|
The Mariners' Museum and the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
On March 9, 1987, the 125th anniversary of the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, The Mariners' Museum was designated the Principal Museum for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary under the management of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Museum cares for the Monitor Collection, which includes all artifacts recovered from the site as well as a large collection of historical material and scientific data generated by NOAA expeditions to the site. The collection contains documents and other materials donated by various agencies and individuals who have been associated with the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The collection was compiled by NOAA and remains a federal collection under the ultimate jurisdiction of the National Archives with The Mariners' Museum serving as a regional curatorial repository for the material. The Monitor Collection is maintained by the Museum's Research Library and is available for research by students, the general public, and the professional community under procedures consistent with those in effect at the National Archives and those of The Mariners' Museum. Anyone wishing to carry out research in the Monitor Collection should contact the education coordinator for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to arrange an appointment.
The Museum maintains a permanent exhibit on the Monitor and the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The current Clash of Armor exhibit will be replaced by a more comprehensive Monitor exhibit that will be included in the Defense of the Seas gallery scheduled to open in the summer of 1999.
Location and Identification of the Wreck
Despite numerous searches, the USS Monitor lay undiscovered for more than 110 years. In 1973, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by John G. Newton of the Duke University Marine Laboratory proposed testing the application of geological survey equipment for underwater archaeological survey and assessment. The purpose of the project was to map and study a specific area of the continental shelf off the North Carolina coast. To assess the applicability of the equipment to underwater archaeology, the scientists proposed to locate and identify a shipwreck. The only easily identifiable vessel believed to have been lost in the survey area was the Monitor.
After a year of intensive historical research, the scientists isolated a high-probability area for the Monitor's sinking. They also developed sonar and visual configurations for the wreck with specific points of identification: the ship's turret, armor belt, and nearly flat bottom.
On August 27, 1973, after identifying 21 possible contacts, the side-searching sonar found a long, amorphous echo. The first pass of the television camera revealed iron plates, a virtually flat, unobstructed surface (the bottom of the hull), a thick waist (the armor belt), and a circular structure (the turret). With each successive series of camera passes, evidence mounted that the wreck was that of the Monitor, but the possibility that this was the wreck of a ship of another type or class had to be eliminated. It would take an intensive study of the visual evidence over the next five months to identify the wreck as the Monitor. A second visit to the site in April 1974 confirmed the identification of the Monitor, lying in 230 feet of water approximately 16 miles off Cape Hatteras.
Designation of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
On March 8, 1974, Duke University and the project participants made the official announcement that the Monitor had been located. The information brought an enthusiastic response and even some proposals for raising the famous warship. However, government officials were wrestling with the more basic problem of how to protect it. North Carolina's submerged cultural resource law could not protect the wreck from salvage efforts because the ship lay outside the three-mile limit and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the state. The U.S. Navy had abandoned title to the Monitor in 1953. Agencies involved in locating the Monitor, joined by the Smithsonian Institution, organized efforts to identify a means of preserving the wreck. After surveying existing federal legislation, the working group determined that Title III of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) offered the most feasible means of protecting the Monitor. MPRSA authorizes the Department of Commerce and its agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to manage the site.
|
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
|
The governor of North Carolina nominated the wreck for marine sanctuary status and on January 30, 1975, the 113th anniversary of the vessel's launch, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was created. The sanctuary consists of a vertical column of water one mile in diameter located on the eastern continental shelf 16.1 miles off Cape Hatteras.
First Previous Next Last
Go to Main Category:
The Monitor Today
Go to other documents in this category:
Chronology of the Rediscovery of the
USS Monitor
NOAA-Sponsored/-Permitted Expeditions to
the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
The Monitor Collection
|
![[ Navigation Bar ]](../../resources/navigation.gif){kind=small}