[Mark Losavio] All right.
Hello everyone and good afternoon.
Welcome to the Submerged NC webinar series, USS Monitor - America's Most Historic Ironclad.
My name is Mark Losavio, and I am the media outreach coordinator for the Monitor National
Marine Sanctuary, and I will be your host today.
And joining me is Tane Casserley, the research protection and permit coordinator for the
Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
This webinar is brought to you by NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in collaboration
with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
Partnering since 1975, NOAA and the state of North Carolina work to research, honor,
and protect the hallmarks of North Carolina's underwater cultural heritage - shipwrecks.
These shipwrecks hold information about the ever-changing technologies in cultural and
physical landscapes.
They serve as a uniquely accessible underwater museum and a memorial to generations of mariners
who lived, died, worked, and fought off our shores.
This is one of the many webinars that we will be hosting in the coming months for the Submerged
NC webinar series, in collaboration with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
Monitor is just one of 14 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments
in the National Marine Sanctuary System.
This system encompasses more than 600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters,
from Washington State to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to American Samoa.
During this presentation, all attendees will be in listen only mode.
You are welcome to type questions for the presenters into the question box at the bottom
of the control panel on the right-hand side of your screen.
This is the same area you can let us know about any technical issues you may be having
that we can help with.
We'll be monitoring incoming questions and any technical issues, and we'll respond to
them as soon as we can.
We are recording this session, and we will share the recording with registered participants
via the webinar archive page.
A URL for this webpage will be provided at the end of the presentation.
And today, we welcome our presenter Shannon Ricles, the education and outreach coordinator
for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
So yeah, let's sit back and relax as Shannon takes us all the way back to 1862 to learn
more about the USS Monitor and its journey through history to the present day.
[Shannon Ricles] All right.
Hopefully, everybody can see my screen.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for joining us today.
I really appreciate you being here with us.
Let me, I have a problem here hold on.
Okay, always a technical issue.
Okay, today we're going to walk through the history of the USS Monitor, America's most
historic ironclad from its conception to present day.
And we're going to all do it in about 40 minutes.
I'll also tell you about some of the great free resources we have that you can either
use to learn more about the Monitor and Archaeology or use them in your classroom with your students.
So as Mark said, Monitor is a national marine sanctuary, and I just want to point out that
we are the best sanctuary in the system, because we were the first.
So how did it all begin?
It began in February of 1861.
Delegates from every county in Virginia gathered in Richmond to vote on whether or not to succeed
from the United States.
Most delegates and most Virginia voters wanted to remain in the Union.
But two months later, Virginia seceded.
And with their succession, the U.S. Navy was forced to abandon the Gosport Navy Yard.
Now the navy yard was located in Portsmouth, Virginia, and as you can see on this map,
its location offers strategic access to three very important bodies of water - the Hampton
Roads Waters, the James River, and the Chesapeake Bay, which leads into the Atlantic Ocean.
So the Navy didn't want the Confederates to gain any advantage from capturing the shipyard.
Therefore, as they were retreating, they set everything on fire, including the steam frigate
the USS Merrimack.
The Merrimack burned to the waterline, and when the Confederates came, they actually
raised the hull, and they began to build the CSS Virginia, the Confederates' first ironclad.
Now the Union knew that the ship was being built, and they also knew the urgency of building
their own ironclad.
So an Ironclad Board was formed, and in August of 1861, a call for proposals was put out.
The contract was awarded to a Swedish American John Ericsson.
Ericsson was a great inventor and innovator and had built ships for the Navy previously.
However, there had been some dissension between him and the Navy, and he thought he would
never build another ship for them again.
However, through some very serendipitous moments, that was not to be the case.
This is a great story, and I invite you to read more about it in our legacy website,
which is in the handout that I put in the chat.
It's really a very interesting story.
Now Ericsson had the idea for an ironclad in 1854, well before the Civil War.
So once he was assured he was getting the contract, construction began.
He built it at a cost of about $280,000, and it was the first turreted ironclad built by
the U.S. Navy.
The keel was laid on October 25th of 1861.
Now most people did not think that John Ericsson's ship would even float.
But just 98 days later, the USS Monitor successfully launched from Green Point, Brooklyn, New York.
98 days in itself was a huge feat, but Ericsson was disappointed.
Being a highly intelligent engineer, he had calculated that the ship would float exactly
18 inches above the water.
And when it launched, it floated at about 21 inches, but then he realized that the ship
was not finished and the crew was not on board.
So once it was completed, it floated exactly where he thought it would.
