Recovery of Monitor's Turret-- Part 4: Conservation Continues

In 2003, NOAA divers and volunteers returned to the Monitor with the goal of obtaining overall video of  the site to create a permanent record of the current conditions of the wreck after the turret recovery.  

Jeff Johnston of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (MNMS) also wanted a definitive image of the vessel's pilot house. During the dives, the Monitor's iron pilothouse was located near the bow of the vessel and documented for the first time by videographer Rick Allen, of Nautilus Productions, in its inverted  position.

Conservation of the propeller was completed nearly three years after its recovery, and it is in display in the Monitor Center  at the Mariners' Museum.  As of 2013,  conservation of the engine, its components, the turret and the guns continues.

The two Dahlgren cannons were removed from the turret in September 2004 and placed in their own conservation tanks.

--Old B-Runner

USS Monitor Still in the News

From the April 11, 2019, Hampton Roads (Va.) Daily Press  "Notes and Notables:  Area codes, local history and local shopping."

HISTORY AROUND US

When the gun turret from the ironclad ship USS Monitor was pulled up from the Atlantic on August 5, 2002, one historian compared its significance to that of the Apollo 11 module that delivered Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the lunar surface.

That's how much the rotating turret --  which sunk with the rest of the Monitor off the coast of North Carolina at the end of 1862 --  changed the rules and strategies of naval warfare.

That 120-ton turret now  sits at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, along with the ship's anchor, propeller and thousands of smaller artifacts that have been retrieved.  A painstakingly meticulous conservation effort continues on the turret --  this past week it was lifted about two inches so that the 17-year-old support apparatus could be replaced with a new one that will provide better access.

That Monitor.  What A Ship.  --Old Secesh

Ramping Up to Save the USS Monitor's Turret-- Part 5: $100 Donation

So far they have raised only $1 million of the $20 million needed to complete their work.

The tours will be given from May 9 to July 1, and will be by appointment only and will cost a $100 tax deductible donation to the USS Monitor Center.

Tours are limited to 15 people and you must wear water-proof boots at least 8-inches high to enter the turret.

I just keep thinking about how neat it would be to enter that historic turret, and perhaps even touch it.  Talk about interacting with history.

Sloshing Through the Water.  --Old B-Runner

Ramping Up to Save the USS Monitor's Turret-- Part 4: Sign Me Up for a Tour

A new conservation campaign funded by a year-long effort has raised more than $1 million through grants, pledges, partnership agreements and cash contributions including a %$500,000 gift from the descendants of Monitor Captain John L. Worden and an annual $250,000 curatorial stipend from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which operates the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Also, there will be a series of private guided tours for donors through the center's conservation lab and done when the conservators are not working.

--Old B-Runner

Ramping Up to Save the USS Monitor's Turret-- Part 3: Looking for Dents

Since the turret recovery/conservation project started in 2002, some 760 objects have been found.

A five person team using chisels, hammers and small pneumatic tools will be removing scale-like layers of marine concretion.  Several times a day, the turret walls will be wet down with purified water.  Each Friday, the tank will be refilled with water to protect it over the weekend and then it will be drained again on Monday.

Once finished, the turret's newly exposed interior and exterior walls will be scanned through a 3-D photogrammerty process, to record the progress of the electrolytic reduction and descaling treatment.

In doing this, conservators hope to be able to gather information on Confederate shot, bolt and shells which hit the turret during its battle with the CSS Virginia in March 1862 and the confrontation with Drewry's Bluff two months later on the James River.

--Old B-Runner

Ramping Up to Save the USS Monitor Turret-- Part 2: Samuel Lewis' Spoon

Continued from May 19th.

The Monitor's turret interior had a series of shields in place to protect the gun crew from metal fasteners that might be blown off by enemy cannon fire.  There are still four or five of them intact and it is hoped that artifacts that might have ended up behind them during the ship's sinking might be found.

The last time they had the water drained from the turret tank, they found a silver table spoon with the initials S.A.L., which had belonged to Third Assistant Engineer Samuel Augee Lewis, who went down with the ship after being struck with a bad case of sea sickness in the storm and was so sick he couldn't even rise from his bunk.

--Old B-Runner

Ramping Up to Save the USS Monitor Turret-- Part 1: Removing the Metal Shields

From the May 4, 2016, Daily Press (Hampton Roads, Va.) "USS Monitor gun turret: Ramping up to save a landmark artifact" by Mark St. John Erickson.

One thing I can say for sure is that Mr. Erickson sure gets all the good reporting stories.

There are ramped up efforts underway to raise funds to preserve the famous gun turret of the USS Monitor.  I was disappointed that the rest of the ship was unrecoverable, but at least this artifact, which set the level for naval armaments even to this day, was saved.

The huge container the turret sits in is now drained during weekdays while work is done on marine concretions both inside and out.  This time, in addition, a series of 20-inch wide metal shields in the turret's interior will be removed to remove the concretions and look for artifacts lodged behind them from the ship's sinking.

These shields were put in place to protect the Monitor's gun crew from metal fasteners blown off by the impact of enemy ordnance.

--Old B-Runner

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