WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.210 --> 00:00:02.850 Thank you for joining us today for our webinar, 2 00:00:02.850 --> 00:00:04.590 Raising the USS Monitor Turret. 3 00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:08.883 And the U.S. Navy's Role in the Monitor Exposition 2002. 4 00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:12.420 Joining me today is Shannon Ricles, 5 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:13.920 the Education and Outreach Coordinator 6 00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:15.360 for Monitor and Mallows Bay, 7 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:18.090 Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary. 8 00:00:18.090 --> 00:00:21.120 And, I will be your host today, Mark Losavio, 9 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:22.410 the Media and Outreach Coordinator 10 00:00:22.410 --> 00:00:23.670 for Monitor and Mallows Bay - 11 00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:26.520 Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary. 12 00:00:26.520 --> 00:00:29.490 This webinar today is brought to you by 13 00:00:29.490 --> 00:00:32.220 NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, 14 00:00:32.220 --> 00:00:33.390 in collaboration with the 15 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:36.570 North Carolina Office of State Archeology. 16 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:38.430 Partnering since 1975, 17 00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:41.130 NOAA, in the state of North Carolina, work to research, 18 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:43.950 honor and protect the hallmarks of North Carolina's 19 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:46.740 underwater cultural heritage, shipwrecks. 20 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.260 These shipwrecks hold information about the ever-changing 21 00:00:49.260 --> 00:00:52.320 technologies and cultural and physical landscapes. 22 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:55.440 They serve as a uniquely accessible underwater museum 23 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:58.080 and a memorial to generations of mariners who lived, 24 00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:01.260 died, worked and fought off of our shores. 25 00:01:01.260 --> 00:01:04.110 This is one of the many webinars we will be hosting 26 00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:07.200 this year, for this Submerged NC webinar series, 27 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.540 in collaboration with the North Carolina Office 28 00:01:09.540 --> 00:01:10.540 of State Archeology. 29 00:01:11.910 --> 00:01:15.150 Monitor is just one of 15 national marine sanctuaries, 30 00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:18.210 soon to be more, and two marine national monuments 31 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:20.250 in the National Marine Sanctuary System. 32 00:01:20.250 --> 00:01:23.520 This system encompasses more than 620,000 square miles of 33 00:01:23.520 --> 00:01:26.010 marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington State, 34 00:01:26.010 --> 00:01:29.340 to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. 35 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:30.630 During this presentation, 36 00:01:30.630 --> 00:01:33.120 all attendees will be in listen only mode. 37 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:35.130 You are welcome to type questions for the presenters 38 00:01:35.130 --> 00:01:38.640 into the question box at the bottom of your control panel, 39 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:40.800 which is on the right hand side of your screen. 40 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:42.900 This is the same area you can let us know about 41 00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:44.520 any technical issues you may be having 42 00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:45.630 that we can help you with. 43 00:01:45.630 --> 00:01:47.670 And we'll do our best to respond. 44 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:50.224 We'll be monitoring incoming questions and technical issues 45 00:01:50.224 --> 00:01:54.000 and I'll try to respond to them as soon as I see them. 46 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.220 We will also be recording this session 47 00:01:56.220 --> 00:01:58.350 and we'll share the recording with all registered 48 00:01:58.350 --> 00:02:01.800 participants via the webinar archive page 49 00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:03.270 and a URL for all of this 50 00:02:03.270 --> 00:02:05.670 will be provided at the end of the presentation. 