About That Darn Cat-- Part 1: Why Researchers Are Checking Out the USS Monitor's Cannons

From the March 6, Smithsonian magazine "Why did restorers search a Civil War battleship's guns for the remains of a black cat?" by Theresa Machemer.

Naval warfare changed forever on March 9, 1862, when the USS Monitor fought the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  The role of ironclads and rotating turrets set the wave of the future of naval architecture in motion.

Sadly, several months after the battle, the Monitor met her end when she sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, N.C..

Well, what about the cat?

Monitor sailor Francis Butts of Rhode Island survived the wreck and several years after the war, wrote and account of the ship's sinking. This is where the story of the Monitor cat begins.

Cat, What Cat?  --Old B-Runner