Huzza! U.S.S. Monitor Turret Raised!

[Lost Cause]

One of the first Ironclads in the world with a rotating turret.

HATTERAS, N.C. (AP) - The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised Monday from the floor of the Atlantic, nearly 140 years after the historic warship sank during a storm.

As salvage crews cheered, the 120-ton turret was pulled out of the depths by a huge crane on a 300-foot barge. A Civil War-era American flag fluttered from the salvage apparatus and silt-colored water poured out of the turret into the whitecapped sea before the wreckage was swung aboard the barge.

The turret is the biggest piece of wreckage recovered during a salvage operation run by the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which controls the underwater sanctuary 16 miles off Cape Hatteras.

"It's fantastic," said John Broadwater, NOAA's director of the Monitor sanctuary. "It's sitting on the barge and we're looking at dents that the Virginia put on it March 9, 1862."

On that date, the Union ship and the Confederate vessel CSS Virginia revolutionized naval warfare when they fought to a draw near Newport News, Va.

The Monitor's revolving cylindrical turret was an innovation: It allowed the crew to maneuver the ship out of harm's way while maintaining accurate fire simply by adjusting the turret. The Virginia had to be steered into position for its guns to take accurate aim.

On Saturday, divers removed most of a human skeleton found inside the turret. The remains are believed to be those of one of the 16 sailors who died when the ship sank in a storm on Dec. 31, 1862, and landed upside down in 240 feet of water. The lower part of the skeleton is pinned beneath one of the two huge cannons inside the turret.

The remains will be analyzed, then buried with military honors.

The wreckage was discovered in 1973, but only bits and pieces had been recovered until recently. Researchers said the wreck was disintegrating and in the last several years have made an effort to save some of the vessel's unique features. The entire vessel is too fragile to be raised.

The turret will be taken to a museum in Newport News, Va., to be preserved and displayed along with hundreds of other Monitor artifacts.

Crews expected to recover the turret Saturday but were foiled by bad weather. On Monday, divers were able to attach 100-pound shackles to a claw-like lifting device that had been bolted to the turret and the recovery began.

The turret was lifted slightly and positioned on a platform designed to support the aging, 20-foot structure as it was lifted out.

This year's expedition cost $6.5 million. Last year, the Navy and NOAA spent $4.3 million to raise the ship's steam engine. In the past, pieces of the hull have been recovered.

 

[Weird Harold]

One of the first Ironclads in the world with a rotating turret.

One of the first? I thought it WAS the first. I know it was the first operational iranclad with a turret and the namesake of the Monitor Class ships built during the Civil War. I'm pretty sure it was also the prototype for the class as well.

What turreted ships preceded it, if any?

 

[Phoenyx]

Re: Re: Huzza! U.S.S. Monitor Turret Raised!

One of the first? I thought it WAS the first. I know it was the first operational iranclad with a turret and the namesake of the Monitor Class ships built during the Civil War. I'm pretty sure it was also the prototype for the class as well.

What turreted ships preceded it, if any?

The USS Monitor was a marvel of the mid-nineteenth century. The ship was an obvious evolution in warship design, but she was the first. There are many first's associated with the USS Monitor, she was the first ship to have a revolving turret, she was the first ship where the officers and crew had to live entirely below waterline, she was the first ship credited with having below waterline flushing toilets and she was the United States' first National Marine Sanctuary.

The USS Monitor is the predecessor of the modern warship. Her innovative design and battle with the CSS Virginia are credited with signaling the death knell of the wooden warship. The naval battles in Hampton Roads, Virginia shocked the world. The Confederate ironclad Virginia destroyed two very powerful wooden warships on March 8, 1862 while suffering only minimal damage herself. The mailed sides of the Virginia's casemate repelled everything the Union vessels hurled at it but the one-sidedness of the battle was not totally unexpected. The Union Navy was building their own armored ships. Only one was expected to be ready in time to meet the CSS Virginia. John Ericsson's "Little Monitor" was complete and on the way, but a storm on March 6th, delayed her arrival until the battle on the 8th was over. The glow of a burning warship was her beacon into Hampton Roads.

The Monitor's orders were to protect the USS Minnesota. The steam frigate had run aground attempting to assist the Virginia's victims. As the Virginia retired from the days fight, everyone knew she would return on March 9th to finish the destruction begun the day before. The Monitor's arrival was very opportune for the Union. She would fight the Virginia to a draw in what would become one of the most celebrated naval battles in history.

 

[tigerjen]

An amazing story, and what an amazing history!

 

[Phoenyx]

Monitor and Merrimack (AKA CSS VIRGINIA), two American warships that fought the first engagement between ironclad ships. When, at the beginning of the Civil War, the Union forces abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Va., they scuttled the powerful steam frigate Merrimack. She was subsequently raised by the Confederates, converted into an ironclad, and renamed the Virginia. On Mar. 8, 1862, the Virginia, commanded by Capt. Franklin Buchanan, sallied forth into Hampton Roads against the wooden ships of the Union blockading squadron. She rammed and sank the Cumberland, destroyed the Congress after running her aground, and scattered the remaining ships, all the while sustaining practically no damage to herself.

The next day, however, the Virginia, now under command of Lt. Catesby Jones, was challenged by the strange-looking Union ironclad Monitor (see monitor), built by John Ericsson and commanded by Lt. John L. Worden. The Monitor had just reached Hampton Roads after a precarious voyage from New York City. The ships engaged in a four-hour close-range duel, which resulted in a draw. This combat between two ironclad warships marked a revolution in naval warfare.

In April the Virginia, under Capt. Josiah Tattnall, again challenged the Monitor, but the Union ship declined combat. When General McClellan's advance in the Peninsular campaign forced the Confederates to abandon Norfolk, Tattnall, unable to lighten the Virginia sufficiently for passage up the James River, destroyed her (May, 1862). The Monitor foundered and sank in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras in Dec., 1862. In 1973 scientists discovered the intact wreck of the Monitor, which was left on site and is now protected by the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

See R. M. McCordock, The Yankee Cheese Box (1938); H. A. Trexler, The Confederate Ironclad “Virginia” (1938); R. W. Daly, How the Merrimac Won (1957); W. C. White and R. White, Tin Can on a Shingle (1957); W. C. Davis, Duel Between the First Ironclads (1981); J. T. deKay, Monitor (1997).

 

[Azwed]

I have been to the musuem that they will put the turret in before. They have several other Monitor artifacts on display in cases. All very cool stuff throughout the musuem.

 

[427cobra]

What's that slogan they use for the history channel? Where history comes alive. This is certainly one of those moments. Even though the ironclads sounded the death of of the wooden hulled warships and even thought steam was now a major factor in vessel propulsion, somehow some of the beauty was lost as well. The ironclads were ugly and unnattractive, had none of the character that their predecessors possessed, as well as lacked the graceful beauty of a sailing ship. Warships would lack that brutish beauty till the launching of the Iowa class battleships during WWII in the 1940's.