51 00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:09.750 So today, we welcome Captain Bobbie Schooley, 52 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:11.310 Captain, U.S. Navy Retired, 53 00:02:11.310 --> 00:02:13.230 as she tells us about the expedition 54 00:02:13.230 --> 00:02:14.970 NOAA did in partnership with the Navy 55 00:02:14.970 --> 00:02:17.490 to raise Monitor's turret. 56 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:18.990 So without further ado, Bobbie", 57 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:20.823 I will give you control here. 58 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:32.553 All right. 59 00:02:46.170 --> 00:02:48.003 [Bobbie Scholley] Okay, thank you so much Mark. 60 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.410 Excuse me, I want to thank NOAA and the 61 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:54.570 Marine Sanctuaries' program for 62 00:02:54.570 --> 00:02:57.180 inviting me to this webinar today. 63 00:02:57.180 --> 00:02:58.380 Like most sailors, 64 00:02:58.380 --> 00:03:00.930 I really enjoy telling sea stories 65 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:04.590 and the Monitor Expedition's probably one of the best 66 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:08.733 sea stories that you can possibly imagine telling. 67 00:03:11.670 --> 00:03:15.300 And today I'm gonna focus on the Navy's role 68 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:19.080 in Monitor Expedition 2002. 69 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:21.900 Because I think it's important to talk about 70 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:23.580 the sailors involved. 71 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:25.860 And as you can see there, 72 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:30.420 there's really not a whole lot of difference between 73 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:33.880 the sailors in the crew from 1862 74 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.690 and the sailors from the team 75 00:03:39.048 --> 00:03:42.453 that were involved in the expedition from 2002. 76 00:03:43.440 --> 00:03:45.480 They were all sailors. 77 00:03:45.480 --> 00:03:47.490 And they were shipmates. 78 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:51.730 And that's really the way that we looked at ourselves 79 00:03:52.650 --> 00:03:55.893 as members of the expedition in 2002. 80 00:03:56.880 --> 00:03:59.940 What I'm not gonna talk about today is the 81 00:03:59.940 --> 00:04:02.920 history and the discovery of 82 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:05.910 USS Monitor. 83 00:04:05.910 --> 00:04:09.090 There are people that are far better at talking about those 84 00:04:09.090 --> 00:04:10.530 topics than I am. 85 00:04:10.530 --> 00:04:13.530 And one of those persons is Dr. John Broadwater, 86 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:15.810 who is a very good friend of mine. 87 00:04:15.810 --> 00:04:19.020 And who I worked with quite a bit on 88 00:04:19.020 --> 00:04:21.630 Expedition 2001 and 2002. 89 00:04:21.630 --> 00:04:22.620 As a matter of fact, 90 00:04:22.620 --> 00:04:25.260 he was my boss on those expeditions, 91 00:04:25.260 --> 00:04:27.660 as the Superintendent of the 92 00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:31.290 Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, at that time. 93 00:04:31.290 --> 00:04:36.290 And he did a webinar in August, on August 2nd, 2002, 94 00:04:37.980 --> 00:04:42.630 that talked about those topics very well. 95 00:04:42.630 --> 00:04:44.640 So if you haven't seen that webinar, 96 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:47.100 please go back to the archives and take a look at that 97 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:48.350 because it was excellent. 98 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:50.940 As we all know, 99 00:04:50.940 --> 00:04:54.630 Monitor sank on December 31st, 1862, 100 00:04:54.630 --> 00:04:57.120 off the coast of North Carolina. 101 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.620 And that's why we're here talking about her today. 102 00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:05.463 That became NOAA's first National Marine Sanctuary, 103 00:05:06.450 --> 00:05:10.200 when Monitor was discovered in 1973. 104 00:05:10.200 --> 00:05:13.480 And she was deteriorating much faster than 105 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:17.670 most people considered. 106 00:05:17.670 --> 00:05:21.210 And so, NOAA needed to come up with a preservation plan 107 00:05:21.210 --> 00:05:24.660 that included stabilization of the Monitor site 108 00:05:24.660 --> 00:05:26.490 and recovery of key artifacts, 109 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:28.770 including the iconic steam engine 110 00:05:28.770 --> 00:05:30.690 and of course the gun turret. 111 00:05:30.690 --> 00:05:34.740 Now the Navy became involved in part of that planning 112 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:38.730 and also in part of the execution of that plan, 113 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:41.730 most prominently in 1996 114 00:05:41.730 --> 00:05:44.643 and then again in 1998 through 2002. 