The USS Monitor, launched early in the American Civil War, has been called the U.S. Navy's first modern warship. In 1975, her sunken and rusting hull became America's first national marine sanctuary. The five month effort by Navy divers to recover the Monitor's innovative steam engine and a section of her hull started on March 25, 2001 and will end on August 11. The Navy will employ a wide range of technologies in this effort, which will be one of the largest archaeological recovery projects ever conducted. Monitor 2001 consists of five expeditions to the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, to be conducted in three phases. Each phase will involve personnel from NOAA, the U.S. Navy, The Mariners' Museum and other organizations. Come and join us at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," as we recover and preserve the ironclad warship USS Monitor, a unique and significant part of our naval history. MONITOR 2001 LOG UPDATES - Aug 24 The 2001 mission has come to a successful conclusion. Listen to Maritime historian Jeff Johnston of the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary discuss the mission objectives for the planned recovery of the ship's turret next year.
- Aug 17 The final dives on the Monitor are currently taking place. NOAA divers are using advanced technology to see what's buried within the silt filled turret.
- Aug 10 At long last the engine of the USS Monitor was presented by NOAA to the Mariners' Museum. John Broadwater greeted an ethusiastic crowd at the welcoming ceremony.
- Aug 3 The Navy has completed diving this week and NOAA divers began their scientific survey of the wreck.
- July 25 The engine arrived at the Newport News Shipbuilding on July 18, and now awaits a transfer to The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA. After the engine arrives at the museum, it will undergo a lengthy conservation process.
- July 17 The lifting of the Monitor's engine was no simple task. It took years of planning and a coordinated recovery effort involving many project partners.
- July 16 The engine has been recovered! For the first time in 140 years, the 30-ton steam engine of the shipwrecked Civil War Ironclad, USS Monitor, broke the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The NOAA team and scores of Navy divers worked around the clock for 28 days to free the engine from 240 ft below the surface of the ocean. The engine was placed on a barge and will be brought to The Mariners' Museum where it will be placed in a 93,000 gallon steel tank so conservators can begin a 10-year process to preserve the historic engine.
| | - July 13 Phase II continues with Navy divers and the Monitor sanctuary team making much progress in their recovery efforts.
- July 6 Phase II is well underway. This week the dive team began attaching the main lifting slings to the Monitor engine. Amongst other artifacts, divers also retrieved a completely intact engine room thermometer. This precious artifact is currently in safe storage, happily reporting a temperature of 82 degrees! Due to poor weather conditions, the team anticipates that the engine should be ready for removal by mid-July.
- June 29 The dive team continues to recover Monitor artifacts, including a section of the subsurface, forced-air ventilation system (state-of-the-art in its time). Recovered artifacts have been shipped to the Mariners' Museum for restoration.
- June 22 The barge arrived on site and 24-hour dive operations have begun. Navy divers have recovered many artifacts, and removed a keel plate that exposed the engine. The team is on schedule for an engine recovery operation in early July.
- June 15 After an intensive preparation and loading effort that began in mid-May, the salvage barge Wotan departed Houma, LA for a 2-week transit to the project site.
- May 30 The team has completed Phase I operations.
- May 15 With excellent sea conditions, Navy divers began the arduous task of installing heavy hydraulic rams, chains, and cables required for raising the Monitor's engine.
- April 30 The Navy team aboard the USS Grapple began deploying four large buoys to form a 1/4-mile square around the wreck. The four-point mooring system provides a diving platform for the June/July engine recovery expedition.
- April 15 The NOAA research team has recovered data and artifacts from the wreck of the Monitor, including a bayonet handle and whale-oil chimneys.
SOURCE - NOAA
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