Monday, May 16, 2016

Conservation of USS Monitor Turret Contines

From the May 5, 2016, Archaeology.

Conservators at the USS Monitor Center at The Mariners' Museum in Hampton Roads, Virginia, have begun removing marine concretion from the surface of the Monitor's turret which has been soaking in a 90,000 gallon treatment tank for five years.

They will also remove the metal shields that line the interior of the turret and look for small artifacts that may have become trapped there when the ship sank.

Most of the shields are in delicate condition "but there are still four or five of them that are mostly intact --all on the starboard side of the turret where most of  the artifacts have been found.  So we believe there's a pretty good chance that there are more of them waiting to be exposed," said senior conservator William H. Hoffman.

So far, they have recovered a bone-handled knife, a silver table spoon, a monkey wrench, a glass tube for a steam engine gauge and a cartridge for a naval carbine behind the shields.

--Old B-TurretRunner

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