115 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:48.010 In order to 116 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:56.100 take that plan and put it into action, 117 00:05:56.100 --> 00:06:00.390 there needed to be a partnership that took action on that. 118 00:06:00.390 --> 00:06:03.090 And that partnership was NOAA, 119 00:06:03.090 --> 00:06:05.130 who of course was the administrator 120 00:06:05.130 --> 00:06:08.340 of the Monitor Sanctuary. 121 00:06:08.340 --> 00:06:12.300 And then The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, 122 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:16.110 would take custody of any artifacts that were recovered 123 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.270 and then take on the huge job 124 00:06:18.270 --> 00:06:21.330 of conservation of those artifacts. 125 00:06:21.330 --> 00:06:24.670 And then the Navy became the partner that would provide 126 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:27.300 assistance in planning 127 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:31.020 and then the execution of the salvage operations 128 00:06:31.020 --> 00:06:33.720 that would help with the stabilization 129 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:36.660 and then the recovery of artifacts. 130 00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:39.930 But you couldn't do anything along these lines 131 00:06:39.930 --> 00:06:42.090 without funding of course. 132 00:06:42.090 --> 00:06:45.990 And so, there needed to be a source of funding. 133 00:06:45.990 --> 00:06:50.990 And so the partnership put together a crack team 134 00:06:51.390 --> 00:06:54.990 to go to Capitol Hill and request funding. 135 00:06:54.990 --> 00:06:59.610 And that crack team was composed of Dr. John Broadwater, 136 00:06:59.610 --> 00:07:03.030 who was an archeologist and a diver in his own right 137 00:07:03.030 --> 00:07:04.890 and Captain Chris Murray, 138 00:07:04.890 --> 00:07:08.400 who was the Navy's, probably best diving officer 139 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:11.400 and a former Naval Academy rugby player. 140 00:07:11.400 --> 00:07:13.900 And this crack team went and 141 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:17.550 assaulted Capitol Hill 142 00:07:17.550 --> 00:07:21.960 full force with the plan for this effort, 143 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:23.310 for the USS Monitor. 144 00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:26.507 And they were so successful, that they were able 145 00:07:26.507 --> 00:07:29.550 to get DoD legacy funds, that 146 00:07:29.550 --> 00:07:33.657 would fund Monitor Expedition 2000, 2001 147 00:07:33.657 --> 00:07:35.253 and 2002. 148 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:41.670 So, we're gonna concentrate on Expedition 2002. 149 00:07:41.670 --> 00:07:44.580 The final expedition. 150 00:07:44.580 --> 00:07:48.180 And, we're gonna look at the goals here, 151 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:50.280 from 20 years ago. 152 00:07:50.280 --> 00:07:52.840 As you can see in the graphic, Monitor 153 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:57.600 sank and then flipped over as she settled 154 00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:59.700 to the ocean floor. 155 00:07:59.700 --> 00:08:04.260 And the turret, which was a midship when she was functional, 156 00:08:04.260 --> 00:08:07.620 slid aft and ended up underneath 157 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:09.813 the Monitor, towards the stern. 158 00:08:10.710 --> 00:08:12.810 And although you could see the turret a little bit, 159 00:08:12.810 --> 00:08:17.040 she was still covered by the Monitor's hull. 160 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.950 So the goal was, 161 00:08:19.950 --> 00:08:24.300 to clear part of the armor belt in the stern section 162 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:28.132 that was covering the turret, so we could expose the turret. 163 00:08:28.132 --> 00:08:30.850 And then we had to excavate the turret 164 00:08:33.420 --> 00:08:35.430 from around the outside of the turret, 165 00:08:35.430 --> 00:08:39.390 so that we could lower the lifting mechanism, 166 00:08:39.390 --> 00:08:40.980 which was called the SPIDER. 167 00:08:40.980 --> 00:08:43.380 And I'll talk about that a little bit later. 168 00:08:43.380 --> 00:08:46.440 And we also had to excavate inside the turret 169 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:48.570 and hopefully find the two Dahlgren guns, 170 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:50.880 which hadn't been seen yet. 171 00:08:50.880 --> 00:08:53.580 And then rig the turret successfully and bring it 172 00:08:53.580 --> 00:08:55.743 and the guns to the the surface. 