USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage

Foreword

ix the non-armored ships of the Union fleet demonstrated the end of wooden warships. In response to these two ships and the Battle of Hampton Roads, both the Union and the Confederacy turned to armored craft and monitors (fifty-nine monitors were ordered by the US Navy after Monitor’s perceived success) and foreign navies also adapted to the new technology, culminating in the development of iron and steel-hulled turreted capital ships, the progenitors of the battleship. While the engineering, architecture and the art of the iron maker defined in part the mundane aspects of Monitor, the circumstances of Monitor’s birth and the battle with CSS Virginia quickly became fixed into American mythology, representing as all myths do real and fictional stories, recurring themes or character types that appeal to the consciousness of a people, by embodying cultural ideas or giving expression to deep, commonly felt emotions . Monitor, like another famous Civil War craft, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, inspired a national mania that continues 150 years later, an impact reflected in popular culture that resounds even now with phrases like an “ironclad” guarantee. In the aftermath of the Battle of Hampton Roads, a hero-cult arose around Monitor’s designer, builders, officers, and crew, reflected in the breathless prose of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who opined in response to This book reaches the American people on the 150th anniversary of the key events in the yearlong career of USS Monitor, beginning with its launch on January 30, its commissioning on February 25, its battle with CSS Virginia on March 9, its refit at Washington Navy Yard in October, and its loss, with sixteen officers and crew, on December 31, 1862. Born out of necessity in the first “modern” conflict , the American Civil War, Monitor was a product of the ingenious mind of John Ericsson, the industrial prowess and economic might of the Union, and a harbinger of a new type of war, where increasingly deadlier arms—the product of the laboratory and the factory—merged to wreak havoc. Herman Melville , in response to the arrival of Monitor and its famous battle at Hampton Roads, wrote Hail to Victory, without the gaud Of Glory; zeal that needs no fans Or banners; plain mechanic power Plied cogently in War now placed— Where War belongs— Among the trades and artisans. Monitor’s technology, with its low freeboard, iron hull, and rotating turret, demonstrated the efficiency of a turreted warship, just as Virginia’s armored casemate and the havoc its guns wrought on FOREWORD  The Monitor became and remains a part of the American mind, its bare mention conjuring up images of what we are as a people, of our experiences as a people, and of some of the major events and motifs in our history. —Larry E. Tise, 1978 Broadwater, and the work done inside Monitor’s turret , also reminded all of us that this is a human story, the saga of people, especially that of the two as yet unidentified sailors who, like many in history, have either been “ordinary” folk rendered heroic by the circumstances into which they were thrust, as well as all who have been caught up in something larger than life and paid a price—in this case the ultimate price—as a result. The pages that follow are a unique, compelling, and personal account by the archaeologist who has spent more time than any other interacting with USS Monitor. John Broadwater was there at the beginning of the modern saga, was one of the first to again touch Monitor after its loss, and to enter the “tomb” of the ironclad’s turret. He was a key player in the planning and management of Monitor, and his voice and perceptions are an important part of Monitor’s ongoing saga. This book is an appropriate and powerful human account for the 150th anniversary. It is not the final archaeological report, which NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries is now working to complete. Archaeology continues long after the excavation ends, both in the laboratory and in the archives. Work to identify Monitor’s lost sailors continues, as does the ongoing conservation of the turret, machinery, and artifacts. A comprehensive and extensive report is forthcoming. For now, in 2012, however, we pause to be reminded again, in John Broadwater’s prose, that this ship, and its saga, are first and foremost a human story. James P. Delgado Director, Maritime Heritage Program Office of National Marine Sanctuaries...