Now since the ship wasn't completely outfitted when it launched, it stayed in New York waters
to finish its build and to conduct sea trials.
Then finally, the ship was ready and Monitor received orders to head south.
And on March 6, it left New York.
However, it was not an easy sail.
The Monitor's Executive Officer, Samuel Daniel Greene, wrote that on the following day a
moderate breeze was encountered and it was at once evident that the Monitor was unfit
as a sea going craft.
Now the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor were both ironclads,
but very different. The Monitor was flat, and as I said floated only 18 inches above the water.
Its turret only contained two guns and during battle the only other object on deck was the
pilothouse where the captain watched and directed the battle.
However, the CSS Virginia was larger and had 12 guns.
But in order to fire those guns, the ship had to turn towards its target, which made
it a bit more cumbersome.
Now the CSS Virginia was slow and unwieldy, but it had one of the most destructive maiden
voyages in history.
In less than eight hours on March 8 1862, the Virginia attacked the entire Union fleet
in Hampton Roads, sinking four vessels, capturing a transport, and damaging four other warships.
The destruction left behind totaled 241 Union sailors killed and more than 100 wounded.
It was the worst U.S. Navy defeat until Pearl Harbor.
In contrast, the crew of the Virginia suffered only two casualties and a dozen wounded.
The Union vessels fought bravely, however, their guns just were unable to penetrate the
Virginia's armored casemate.
Virginia seemed unstoppable.
And that evening, the USS Monitor arrived in Hampton Roads to a scene of nothing but
carnage and despair for the Union Navy.
Now Monitor took up a protected position next to the grounded USS Minnesota.
The arrival of the USS Monitor did buoy the Union hopes for a battle that was certain
to resume the next day.
The CSS Virginia had became the world's most powerful weapon on March the 8th, but only
for one day.
The next morning, on March 9th, at 7 30 a.m, the CSS Virginia steamed out for another day of battle.
The USS Monitor got underway and steamed out to meet the Virginia.
Captain Worden was in command of the Monitor, and he steamed as far away as possible from
the Minnesota, before engaging in the first battle, where iron meets iron.
Now the battle raged for hours.
Cheering crowds of spectators and soldiers lined the shores and the walls of Fort Monroe.
But it seemed that neither ship could gain an advantage.
The cannon balls just seemed to bounce off.
I always think about what it must have been like for the men on the Monitor, especially
those in the turret.
The noise of the guns firing and the ship constantly being hit must have just been tremendous.
And the captain, sitting in the pilothouse, would shout orders.
But by the time they reached the turret, they weren't always accurate.
And being enclosed in the turret with the gun ports as the only openings, the men could
not even see where they were firing the guns.
At times it had to be utter chaos.
Then a shot from the Virginia hit the Monitor's pilothouse, and Captain Worden was injured.
To assess the situation, the Monitor turned into shallow water, where they knew the Virginia
could not go with its deeper draft.
Now as the Monitor disengaged, the Virginia thought it had won the battle.
Lieutenant Samuel Greene took command of the Monitor.
And as the ship went to return to battle, it saw the Virginia leaving, and it thought
it had won the battle.
So both sides thought they won and depending upon which newspaper you read, which newspaper you read,
both the North and the South claimed victory.
Now although the battle was a draw, what did win that day was iron, and naval technology
was changed forever.
Now for two months following the battle, the Monitor was kept at Hampton Roads to keep
the Confederate ironclad in check.
It would anchor along the James River and at Fort Monroe, but the Monitor and the Virginia
never battled again.
However, it did participate in two other smaller battles.
On May 8th, Monitor, accompanied by other ships, shelled enemy batteries at Sewell's
Point in an effort to draw the Virginia out where it could be assaulted, but the Virginia
didn't take the bait.
And then on May the 11th, with advancing Union troops, the Virginia was set on fire off a
Craney Island, so it would not fall into Union hands.
What remained of the ship settled to the bottom of the harbor.
On May 15, the Monitor participated in a bombardment of Confederate fortifications at Drewry's Bluff.
However, these James River batteries, manned in part by crewmen from the late ironclad
Virginia, successfully resisted the attack.
The Monitor continued to lay anchor in the Hampton Roads area.
And in early July, Monitor was also present when U.S. Navy gunboats provided gunfire support
as General McClellan's armies withdrew down the Peninsula.
For the rest of July and August, Monitor served on the blockade in the Hampton Roads area.
A combination of torrid sun, black painted structure, high humidity, insufficient ventilation,
all produced interior temperatures up to 150 degrees, clearly demonstrated problems with
inhabiting the Monitor.