173 00:08:58.800 --> 00:09:00.450 How are we going to do that? 174 00:09:00.450 --> 00:09:03.450 Well, we had this window, 175 00:09:03.450 --> 00:09:06.030 over the summer of 2002, 176 00:09:06.030 --> 00:09:08.700 that would be safe to operate 177 00:09:08.700 --> 00:09:10.710 off the coast of North Carolina. 178 00:09:10.710 --> 00:09:15.480 It was between the winter storm season and hurricane season. 179 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:20.480 And that gave us about 45 days to conduct safe operations. 180 00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:23.070 But we needed a platform that we can conduct these 181 00:09:23.070 --> 00:09:26.160 operations on, that would stay out there 182 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:28.680 and allow us to do the diving. 183 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:33.510 And we ended up renting an oil field 184 00:09:33.510 --> 00:09:37.620 barge, the WOTAN barge, from Manson Gulf, 185 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:40.140 that we could conduct the operations off of. 186 00:09:40.140 --> 00:09:43.020 And we needed it for two main purposes. 187 00:09:43.020 --> 00:09:47.220 One, we needed that large 500-ton lifting crane, 188 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:50.730 that would eventually go down and lift the turret 189 00:09:50.730 --> 00:09:51.663 off the bottom. 190 00:09:52.560 --> 00:09:57.180 And we also needed the deck of the barge that would provide 191 00:09:57.180 --> 00:10:00.000 housing for the whole team. 192 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.640 And it ended up being able to provide housing 193 00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:04.680 for 116 team members. 194 00:10:04.680 --> 00:10:06.270 That would include the divers, 195 00:10:06.270 --> 00:10:10.140 the archeologists, the crew of the barge 196 00:10:10.140 --> 00:10:13.680 and additional people that would support the operation. 197 00:10:13.680 --> 00:10:15.360 We also had to 198 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:18.810 install both dive teams on board. 199 00:10:18.810 --> 00:10:21.330 We ended up with a mixed gas dive team 200 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:22.860 and a saturation dive team 201 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:26.700 that would conduct all the diving and salvage operations. 202 00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:30.210 And we would have that barge stay out there on station 203 00:10:30.210 --> 00:10:32.820 at anchorage, for 45 days, 204 00:10:32.820 --> 00:10:37.140 doing diving operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 205 00:10:37.140 --> 00:10:40.170 Now some people kind of envisioned us being out there 206 00:10:40.170 --> 00:10:42.897 doing our operations during the day 207 00:10:42.897 --> 00:10:44.640 and then we jump on the boats 208 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:47.220 and come back ashore in the evenings, 209 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:50.670 go to a restaurant, have some wonderful seafood, 210 00:10:50.670 --> 00:10:53.880 go to our hotel, relax, go to sleep, 211 00:10:53.880 --> 00:10:55.740 get on the boat the next morning at eight o'clock, 212 00:10:55.740 --> 00:10:57.540 go out there and do operations. 213 00:10:57.540 --> 00:10:59.280 That was not the case at all. 214 00:10:59.280 --> 00:11:02.670 We were out there the entire 45 days, 215 00:11:02.670 --> 00:11:05.730 operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 216 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:08.160 in order to get this job done. 217 00:11:08.160 --> 00:11:09.390 Excuse me. 218 00:11:09.390 --> 00:11:11.190 And what were our objectives? 219 00:11:11.190 --> 00:11:12.180 Well, for the Navy, 220 00:11:12.180 --> 00:11:15.990 our objectives were training navy divers in 221 00:11:15.990 --> 00:11:20.700 deep ocean salvage operations for large scale operation. 222 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:21.990 And then our goals were 223 00:11:21.990 --> 00:11:24.453 the four goals from the previous slide. 224 00:11:27.510 --> 00:11:29.463 So to accomplish this, 225 00:11:30.450 --> 00:11:33.000 we needed our team that was on board the barge, 226 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.160 to be the crack team with all the expertise 227 00:11:37.770 --> 00:11:39.480 for the operation. 228 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:42.660 And that included the US Navy Divers. 229 00:11:42.660 --> 00:11:45.850 Now the core team of the divers would be 230 00:11:47.405 --> 00:11:49.440 the Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit II, 231 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:53.160 divers that were my command. 232 00:11:53.160 --> 00:11:56.100 And they would stay on the barge for the entire 45 days. 233 00:11:56.100 --> 00:11:58.740 They were involved in the planning efforts 234 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:01.260 and they were the core expertise. 