegraph cable completed
- 1962 Marilyn Monroe is found dead
- 1981 Reagan fires 11,359 air-traffic controllers
-
Hollywood
- 1983 Risky Business debuts, launches Cruise to stardom
-
Literary
- 1850 Guy de Maupassant’s birthday
-
Music
- 1957 American Bandstand goes national
-
Old West
- 1953 Texas Ranger Ira Aten dies
-
Presidential
- 1861 Lincoln imposes first federal income tax
-
Sports
- 1976 NBA merges with ABA
-
Vietnam War
- 1964 Navy flies retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam
- 1974 Congress cuts military aid to South Vietnam
-
World War I
- 1914 German assault on Liege begins first battle of World War I
-
World War II
- 1944 Hundreds of Jews are freed from forced labor in Warsaw
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