Now these photos that you're viewing were taken on July 9, 1862, by James Gibson.
He was sent to take pictures of the ship and its crew as Lincoln was supposed to visit that day.
Unfortunately, Lincoln had to quickly return to Washington, so he came to the ship in the
early morning.
But Gibson didn't arrive until later on that day.
However, they give us a glimpse at the ship and its crew.
And you can even see where the turret had been hit by cannon fire.
Now on December 26, 1862, the Monitor was ordered south.
And it left Hampton Roads on December 29th, heading to Beaufort, North Carolina.
It was under tow by the USS Rrhode Island. The weather looked good and the spirit of
the men was high.
But now in 1862, they didn't have NOAA'S weather bureau or satellite radar to warn them of a storm.
And on the evening of December 30th, a storm did come up as they were nearing
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
The waves grew to around 20 feet.
The ship began to take on water.
The coal became wet.
The pump stopped working, and it was clear that the captain had to order the crew to
abandon ship.
Now the red lantern, red signal lantern, was raised to tell the Rhode Island they were in distress.
But there were no lifeboats on the Monitor, so the USS Rhode Island sent its lifeboats
to rescue the men.
Now envision that night, pitch black, 20-foot waves rolling, and the only way off the ship
is through the turret's gun ports.
Now most people in 1862 didn't know how to swim.
So many of these men were terrified of being swept overboard, especially, if they couldn't swim.
Now after several hours, shortly after midnight on December 31st, the Monitor was no more,
and 16 brave men went down with the ship.
Now the USS Monitor was the object of numerous searches, but it lay undiscovered for more
than 110 years.
Then in 1973, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by John G. Newton of Duke University
Marine Lab proposed testing the application of geological survey equipment for underwater
archaeological survey and assessment.
A lot of big words there.
The purpose of the project was to map and study a specific area of the continental shelf
off the North Carolina coast
to assess the applicability of the equipment to underwater archaeology. The scientists
proposed to locate and identify a specific shipwreck.
The only easy, easily identifiable vessel believed to have been lost in the survey area
was the Monitor.
They identified 21 sites during the expedition that were not Monitor, but then on August 27,
the last day of the expedition, the side scan sonar recorded a long amorphous echo.
They wanted to check it out, so they lowered a camera and a video over the ship hoping
to confirm that it was indeed the Monitor.
This is a video of what the scientists saw as the cameras moved over the ship.
And you can see an outline, and then something looks round, but to them something just didn't seem right.
I'll let you watch it for just a few seconds as it moves over the wreck.
And they, it didn't look right to them because they didn't know that the night that the ship
sank, it actually sank and landed upside down.
As you see in this video simulation, the turret wasn't attached, so it also fell off, flipped
upside down, and landed at the stern of the ship.
And the ship fell on top of it.
Now after reviewing the data collected in August of 1973, an official announcement was
made on March the 8th of 1974, that Duke University had indeed discovered the wreck site of the
USS Monitor.
In April of 1974, the U.S. Navy's newest scientific ship, the sea probe, went to the site, and
the ship documented the site taking hundreds of images.
And from those images, they were stitched together to create the first photomosaic of
the USS Monitor.
Now the discovery of the Monitor also brought new problems of how to protect and conserve the ship.
North Carolina's Submerged Cultural Resource Law could not protect the wreck from salvage
efforts because it lay outside the three-mile limit.
And therefore, outside the jurisdiction of the state.
After surveying existing federal legislation, the Sanctuaries Act of 1972 seemed to offer
the best means of protecting the ship.
The act authorized creation of marine protected areas under the jurisdiction of NOAA.
So the governor of North Carolina, James Holshouser, nominated the wreck for marine sanctuary status.
And on January 30th 1975, the 113th anniversary of the vessel's launch, Monitor National Marine
Sanctuary, the nation's first national marine sanctuary, was created.
And this is where it's located.
It's just 16 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Now from 1975 to 1987, there were several expeditions to the Monitor to document and
survey the wreck site.
During the 1977 expedition, archaeologists saw the Monitor's red signal lantern rolling
across the ocean bottom next to the turret.
They made a decision to recover it.
And fittingly, it was the last thing that the crew saw before the ship went down, and
it was the first artifact recovered.
The lantern was conserved by the Smithsonian, but today it is on exhibit at The Mariners'
Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia, which also became the repository for all Monitor
artifacts in 1987.
In the 1990s, it was thought that the ship was deteriorating more quickly than had been
expected, so Congress mandated that NOAA come up with a plan to recover some of the more
iconic pieces of the ship.