235 00:12:01.260 --> 00:12:05.010 We would also bring in divers from commands 236 00:12:05.010 --> 00:12:08.970 all over the Navy, that would augment this original team. 237 00:12:08.970 --> 00:12:13.380 We also had the Navy contractors, Phoenix International, 238 00:12:13.380 --> 00:12:17.730 who would be the Navy's Salvage and Diving contractors 239 00:12:17.730 --> 00:12:21.990 providing equipment and providing other subcontractors. 240 00:12:21.990 --> 00:12:25.620 The Manson Gulf Barge, WOTAN 241 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:28.890 and Global Industries, which was the Navy contract 242 00:12:28.890 --> 00:12:31.713 that provided the saturation dive system that we used. 243 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.520 The other component of the team was NOAA, 244 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:38.940 with its archeologists and expertise. 245 00:12:38.940 --> 00:12:41.040 And The Mariners' Museum, 246 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:46.020 who also provided expertise in the history of the Monitor, 247 00:12:46.020 --> 00:12:47.760 the design of Monitor 248 00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:51.870 and historians with additional expertise. 249 00:12:51.870 --> 00:12:55.560 The WOTAN barge also provided all the crane operators, 250 00:12:55.560 --> 00:12:58.710 the riggers and the support staff 251 00:12:58.710 --> 00:13:02.790 that provided the housing and the food service. 252 00:13:02.790 --> 00:13:05.490 Now, the WOTAN barge came from Louisiana, 253 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:08.850 so of course the cooks came from Louisiana also. 254 00:13:08.850 --> 00:13:12.570 So you've got to understand that we had fabulous cooks 255 00:13:12.570 --> 00:13:16.113 and fabulous meals out there, which helped quite a bit. 256 00:13:18.210 --> 00:13:21.000 So now let's talk about the diving. 257 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:26.000 We had two diving teams out there on the operation. 258 00:13:26.250 --> 00:13:28.983 We had the saturation, excuse me, 259 00:13:30.150 --> 00:13:31.653 saturation dive team. 260 00:13:32.610 --> 00:13:34.533 And we had the mixed gas dive team. 261 00:13:35.370 --> 00:13:36.840 And this was very important. 262 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:41.610 Because we only had 45 days to complete this operation 263 00:13:41.610 --> 00:13:45.690 and we had a lot of work that needed to be accomplished 264 00:13:45.690 --> 00:13:47.940 in order to get that turret 265 00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:51.540 prepared to be lifted to the surface safely 266 00:13:51.540 --> 00:13:54.483 and without any damage done to it. 267 00:13:55.740 --> 00:14:00.740 And that would require a lot of man hours of diving work 268 00:14:00.750 --> 00:14:04.410 on the bottom of the ocean on the Monitor. 269 00:14:04.410 --> 00:14:07.740 So we had to maximize the amount of time that we could keep 270 00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:12.740 divers working down on the ocean bottom. 271 00:14:12.750 --> 00:14:14.430 And in order to do that, 272 00:14:14.430 --> 00:14:17.880 we needed to use saturation divers 273 00:14:17.880 --> 00:14:18.910 who could stay 274 00:14:20.010 --> 00:14:25.010 working, actually on the bottom of the ocean on the Monitor. 275 00:14:27.450 --> 00:14:32.450 So we needed to provide for working saturation divers. 276 00:14:33.930 --> 00:14:35.670 Unfortunately, at that time, 277 00:14:35.670 --> 00:14:40.670 the Navy did not have a mobile Saturation Dive System. 278 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.240 We had plenty of qualified 279 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.540 and experienced saturation divers 280 00:14:48.540 --> 00:14:50.640 but we didn't have the system 281 00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:53.520 that we could use for this operation. 282 00:14:53.520 --> 00:14:58.470 So we had to go to the Chief of Naval Operations, 283 00:14:58.470 --> 00:15:03.470 to get a waiver to use a commercial Saturation Dive System, 284 00:15:04.470 --> 00:15:05.913 with Navy divers. 285 00:15:06.780 --> 00:15:10.350 And, we were able to get that waiver 286 00:15:10.350 --> 00:15:14.880 and rent a saturation system from Global Marine. 287 00:15:14.880 --> 00:15:16.590 We did some modifications to it 288 00:15:16.590 --> 00:15:18.930 to bring it up to Navy standards. 289 00:15:18.930 --> 00:15:22.050 And then the Navy divers operated that system 290 00:15:22.050 --> 00:15:23.820 and then dove on it. 291 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:26.220 And this worked out quite well. 292 00:15:26.220 --> 00:15:28.080 And it was a proof of concept for us, 293 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:32.790 that the Navy was able to use in other capacities. 