That Darn Cat-- Part 4: A Great Story Regardless

Continued from March 10 post.  To see the first three posts, click on the cats label below.

The Daily Press reports that David Albert, superintendent of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, hopes the cannons will be ready for display within two or three years; 13 News Now, however, cites an estimate suggesting closer to ten years.

The Monitor's turret sank upside down, filling the cannons with coal from the engine.  So when  conservators began boring into the cannon barrels last week, the majority of the materials recovered were black water and chunks of coal-colored marine concretions.

A preliminary search of the cannon barrels in 2005 showed no sign of cat  remains, and last week's borings yielded a similar  result.  The only artifact found of interest so far is a single metal bolt.

Laurie King, an assistant conservator at the museum says she loves the cat story, regardless of its veracity.

"Even if it turns out to be not true, I really like Butts and the fact that he had such an imagination, and felt like, 'No one's going to know the difference," says King.  "I don't think he ever would have imagined that we could bring it up a hundred and fifty years later.  It's wonderful to be able to do this archaeology to confirm or deny  stories and oral histories that have been passed down for generations."

--Old B-Runner

That Darn Cat-- Part 3: A Salt and Oxidation Problem

A research team located the wreck of the USS Monitor in the 1970s and the site is now managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

The NOAA and the U.S. Navy cooperated in  to recover the Monitor's gun turret in 2002.  Two years later, the two cannons were removed from that turret.  But 140 years in the salt water had taken its toll  on the metal.

As Will Hoffman, the museum's director of conservation says the cannons are as soft as chalk in some places.  To preserve the guns, the museum stores them in a chemical solution that draws out salt and protects against sudden oxidation.

"The goal of this is to really get the artifact on display so it can tell the story of the Monitor, the leadup to the battle between ironclad ships, the aftermath," said Hoffman.   "Because just nearby is the turret of the Monitor, which the gun was found inside.  It's the first turret on a ship in human history."

--Old B-Runner

About That Darn Cat-- Part 2: Why Did He Put the Cat in the Cannon?

Francis Butts, in his account of the sinking of the USS Monitor, came up with a really good human interest story and that had to do with a cat.

According to him, while bailing water out of the Monitor's famous turret, he plugged one of the two cannons in it with his boots and coat.  (Why he would do this with the ship in that condition, I wouldn't know.)  Then, he saw "a black cat... sitting on the breech of one of the guns howling.

"...I caught her, wrote the sailor, "and, placing her  in another gun, replaced the wad and tampion, but I could still hear that distressing howl."

He never explained why he decided to do that with the cat.  Was he trying to save it or maybe quiet the howling?

Archaeologists are keeping this story in mind as they drill out the insides of those cannons.

What if they find the bones of a cat in one of the cannons?

When I was talking about the sinking of the Monitor to my classes of 7th graders, the cat story drew more interest than any other aspect of the ship.

--Cat, Or, No Cat.  --Old B-R'er

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