And of course, the most iconic piece was the turret.
However, before they could remove the turret, part of the stern had to be removed, and it
would be done in phases over several years.
NOAA, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, had to remove much of the engineering section
of the ship starting in 1998 with the ironclad's propeller.
Then in 2001, the Monitor's engine was recovered.
And finally, in 2002, the removal of the turret began.
Now the turret was filled with coal that had emptied into the ship when it flipped upside down.
Through the years, sediment also had filled the turret, along with much of the contents
becoming concreted together.
Therefore, before the turret could be raised, the turret had to be excavated.
Remember, the turret is now resting upside down and the floor is actually the roof.
Archaeologists and scientists were unsure if the roof structure could support all that weight.
So it was literally vacuumed and chiseled out.
During a video made about the recovery, one of the Navy divers said to imagine that your
living room was filled to the ceiling with dirt and cemented rocks and then all you have
to remove it is your household vacuum cleaner, quite the undertaking.
Now as the divers continued excavating the turret, they found the human remains of a
Monitor sailor.
Suddenly, the whole expedition changed.
It was no longer just a recovery of the turret.
They had found a fellow sailor.
He became known as Monitor One.
They delicately removed as much of the remains as they could, but with weather turning bad
and the end of the expedition coming fast, they decided to finish when the turret was
safely out of the water.
And once they continued to remove the remains of the sailor, they found a second set of
remains, Monitor Two.
NOAA and the Navy had suspected that they might find human remains, so they had requested
assistance from the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.
Now this agency has changed names several times, and is now the DPAA.
But no matter what name they go by, they are the agency responsible for identifying unknown
military men and women.
The agency representative who was on board the expedition took possession of the remains
and returned with them to Hawaii.
So as the recovery of the turret continued, a special device called the 'spider' and its
platform were lowered into the water.
Once the turret was placed on the platform, then the spider would fit down over the top
and clamp into place, allowing the turret to safely be raised and placed on a barge.
And on August 5th, 2002, after 45 days, the turret broke the surface of the water for
the first time since it sank in 1862.
The excavation of the turret continued for months to come, and it offered many treasures
for archaeologists,
Such as the two Dahlgren guns and their carriages that were intact and upside down inside the turret.
To conserve an artifact that has been in a marine environment, it is imperative to keep it wet.
If the artifact begins to dry out, salt crystals will form, and they will act like tiny little
hammers breaking apart the metal.
So the tank was kept wet with a sprinkling system until, I'm sorry, the turret was kept
wet with a sprinkling system until a tank was built around it.
Today, visitors can see the turret, the guns and their carriages, the steam engine, and
condenser all in their tanks as they visit the USS Monitor Center Batten Conservation
Laboratory Complex.
You can walk up those steps there on the left and look through the windows.
And you can look directly into history.
And the conservation lab is located within The Mariners' Museum and Park, which is also
our official visitor center.
There you can visit the USS Monitor Center, which tells the Monitor's story through artifacts,
images, and interactive exhibits.
You can learn about the age of sail, and see the Virginia under construction in the Gosport
Navy Yard, which is a beautiful recreation.
You can walk through the Monitor's captain's cabin, where you will see a door that once
led to the first underwater flush toilet, another great invention by Ericsson.
You can also peek into the officer's quarters, see a mock-up of the recovered turret, and
so much more.
Also, on display are many of the artifacts, such as the propeller, personal items that
were found with the remains of the sailors in the turret, the engine register, and much,
much more.
I cannot even begin to describe all the wonderful things that the museum has to offer.
It is well worth the trip to Newport News, Virginia.
And when they reopen, I hope that you will make a trip there.
Now 2012 came around, and it was the 150th anniversary of the Monitor.
So remember, the Monitor began on January 30th, when it is launched.
And it sank on December 31st.
So it was about 11 months old.
So everything in 1862 that happened to it is now 150 years later in 2012.
So to commemorate the anniversary, we designed and placed a memorial monument to the ship
and its crew.
The dedication ceremony was attended by hundreds of people, including many dignitaries from
the Navy Veterans Affairs, as well as NOAA.
Today, you can visit the Hampton National Cemetery located near the campus of Hampton
University in Hampton, Virginia.
You will find the monument in the Civil War section of the cemetery.
Also, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary, NOAA petitioned the Navy to have the sailors
buried at Arlington Cemetery.
They had been in Hawaii for 10 years.
Now forensics had been performed and good DNA samples were actually recovered.