294 00:15:32.790 --> 00:15:34.530 So what did that give us? 295 00:15:34.530 --> 00:15:37.650 Well, you can see there in the picture, 296 00:15:37.650 --> 00:15:40.530 the blue and white system there, 297 00:15:40.530 --> 00:15:44.280 was the entirety of the saturation system. 298 00:15:44.280 --> 00:15:47.640 And a 20-man saturation team 299 00:15:47.640 --> 00:15:50.250 operated this system and dove on it. 300 00:15:50.250 --> 00:15:53.550 The system included a diving bell, 301 00:15:53.550 --> 00:15:55.260 you can kind of see that in the front there. 302 00:15:55.260 --> 00:15:59.970 It's a two man personal transfer chamber, 303 00:15:59.970 --> 00:16:02.770 which would take the dive team down to the 304 00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:06.070 the ocean's bottom 305 00:16:07.752 --> 00:16:09.630 and allow them to go to work on the Monitor. 306 00:16:09.630 --> 00:16:12.210 It also included two 307 00:16:12.210 --> 00:16:15.030 six-man chambers, 308 00:16:15.030 --> 00:16:16.860 that would stay on the barge 309 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:20.250 as habitats for the divers to live in 310 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:21.753 while they were saturated. 311 00:16:23.430 --> 00:16:26.970 And then it had an independent generator that 312 00:16:26.970 --> 00:16:30.240 would run the whole system and then a handling system 313 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:31.833 for the dive bell. 314 00:16:32.730 --> 00:16:34.590 And what would happen is that 315 00:16:34.590 --> 00:16:38.340 the divers would be pressurized or saturated 316 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:41.310 to the same pressure as the Monitor was at, 317 00:16:41.310 --> 00:16:43.563 at 230 feet of seawater. 318 00:16:45.930 --> 00:16:48.120 You can see here the control van, 319 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:51.450 that the dive supervisor was a Navy diver, 320 00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:53.460 this is a chief petty officer, 321 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.040 would operate to keep the whole system running, 322 00:16:56.040 --> 00:16:59.460 both the habitat and the divers in the bell 323 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:01.650 and the diver working on the Monitor. 324 00:17:01.650 --> 00:17:06.650 And the other picture would be a picture of the habitat. 325 00:17:06.930 --> 00:17:09.630 And that's a four-man saturation dive team there. 326 00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:12.180 And that's where they would live for the duration 327 00:17:12.180 --> 00:17:13.410 of their saturation dive. 328 00:17:13.410 --> 00:17:15.720 Whether it be seven days or 14 days 329 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.240 or whatever the length of their dive would be. 330 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:19.990 They would live in that habitat 331 00:17:21.030 --> 00:17:23.640 and that's where they would live on their shift 332 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:25.803 when they weren't working on their dive. 333 00:17:27.540 --> 00:17:30.270 And then there's the dive bell that would take them to work. 334 00:17:30.270 --> 00:17:32.160 It's kind of like an elevator. 335 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:34.710 They'd get in it and it would be lowered through the water 336 00:17:34.710 --> 00:17:38.250 down to the Monitor and then they would climb out of 337 00:17:38.250 --> 00:17:41.640 the dive bell and then go to work on Monitor. 338 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:44.520 So the way the saturation divers worked is, 339 00:17:44.520 --> 00:17:48.930 a four-man saturation team would go into the habitat, 340 00:17:48.930 --> 00:17:51.660 they would be pressurized down to the same pressure 341 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:54.573 as the Monitor, at 230 feet of seawater. 342 00:17:55.410 --> 00:17:58.030 And they would be in the habitat, 343 00:17:59.070 --> 00:18:02.160 and they would be divided into two-man teams. 344 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.580 And they would be working shift work 12 hours each, 345 00:18:05.580 --> 00:18:07.410 into two shifts. 346 00:18:07.410 --> 00:18:09.960 The first shift would be two divers, 347 00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:12.123 would go into the dive bell, 348 00:18:15.930 --> 00:18:18.600 that would be mated to the habitat. 349 00:18:18.600 --> 00:18:20.250 They would climb into the dive bell. 350 00:18:20.250 --> 00:18:22.500 The dive bell would be lifted off the habitat 351 00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:24.210 and lowered over the side of the barge, 352 00:18:24.210 --> 00:18:27.690 down into the water, down to Monitor. 353 00:18:27.690 --> 00:18:31.170 One of those divers would climb out of the bell 354 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:32.700 and go to work on Monitor. 