dramatic new presence appeared on the maritime museum scene on 9 March 2007 when the 63,500square-foot USS Monitor Center opened at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA. A crowd of over a thousand people of all ages pressed forward to experience the new exhibition. First stop for most visitors were the exhibits that marked the transition from the age of sail to that of steam and iron. The gun deck of a 1798 ship-of-the-lin e awes you with its size and power, but also its vulnerability to more powerful cannon. Moving to the next room, one is struck by the menacing appearance of the bow of CSS Virginia. The former Union steam frigate Merrimack was burned when the Confederates captured the Gosport Navy Yard in 1861 , but her hull was recycled to fashion a new ship, fitted with iron plating four inches thick. The new modified CSS Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862 and wreaked havoc on Union warships, destroying USS Congress and USS
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Cumberland with great loss of life. In one of the most timely arrivals in battlefield history, USS Monitor, purposebuilt in a hundred days from the novel design of Swedish inventor John Ericsson, arrived on the scene the following day. For about four hours on 9 March, the rwo strange looking ironclads maneuvered and tested one another, firing hundreds of cannon balls. There was no decisive victor, but Monitor prevented the Virginia from continuing her destruction of Union vessels. More importantly, the mode of naval warfare was changed forever on that day. USS Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras on New Year's Eve 1862, while under tow to Charleston, Sourh Carolina. Sixteen of her sixty-two crewmen were lost with their ship when she sank to the bottom . The wreck site was discovered in 1973, and the first NOAA National Marine Sanctuary was created to protect it rwo years later. (Today there are fourteen National Marine Sanctuaries.) Over the last several years, NOAA, US Navy, and
other divers have recovered the engine, propeller, turret, and more than 1,200 other artifacts from 240 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. The recovery effort, a remarkable sto ry in itself, is explained in exhibits and video within the USS Monitor Center. This story of the Battle of H ampton Roads is artfully told in a 13-minure video presentation in the high-definition "Battle Theater." While much of the Center is devoted to the George Geer, fireman ship itself, the aboard USS Monitor Monito r's crew receives considerable attention. Many of their personal possessions were recovered. Historians have linked them with journals, letters, records, and other documents that pur faces to names and names to artifacts. USS Monitor's crew lived and performed most of their duties below the waterline-working ship with coal shovels and
Since USS Monitor slipp ed beneath the waves in 1862, her revolutionary design, stealth, and iconic gun turret were immortalized by artists and historians. Once the ship was located in 1973, NOAA was charged with formulating a plan and the means to best protect and preserve her remains. Initially, management of the Sanctuary was focused on preventing fi1rther deterioration of the wreck, recovering important artifacts, and protecting the site from damage by human activities. In 1987, The Mariners' Museum was designated as the official repository for artifacts and archives from USS Monitor. (below, left to right) Monitor's turret's life, from wartime service to resting on the sea floor (inverted), to recovery in 2002, to conservation and museum interpretation at the new USS Monitor Center in Newport News, Virginia.
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SEA HISTORY 119, SUMMER 2007