Some people came forward to see if they were a match, but the two sailors remained unknown.
The Navy wanted to make sure that there were no living relatives, so they wanted to make
one more effort to find a living relative.
Therefor, NOAA worked with Louisiana State University's FACES Lab to recreate their faces,
hoping to bring the story to many more people and maybe possibly discover a relative.
So using casts of their skulls, they set to work.
Forensics had shown that one of the sailors appeared to be somewhere between 17 and 24
years of age, and perhaps probably in his early 20s.
And then the other was somewhere between 30 and 40, perhaps in his early 30s or so.
Now forensic anthropologists then created facial reconstructions by using a combination
of scientific and artistic research,
3D clay facial reconstruction, computer-generated modeling, and computer enhanced imaging techniques.
So today, we know what they look like.
Here is the older gentleman.
And here is the younger gentleman.
I asked the forensic anthropologists why they gave them brown hair and brown eyes, and they
told me that's because that's the most common color for hair and eyes for people.
Now as a side story, I love to tell this great engineering story.
So for you teachers who want to put a little engineering in your class, this is a great
story that you might want to share.
NOAA and LSU were very unsure of how to get these clay models from LSU to Washington DC, safely.
And after discussions with several organizations, UPS stepped up and took on the challenge.
Now I sat next to a man at dinner who was in charge of the shipping at UPS, and he told
me one night that it was perhaps the most challenging engineering problem that UPS had
ever solved.
And he also told me that they'd even once shipped a whale.
Now it took several reiterations, but they finally had success.
The boxes were loaded into a van to go to the airport, but as luck would have it, a
storm prevented them from leaving from that airport.
So the van was rerouted mid-route.
And UPS had to get another plane to the new airport.
UPS also told me that all along the way, in the van and on the plane, they had UPS volunteers,
employees who volunteered, to hug the boxes the entire journey, just in case of any unexpected
turbulence.
UPS also had a team of meteorologists working to make sure the plane averted any bad weather
on its way to DC.
And they arrived safely and intact.
Then on March 6, 2012, the faces were unveiled in a ceremony at the Navy Memorial Museum
in Washington DC.
News stories went out around the world garnering attention of historians, descendants of Monitor
sailors, and many more.
A few more people did come forward to give their DNA, but there were no matches.
So we do not know who they are, but it is strongly suspected that the older gentleman
may be Robert Williams.
This is Robert Williams in the picture on the far right side.
And if you look at the clay face with a hat and a mustache added to it, it does look a
lot like him.
So it's possible.
However, with no confirmed living relatives, the Navy moved forward laying to rest these
two unknown Monitor sailors at Arlington National Cemetery.
The remains were flown from Hawaii to DC, and they were treated with the utmost respect.
Former veterans, who were who were Delta employees, came out to pay their respects and to honor
them as they were unloaded from the plane.
They were transferred from the plane to be taken to Arlington National Cemetery.
And on March 8, 2013, they were placed in the chapel at Arlington.
In attendance were 500 invited guests, including 150 Monitor descendants.
Also attending was a contingent of sailors from the present day USS Minnesota, the namesake
of the ship Monitor fought so bravely to defend.
Secretary of the Navy at the time, Ray Mabus, spoke and said, "Today is a tribute to all
the men and women who have gone to sea, but especially to those who have made the ultimate
sacrifice on our behalf."
The sailors were laid to rest with full military honors.
And I'm just going to click through some of these photos so that you can enjoy them without
me speaking.
There were over 10,000 people that gathered to watch their internment.
It was 4:00 in the afternoon on Friday, March the 8th.
If you have ever been in DC on a Friday afternoon, you understand what it means that so many
of the public came to pay their respect.
It was deeply moving, and one of the most profound experiences I have ever had.
Today, you can visit their grave and there you will see the monument dedicated to the
ship and all 16 men that died the night the Monitor sank.
Now if you want to learn more about the Monitor, I invite you to visit the legacy site that
was created in 2012 for the 150th anniversary.
There you'll find the details of how Ericsson almost didn't win the contract, more about
the battle, the sailors that died, discovery, conservation, and so much more.
Today, the ship continues to rest at about 230 feet below the ocean surface.
It offers habitat to an abundance of marine life that call it home.
And it continues to have many more stories to tell.
Now if you're interested in learning more about the Monitor and want new ways to teach
your students, you are in luck.
We have a plethora of materials.
First is our Monitor curriculum guide.
This 176 page guide is packed with activities.
It was developed in partnership with The Mariners' Museum and Park, and is a great resource for
students in grades four through eight.