355 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:35.220 The second diver would stay in the dive bell 356 00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:36.453 as a safety diver. 357 00:18:38.130 --> 00:18:40.830 That first diver would work for six hours. 358 00:18:40.830 --> 00:18:42.330 At the end of six hours, 359 00:18:42.330 --> 00:18:44.490 he would go back up into the dive bell 360 00:18:44.490 --> 00:18:46.890 and the two divers would swap places. 361 00:18:46.890 --> 00:18:49.710 The second diver going out to be the working diver, 362 00:18:49.710 --> 00:18:52.710 the first diver staying in as safety diver. 363 00:18:52.710 --> 00:18:55.890 At the end of the second six hours, 364 00:18:55.890 --> 00:18:57.970 both divers would be in the dive bell 365 00:18:59.097 --> 00:19:01.470 and that would be the end of their 12 hour shift. 366 00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.020 The dive bell would come back up through the water, 367 00:19:04.020 --> 00:19:08.580 up to the barge and it would mate back up to the habitat 368 00:19:08.580 --> 00:19:11.730 and that dive team would climb out of the bell, 369 00:19:11.730 --> 00:19:13.410 into the habitat 370 00:19:13.410 --> 00:19:16.830 and it would be time for their resting shift. 371 00:19:16.830 --> 00:19:20.460 The other two divers would climb out of the habitat, 372 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:24.150 into the bell and it would be time for their working shift. 373 00:19:24.150 --> 00:19:27.120 So for 12 hours they would go down to the Monitor 374 00:19:27.120 --> 00:19:29.490 and they would do their 12 hour work shift, 375 00:19:29.490 --> 00:19:32.940 six hours of work, six hours as safety diver. 376 00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:37.320 And that would continue on for 24 hours a day, 377 00:19:37.320 --> 00:19:41.250 seven days a week, rotating 12-hour shifts. 378 00:19:41.250 --> 00:19:43.500 And they would continue doing that for 379 00:19:43.500 --> 00:19:45.663 the duration of their saturation dive. 380 00:19:46.740 --> 00:19:50.190 And then, once they were done with their saturation dive, 381 00:19:50.190 --> 00:19:53.370 the next four man dive team would go in. 382 00:19:53.370 --> 00:19:55.950 And that would allow us to have a saturation diver 383 00:19:55.950 --> 00:19:59.190 working for six hours at a time, 384 00:19:59.190 --> 00:20:03.120 on Monitor, almost continuously. 385 00:20:03.120 --> 00:20:06.510 And that gave us the chance to have a saturation diver 386 00:20:06.510 --> 00:20:09.450 doing those types of jobs 387 00:20:09.450 --> 00:20:14.450 that we needed somebody working on without interruption. 388 00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:18.420 And we needed more than just one diver down there 389 00:20:18.420 --> 00:20:19.770 working on Monitor. 390 00:20:19.770 --> 00:20:22.620 So we also had the mixed gas divers. 391 00:20:22.620 --> 00:20:26.220 These are the divers that the Navy uses constantly 392 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:28.050 throughout the fleet. 393 00:20:28.050 --> 00:20:32.250 They go and do all the dive jobs, ships husbandry, 394 00:20:32.250 --> 00:20:33.160 underwater 395 00:20:35.040 --> 00:20:37.740 salvage and diving recovery. 396 00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:39.333 They are all over the fleet. 397 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:45.120 They have a flyaway mixed gas dive system that's portable. 398 00:20:45.120 --> 00:20:48.780 It could be put on an airplane, it can be put on a ship, 399 00:20:48.780 --> 00:20:51.000 it can be put in the back of a truck 400 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.580 and taken almost to any location. 401 00:20:53.580 --> 00:20:55.293 And they are ready to dive. 402 00:20:56.130 --> 00:21:00.390 They use helium oxygen mixture for these depths, 403 00:21:00.390 --> 00:21:02.310 the same as the saturation diver. 404 00:21:02.310 --> 00:21:05.043 They use the same helmet as the saturation diver. 405 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:10.230 But they have their own portable system 406 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:12.270 that they can take 407 00:21:12.270 --> 00:21:13.653 and be mobile. 408 00:21:14.850 --> 00:21:17.250 They operate in 409 00:21:17.250 --> 00:21:19.350 two 25-man teams 410 00:21:19.350 --> 00:21:20.283 in shift work. 411 00:21:21.180 --> 00:21:24.390 But you can see that they do it a little bit differently. 412 00:21:24.390 --> 00:21:27.360 They take two divers at a time, 413 00:21:27.360 --> 00:21:30.340 go over the side in an open stage 414 00:21:31.470 --> 00:21:35.040 and they dive with both divers working together 415 00:21:35.040 --> 00:21:37.170 on the bottom on Monitor. 416 00:21:37.170 --> 00:21:40.230 They have a third diver who stays on the barge, 417 00:21:40.230 --> 00:21:43.203 fully suited up in a dive suit. 418 00:21:44.760 --> 00:21:46.110 He doesn't put the helmet on 419 00:21:46.110 --> 00:21:49.050 but the helmet is right there next to him, ready to be 420 00:21:49.050 --> 00:21:52.503 placed on his head, if need be, as the safety diver. 