Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been "monitoring" the wreck site of the Monitor periodically since her rediscovery in 1973—16 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. By the early 1990s, their alarm at the condition of the wreck began to grow. Sometime in the late 1980s, the aft lower hull collapsed, probably under the weight of her engine room equipment. In 1991, a private fishing vessel damaged the wreck by snagging an anchor on the Monitor's skeg—the support for the rudder and propeller shaft—ripping open the stern hull plating. In summer 1993, NOAA divers conducted an up-close inspection of the wreck, and they noted that a gaping hole in the stern had expanded noticeably. In addition, deck plating had come loose, exposing the underlying wood to ship worms. Dr. John Broadwater, by then NOAA's manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, expressed dismay at the rate of deterioration. Something had to be done to save what remained of the ship.
In April 1998, NOAA submitted a preservation plan to Congress, entitled "Charting a New Course for the Monitor." Congress addressed Dr. Broadwater's concerns by approving the NOAA proposal, and three organizations—NOAA, the U.S. Navy, and The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia—began a collaboration, lending unique assets to save the Monitor.
That year, Navy and NOAA divers mapped the hull and recovered numerous artifacts, most notably the ship's 9-foot cast-iron propeller and 11 feet of the propeller shaft, reducing the stresses on the Monitor's hull. The artifacts were delivered to The Mariners' Museum for preservation and eventual display to the public. In 1999, NOAA and Navy divers revisited the wreck site to plan for future major stabilization and recovery activities.
In summer 2000, Navy divers, most of them members of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two (MDSU-2), spent a month living on board a barge above the Monitor, performing 158 mixed-gas dives to the wreck. They stabilized the ship's hull by installing grout bags beneath the raised portion of the hull forward of the turret and placed a 90-ton Engine Recovery Structure (ERS) that would allow retrieval of the Monitor's steam engine in 2001. The Navy divers, working closely with NOAA personnel, placed the bridge frame portion of the ERS over the ship, using a 350-ton crane on board the barge, in midsummer 2000. As their final accomplishment, the Navy divers recovered the ship's 28-foot-long skeg and other artifacts, all of which were transported to The Mariner's Museum for preservation.
The ERS consisted of three components. A 78-foot by 35-foot bridge frame standing 37 feet high would straddle the Monitor on the sea floor to provide support to lift the engine without crushing the wreck. Sitting atop the frame would be a 40-foot-long trolley, containing hydraulic equipment that would lift the engine from the Monitor's hull. Finally, an Engine Lifting Frame (ELF)—designed to cradle the steam engine—would hang from the trolley.
Monitor 2001 Expeditions Phase I began in March with the return of a NOAA dive team, including divers from the Cambrian Foundation, East Carolina University's Program in Maritime Studies, and the National Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The team surveyed the wreck site and recovered 16 artifacts, including a Sharps and Hankins bayonet, one intact chimney for a whale-oil lamp, several condiment bottles, and an ironstone saucer.
The Navy renewed its recovery efforts in April, when the salvage ship Grapple (ARS-53) traveled to the Monitor site. Bad weather, including gales exceeding the one that sank the Monitor, prevented the Grapple from mooring over the site and reduced the time available to complete her tasks. The divers replaced lifting chains, installed chain stoppers (restraints), and inspected the lifting structure. They also were able to develop an efficient method of deploying and installing the rams, so that the job should go quickly in Phase II.
In June, a Navy-NOAA team once again set out for the site, this time on board the 300-foot derrick-barge Wotan, leased from Manson Gulf. The Navy team deployed to Houma, Louisiana, to convert the barge from a clean deck into a floating village and diving platform, housing more than 100 people and two diving systems. Divers installed a completely portable self-contained surface-supplied diving system that can be deployed on board any vessel, and two recompression chambers. In addition, they set up a commercial saturation diving system to reduce time lost to decompression, marking the first time that the Navy used such a system with Navy divers.
As the barge left Louisiana, Tropical Storm Allison formed and chased it out of the Gulf. Two weeks later, the Wotan took refuge in Morehead City, North Carolina, as Allison entered the Mid-Atlantic. Finally, on 17 June, after a 48-hour delay, the barge moored over the site. At 2330 that night, Commander Bobbie Scholley, commanding officer of MDSU-2, and Damage Controlman First Class Petty Officer James Barker made the first dive in the Navy's portion of Phase II with the ambitious goal of recovering the ship's 30-ton side-lever steam engine.
