USS Monitor Center, Newport News, VA

[gwb123]

The USS Monitor Center at

The Mariners Museum & Park
100 Museum Drive
Newport News, VA 23606

 

http://www.monitorcenter.org/

 

 

During our whirlwind tour of Virginia this summer, my brother escorted me to the USS Monitor Center to review the exhibits and the recovered sections of the ship.

 

Per their website:

 

"The Mariners’ Museum was named the official repository for the Monitor Collection by NOAA in 1987. The collection consists of over 200 tons of priceless artifacts recovered from the iconic Civil War ironclad located within the boundaries of NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary."

 

The exhibits explained that while ironclads had been used before (primarily as floating batteries), this was the first time steam powered armored vessels had faced off against each other. The hours long battle was fought to a draw, with both sides claiming victory. However, naval warfare had changed forever.

 

 

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In a prologue of sorts, the exhibit explains the state of naval warfare and ship construction in the early 1800's. We see here a model of an ealrier gun carriage and a model of steam powered side wheeler still equipped with sails. Such ships were common in the Union blockade fleet.

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Naval gunnery was a well established science by the 1800's, with calculations having been made for size of gun, trajectory, recoil, gun drill and reset.

 

I found the blocking and bracing interesting.

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To tell the story of the epic confrontation, the museum devotes as much space to the opposing CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimac.

 

Meant to be destroyed when the Union lost control of the naval yard, the ship provided a less than perfect but functional platform for building a machine to break the Union blockade fleet at Hampton Roads.

 

Precious and much needed iron was scrounged from near and far to build the massive metal sheeting down to the waterline.

 

 

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The visitor is presented with a full scale replica of the CSS Monitor's front quarter. The size of the workman gives you the scale of this ship.

 

Note that the writing on the side of the gun refers to Gosport, NY. I am not sure what the context of that was, other than it may have been captured when the naval yard was taken by Confederate forces.

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As for the USS Monitor, one exhibit shows the condition of the turret when it was found inverted under the ocean, with its guns and mounts upside down and mired in sediment.

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A few steps forward, and you see a reconstruction of the turret in full working order. It must have been a very crowded (and noisy affair) especially when the guns fired.

 

Note the large gear for revolving the turret, an innovation at the time which allowed the ship more time to keep its guns trained on the CSS Virginia.

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The larger real portions of the USS Monitor are still in desalinization tanks going through a years long process of preservation. This is a view of one of the guns.

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One nice feature of the museum is an outdoor full size replica of the USS Monitor, which you can walk on and looks like this on nice day:

 

(photo from museum website)

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Unfortunately, with a tropical storm off the coast, this is what it looked like the day we visited. (Of course, this was the one photo I wanted from this location!)

 

Ironically, it was such a storm that sank the USS Monitor before she could be brought to port.

 

(And yes, I rang the bell!)

 

The model was built using modern methods by the nearby General Dynamics shipyard. For a purist, it is missing a number of details that would be found on a functioning ship. But it gives an idea of what the vessel looked and felt like.

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There were a number of side exhibits, with a selection of naval armaments.

 

The sword/dagger belonged to a Confederate naval officer, and I am sorry I did not capture his name.

 

There is a lot of written content in the exhibits, especially about the construction of these ships. The North knew about the resurrection of the Merrimac as a blockade breaker and was in an absolute panic to build a counter weapon. (Spying was rife in this area: as the exhibit points out, the daily mail boat was allowed to transit between Confederate and Union held territory on both sides of Hampton Roads.) The USS Monitor was built in a record 100 days, and deployed just in time to counter the Southern assault on the blockade purposes.

 

Between the exhibits, artifacts, movies and narrative, we spent a full afternoon there trying to soak it all in.

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Ironclad warships were not the only naval innovations of the Civil War.

 

This is a model of the USS George Washington Park Custis, a towed barge that had the distinction of becoming the world's first aircraft carrier.

 

For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_George_Washington_Parke_Custis_(1861)

 

 

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The war of course did not end well for the USS Monitor or the CSS Virginia. The USS Monitor sank in a storm at sea, while the CSS Virginia was destroyed to prevent capture.

 

While the USS Monitor awaited recovery, the CSS Virginia was heavily salvaged after its destruction. Its cannon were removed and placed at land based fortification.

 

This was reportedly one of the CSS Virginia's guns, which greats visitors at the beginning of the tour.

 

I hope you enjoyed this quick view of the USS Monitor Center. It sits side by side with its sponsoring institution the Mariner's Museum, which we barely had time to run through at the end.

 

The Hampton Roads area of Virginia is soaked with history. It is well worth the stop and the tour.

 

Thanks for reading!

[The Meatcan]

Girl, nice write-up and crisp photos. You always seem to have highly-enviable vacations! Maybe you should operate a USMF museum tour service! Thanks for sharing your latest visit.

Terry

[gwb123]

Girl, nice write-up and crisp photos. You always seem to have highly-enviable vacations! Maybe you should operate a USMF museum tour service! Thanks for sharing your latest visit.

Terry

 

I thought I already was!

 

Apparently my wife and I do not have the ability to have a "nice quiet vacation" by the pool. Always going somewhere, always something to see. And even if we tried, our daughter or our son would great us at the airport with an agenda.

[mes]

Are they still parts of the Monitor on the ocean floor? Great post and for sharing it.

Mark

[gwb123]

From what I recall of the exhibit, they recovered the turret, the two guns, and parts of the propulsion system (shaft, propeller, etc.). These last items were also on display, but we did not have time to take a close look at them. I am not sure what remains of the hull but there are probably more detailed resources on line that go into that detail.