It also uses primary source documents to engage students and each activity can stand alone
or be combined with others to create a unit.
There are also additional activities on the website that are not in the guide, so be sure
to check out our teacher and student section.
Also, on our site and I also put a link in the handout, there is a video that takes you
through the history from Monitor's conception to present day, and it does it in only 17 minutes.
And if you want to see the ship in 3D, we also have a 3D model on our website, which
is also listed in the handout.
There you can also download bookmarks for your class, as well as this activity that
takes a look at history in 3D.
A lot of us think that 3D technology is really new, but it was actually invented in the 1850s.
Now one side of the card, the left-hand side of the screen there, is a card that was created
for a stereoscope.
So if you have one of those, you can actually put the card in there and you can see how
the images come together to create a 3D image.
And the other side is an anaglyph, which is created using the red and blue.
So if you have some of those familiar red and blue glasses that we used to all use to
read the comics that were in 3D, that's what you use to be able to see the anaglyph.
If you're into building models, you can download this model of the Monitor, but don't forget
to also download the instructions, or you won't or you may be lost.
And as you travel, you might want to check out our website to see if there's a Monitor
Trail sign near you, wherever you're going.
So far, we have installed signs in Syracuse and Brooklyn, New York; Beaufort, North Carolina;
Drewry's Bluff, Virginia; three signs at Monitor Merrimack Overlook Park, which actually help
to interpret that battle on March the 8th and 9th.
And then The Mariners' Museum, and one at Virginia Beach Surf and Rescue Museum that
interprets World War II off the East Coast.
But we have more in the works and more are to come.
Now if you want to add a little STEM to your social studies, be sure to check out our maritime
archaeology guide.
It is filled with hands-on activities that help students to understand how shipwrecks
are discovered and the tools that scientists use once they discover them, or that they
use after they are discovered to document them.
If you're looking for a project-based learning activity to span a few weeks or more, take
a look at the Shipwrecks of the Deep curriculum guide.
It too is filled with hands-on activities, that is in three parts, with the first part
simulating being an archaeologist in search of a lost shipwreck.
The second part is all about life science where students learn about pollution, water
quality, and more, as they determine the status of their fictitious shipwreck.
And the final section is about the chemistry of conservation.
As the students try to decide if they should recover and conserve artifacts or leave them in situ.
Now one of the other activities and guides we have available is ROV in a Bucket with
directions on how to build your own ROV kits to use in the classroom or for your own personal use.
Using our ROV curriculum, you can guide students to engineer and build their ROV and to host
a competition.
I've done this with lots and lots of students.
I've worked with everybody from fifth grade through adults.
Everyone always loves it.
It's a great way to engage students both in maritime archaeology, looking at things on
the ocean floor, and in engineering.
We also have several learning modules such as this mock shipwreck activity.
And we have another one that called Shipwrecks as Reefs.
It's all about taking biological surveys on a shipwreck.
And we have a curriculum guide on World War I.
I'll let some of these come up and again it's online.
And we also have a guide for World War II.
Now I'll be hosting future webinars on both of these topics, as well as on maritime archaeology,
so look for them if you're interested.
Now if you like story maps, check out our Outer Banks Maritime Heritage Trail, where
you can interact with 11 different videos that all tell interesting stories of maritime
heritage along the Outer Banks.
There's also a set of oral histories from people who lived in the Outer Banks during
World War II, and there's a lesson plan to go with the videos and the oral histories.
Most of what I've shown you today can be found on our website.
So just go to our website and look for the "Learn" tab, and there you'll see the overview,
students, teachers, additional resources.
And you can even request speakers for events.
Now to be sure you don't miss any of the great news or future webinars
you might want to make sure that you sign up for our listserv.
Just go to our news page and scroll down to the bottom for the sanctuary update box.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the great NOAA resources.
So go to the NOAA page and just down here at the bottom.
You will see a little apple and you just click on that.
And that's going to take you to all of their resource collections or educator opportunities,
student opportunities, grants, and their networks.
Now the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, which manages all of the sanctuary system
that we're a part of, is a great place for a wealth of activities.
You can find lesson guides there, student scholarships, and so much more.
And I think one of the best activities is their virtual reality.
At the site, you can take a 360 degree virtual dive into several of our sanctuaries by using
your phone or your computer.
You can also pair your device with virtual reality goggles for an even greater experience.
And these dives also come with lesson plans.
And I want to make sure to let you know about an expedition coming up this May and June
called Valor in the Atlantic.
The project will use sonar and ROVs to explore several shipwrecks, including the USS Monitor,
off the North Carolina coast.