The currents and constant swells, routine in the area commonly called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic," have made the salvage of the Monitor a challenge for the Navy divers. "This has been a unique opportunity for the Navy," said Captain Chris Murray, the Navy's Supervisor of Diving at Naval Sea Systems Command. "For the first time, we are doing surface-supplied diving and saturation diving from the same platform." Surface-supplied divers breathe a mixture of oxygen and helium to prevent nitrogen narcosis. Helium also dissipates from the bloodstream faster than nitrogen, lowering the possibility of decompression sickness—the bends. At the 240-foot depths in which the divers were working, surface-supplied divers were limited to 40 minutes on the bottom.
Navy divers conducted 'round-the-clock dive operations, teaming with Global Industries, a civilian company, to operate the Global 1504 Saturation System. "This is the first time Navy divers have used civilian diving equipment to do this work. But this is the future of the Navy, the start of new diving procedures," said Captain Murray.
All this made it possible for up to three divers to work together. For additional support, a Navy MR-2 ROV (remotely operated vehicle) provided topside personnel a "fish-eye view" of the underwater work and video and still-image documentation.
The Navy divers worked for four weeks to remove the lower hull plating, free the engine from a cement-like encrustation of corrosion products and coal, and attach it to lifting cables. Because the engine has been weakened by corrosion, all of its components—cylinder, valve chest, shafts, rods, and levers—had to be secured by dozens of cables and straps to the specially designed engine-lifting frame.
More than 150 Navy divers from 18 separate commands, but largely consisting of MDSU-2 members, rigged cables and straps to the engine and attached it to the 14-square-foot lifting frame so that the entire assembly could be lifted, with the engine and sections of the Monitor's hull frames attached. Dr. Broadwater and Jeff Johnston, NOAA's on-scene scientists, worked 12-hour shifts following the divers' progress from the surface. During these shifts, they studied video images from cameras mounted on the Navy's ROV and on the divers' helmets, and they provided technical instructions on steps to take in rigging the engine for recovery and what artifacts to recover.
Over the weekend of 14 July, divers rushed to complete the rigging, aware that a rare period of calm weather was predicted for the 16th. At first light that morning, Navy divers went down to the engine frame for the last time. They attached steel cables to the three-story frame so the giant crane could lift it. After a final inspection, Captain Murray and Dr. Broadwater gave the order to raise the engine. Ironically, the divers who attached the cable could not see their work come to fruition. They were decompressing in a chamber on board the Wotan.
Cheers erupted as the recovery structure, weighing 130 tons with the Monitor's steam engine, finally broke the surface at 1156. The engine was then placed on a barge and transferred to The Mariners' Museum, where it will rest in a specially prepared 93,000-gallon tank for preservation.
With the engine resting on the transportation barge, Dr. Broadwater said, "It was a tremendous relief. This was the largest artifact we have retrieved from the ship so far. And NOAA could not have done this without the Navy's help. We were truly partners in this effort. . . . It's good for the Navy, because it is bringing up one of its own. Not only is the Monitor a world-class historic artifact, it was the first modern battleship. It's not just about saving historic wrecks. It's about saving some of our history."
The divers also were happy about the raising of the engine. "These men and women have put forth a tremendous effort over the last month to bring us to this day," said MDSU-2's Commander Scholley. "They deserve tremendous recognition for their effort." The divers made 412 surface-supplied dives, more than doubling all the Navy dives from the previous six years of work at the site. Saturation divers completed more than 160 excursions, accounting for 465 hours of bottom time.
In addition to the steam engine, divers in 2001 recovered components of the ship's revolutionary forced-air ventilation system (necessary because nearly the entire hull rested below water when the ship was under way), the four-ton condenser, brass engine room thermometers (even one in working order), and the steam engine's reversing wheel. More personal items, ranging from a hair comb to a shoe sole and a partial saucer from the ship's wardroom service were recovered. The divers and archaeologists have identfied a hand-wheel, castor, and eyebolt belonging to one of the ship's two gun carriages, thus lifting doubt that both 11-inch Dahlgren guns are still inside.
NOAA and Navy divers concluded the second phase of the recovery expedition on 24 July. Now that underwater archaeologists have mapped the turret area and removed debris from the engine area and Navy divers have worked to remove part of the armor belt resting above the turret and conducted test holes to examine the turret's condition, preparations are being made for the final step: to recover the "cheesebox" turret and its two 11-inch guns.
For more on this unfolding story on the Internet, go to: www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov.
Raising Monitor
Three organizations have teamed to raise deteriorating parts and artifacts—including the steam condenser, a main component of the steam engine—from from one of the most important icons of U.S. naval history, the Civil War ironclad Monitor, which sank on 31 December 1862.
By Lieutenant Commander W. Kent Davis, U.S. Navy