This is going to be a live stream program that you can watch from your computers or
your phone.
And it's also, we are working with several museums across the country to be able to bring
it into the museum for people who live near there can go in to do an in-person experience.
Of course, everything is dependent upon museums being open, but if they're not, it's still
online, and you can still watch it.
And I think it's pretty much gonna run for most of the day and a lot of the nights.
So we hope that you will join us and there will be a lot of good videos and images that
we'll post online that you'll be able to explore.
And lastly, we invite you to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
As always, everything we do and all of our latest news is usually posted there.
So if you are a social media fan, then we invite you to join us there.
And that's pretty much everything I have for today.
That's my presentation, but if you would like to have any information about any of the modules
or any of the curriculum guides that I've showed you today, need more information, or
you can't find them, if that handout has a bad link, just email me.
I'm always available and happy to help you.
Okay and Mark I'll give it back to you.
[Mark Losavio] All righty then.
So great stuff.
Thank you very much for that Shannon, and we actually did just get quite a few questions
come in.
Okay, so let me take a look here.
Yes, so first question, how much longer will the turret be undergoing conservation?
[Shannon Ricles] That's a good question.
I have been with Monitor National Marine Sanctuary for 13 years, and when I first came on board,
they told me another 20 years.
Well, I just was reading something the other day, and they said another 20 years, so a lot.
That turret is a very complicated piece to conserve.
It's got eight layers of iron, salt has permeated all the way through all of those layers, so
it's not an easy piece to just conserve.
They do the electrolytic reduction process to try to pull those salts out of that metal,
and it's just it's a time process.
It just takes time.
But it will come out someday.
So we just have to be patient and make sure that we do it right.
[Tane Casserley] And Shannon, I can jump in.
So I think the latest numbers are about 12 years from now.
[Shannon Ricles] Okay that's better.
I haven't heard that.
Thank you.
[Mark Losavio] All right, next question.
We are asking where the cannons are today?
[Shannon Ricles ] Okay, again if you go back to the slide where I showed you the Batten
Conservation Lab, that's where they're located.
They're in tanks and they're undergoing conservation, and I think they should be out of conservation
in two to three years.
Is that correct Tane?
[Tane Casserley] Yes, that's right.
I would hope, the hope is in about two years those cannons will be completely finished.
[Shannon Ricles] Okay so they, the cannons and the gun carriages, are all you can see them when you walk when
you go to The Mariners Museum and you walk up those stairs.
You can actually see them down in their tanks, and they have done some fantastic job of conserving
them.
You can even read the writing on them.
There were some inscriptions that were written on them after the battle, so you can even
read that very clearly today. Okay.
[Mark Losavio] Cool.
And here's another good question, someone is asking what happened to the other ironclad
from the South, the Virginia?
Was any part of that vessel recovered or saved?
[Shannon Ricles] Not to my knowledge.
The Virginia blew itself up basically because it was afraid it was going to be captured
by the Union Navy.
So they didn't want the Union to have their have any part of it.
So they actually set it on fire and the ammunition and stuff that was inside of it blew it up.
What was left, sunk to the bottom of the harbor.
Tane might be able to address that better.
Has anybody ever gone to look for it Tane?
Has it been found?
[Tane Casserley] Yes, so that's a good question, we get asked a lot.
So when it was first blown up by the South and Confederates, a lot of the locals went
out there and salvaged pieces and parts as keepsakes.
So those incorporated themselves into little petties and canes and all sorts of things.
But it's believed that the vessel was dredged over, actually dredged through and destroyed
later on during the the run-up to World War II
and in the Gulf Wars. So nothing actually remains of the CSS Virginia anymore.
[Shannon Ricles] Yep, okay that's what I thought.
All right thank you Tane.
[Mark Losavio] Here's another question.
I guess, what was the length of the Monitor, like give us an idea of the size of that vessel.
It was 172 feet long.
[Shannon Ricles] Yeah it was pretty big, but it was actually very small, it was smaller
than the Virginia.
I'm not sure of the breadth of it, what was it about 40-41 feet.
No, not that long.
I don't remember.
Tane do you remember the breath of the the Monitor?
It was 172 feet long. [Tane Casserley] I think between 40 and 45 feet wide.
[Shannon Ricles] That's what I was thinking.
Okay.
So yeah. So it was a big ship, but again most of what you see, most of the Monitor was underwater.
Kind of like an iceberg.
Everything you see that floats on top is just a very small portion of the ship, because
only 18 inches of that ship actually floated above water.
[Mark Losavio] Cool.
All right.
So we only have a couple more questions, so if you have any questions now's the time to
put them in the chat box.
But for the next one, for those, some of those artifacts have to be soaking in water.
Why is that?
[Shannon Ricles] Well, the salt, if they were in a marine environment with a salt water
environment.
So salt actually permeates all of that metal as it, you know, metal rusts when it's in
water, so salt just permeates all of that substance material.
And you know, if you let that just dry out, then those salt crystals form.
Have you ever done the experiment where you have a jar of water and you put salt in it?
And you put a string and you let the water evaporate, and you see salt crystals all over
your string.
Well, it's kind of the same thing.
The salt comes out of solution, and you have these little crystals form.
And they do act like little tiny hammers breaking apart.
Anybody who lives up in the north, they will be familiar with something called ice wedging.
So if you go up into the mountains, you will see how ice forms in cracks.
And as that ice forms and gets wider and wider, those cracks begin to get wider and wider.
And eventually the rock will break off.
That's how you get all the rock falls.
So it's kind of the same principle with with the salt in the solution.
You don't want to let it just dry out.
You want to be sure you get all that salt out first before you start letting it dry out.
So you have to do something called an electrolytic reduction process.
And that's where they run a little, they put special chemicals into the water, they
run a little bit of electricity through the water to help draw that out.
And then they just keep testing the water.
Keep replenishing the chemicals, replenishing the water, and they keep monitoring it.
And over time, it becomes less and less salt until eventually it's done.
It's ready.
[Mark Losavio] All right, cool.
And we've got a couple questions about the captain of the Monitor.
Okay, and his fate.
[Shannon Ricles] Captain Worden survived.
He had some injuries to his eyes.
He was temporarily blinded, but he did recover from all of his injuries.
And he went on and served with distinction throughout the rest of the Civil War.
Captain Worden's family is huge.
They have a huge contingency whenever we used to have any of the Monitor events.
Like the we used to do a descendants' breakfast and stuff, or even when we have the Battle
of Hampton Roads weekend, they they would come out in mass.
So they are very, as they should be, very fond of their relative, of their distant descendant.
And he was a great man and led a great life.
But you know he survived.
He survived all of his injuries.
[Mark Losavio] Wow, very cool, very cool.
I'd be very proud of that too.
Yeah, all right.
So thank you very much for answering those questions.
And I would like to invite everyone to please visit the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
website to learn more, and to download those free educational resources.
So if you click on "Learn" over here and and head on down to the teacher's sub section.
If we did not get to your question today, I know there's quite a few still left, or
if you have any additional questions, feel free to email Shannon at this link down here.
Her contact information and all of our contact information is also on this Monitor website.
So you can email any of us really.
And once captioned, a video recording of this presentation will be made available on the
webinar archives page, found at the URL listed right here.
In addition, the webinar will also be archived at the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary's
website.
You can click on the "News" section and scroll down to the archived webinars box.
And you will also receive a link to the recording in a follow-up email.
So I know a lot of you are asking if this was recorded.
It will be and you will get it, so don't you worry.
Please be sure to register for our next, please be sure to register for our next Submerged
NC webinar airing next Tuesday, March 16th at 1pm.
Oasis for Marine Life - Shipwrecks in 3D, by Dr. Avery Paxton.
Learn about the four-year project conducted by NOAA to study fish habitats, and see how
the 3D website can take you below the surface to virtually explore these shipwrights off
North Carolina's coast and their associated fish communities.
Really cool presentation.
I personally am super excited about it.
But in addition to Dr. Paxton, Submerged NC also has these upcoming webinars in the near
future.
Please don't forget to register for those as well.
And if you did enjoy this webinar and our last webinar, please be sure to check out
others in the National Marine Sanctuaries webinar series.
On March 16th and 17th, join educators from the Waikiki Aquarium and NOAA's Office of
National Marine Sanctuaries to learn about the new lesson plans for teachers that students
can complete either virtually or in a classroom.
This workshop is geared for grades three through eight, but it's open to all interested members
of the public.
And lastly, as you exit this webinar, there is a short survey for formal and informal
educators.
If you are an educator, NOAA would really appreciate it if you would take just a minute
or two to complete this survey.
Your answers will help NOAA develop future webinars to meet your needs.
Your participation is voluntary and your answers are entirely anonymous.
And once again we would like to thank Shannon for a really great presentation and sharing
that really great content with us.
And we'd like to thank you for joining us today.
And we hope you have a wonderful weekend, and this concludes the presentation.