421 00:21:54.660 --> 00:21:58.530 The two divers are lowered over the side, on the stage. 422 00:21:58.530 --> 00:22:00.240 The stage doesn't go all the way to the bottom 423 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.550 'cause we don't want it banging up and down on the bottom. 424 00:22:02.550 --> 00:22:06.360 And then the divers will jump off the stage, down to Monitor 425 00:22:06.360 --> 00:22:09.573 and they'll go to work for approximately 30 minutes. 426 00:22:10.470 --> 00:22:13.590 In this case, we were using a Navy dive table 427 00:22:13.590 --> 00:22:17.250 called, Surface Decompression on O2. 428 00:22:17.250 --> 00:22:21.330 This is a very safe table that the Navy uses all the time 429 00:22:21.330 --> 00:22:24.450 for these sorts of diving operations. 430 00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:26.730 And we're able to use this because we had a 431 00:22:26.730 --> 00:22:30.360 recompression chamber on the barge that we could do 432 00:22:30.360 --> 00:22:33.030 the surface decompression with oxygen, 433 00:22:33.030 --> 00:22:34.680 right up on the barge. 434 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:38.910 So after the two divers are done working on Monitor, 435 00:22:38.910 --> 00:22:42.330 the dive supervisor will bring them back up to the stage 436 00:22:42.330 --> 00:22:45.060 and get them ready to come back up to the surface. 437 00:22:45.060 --> 00:22:47.100 So these two divers work together for 438 00:22:47.100 --> 00:22:49.350 approximately 30 minutes, 439 00:22:49.350 --> 00:22:53.640 not to exceed 40 minutes on Monitor. 440 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:55.290 They work very quickly together. 441 00:22:55.290 --> 00:22:59.220 They have a game plan before they ever leave the barge 442 00:22:59.220 --> 00:23:01.260 to go down there and do that job. 443 00:23:01.260 --> 00:23:04.143 Sometimes they work with the saturation diver. 444 00:23:05.370 --> 00:23:07.330 They have the game plan in mind 445 00:23:08.310 --> 00:23:11.160 and they know what the dive team before them 446 00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:12.570 had been working on. 447 00:23:12.570 --> 00:23:15.520 Because they have a camera on their dive helmet 448 00:23:16.770 --> 00:23:19.750 that feeds real-time up to the surface 449 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:24.480 and they're able to watch what the team before them 450 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:28.080 had done, before they get suited up. 451 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:30.810 And they have the archeologists from NOAA 452 00:23:30.810 --> 00:23:33.480 and the museum right there, 453 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:35.043 talking to them the whole time. 454 00:23:36.420 --> 00:23:40.170 So, they will come back up to the surface 455 00:23:40.170 --> 00:23:42.180 slowly through the water column, 456 00:23:42.180 --> 00:23:46.920 making stops at different depths for one hour decompression 457 00:23:46.920 --> 00:23:47.853 in the water. 458 00:23:48.810 --> 00:23:50.943 Then when they get back up to the barge, 459 00:23:52.020 --> 00:23:55.560 the tenders will help them get out of their diving equipment 460 00:23:55.560 --> 00:23:56.820 and they have five minutes 461 00:23:56.820 --> 00:24:01.023 to get out of the dive equipment and back into the chamber, 462 00:24:02.340 --> 00:24:04.650 where they will have another 463 00:24:04.650 --> 00:24:07.380 two hours and 15 minutes of decompression. 464 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:12.030 But they will be warm and dry and much safer in the chamber 465 00:24:12.030 --> 00:24:13.920 where there's more control. 466 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:17.070 And we have a master diver there with them. 467 00:24:17.070 --> 00:24:20.460 We have diving medical officers on the barge. 468 00:24:20.460 --> 00:24:22.260 And we have the supervisors there, 469 00:24:22.260 --> 00:24:24.270 controlling their decompression. 470 00:24:24.270 --> 00:24:28.470 So it's a very safe environment for us to continue 471 00:24:28.470 --> 00:24:30.720 the decompression for the divers. 472 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:31.553 We 473 00:24:32.580 --> 00:24:35.220 had a very safe record on Monitor, 474 00:24:35.220 --> 00:24:37.890 where we had absolutely no 475 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:42.270 diving illnesses or diving sickness. 476 00:24:42.270 --> 00:24:46.980 The worst we had on Monitor, were a couple of ear squeezes 477 00:24:46.980 --> 00:24:51.980 because we took safety precautions throughout the evolution. 478 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:54.160 So you can see here a very 479 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:59.493 short clip of a surface supplied mixed gas dive. 480 00:25:00.750 --> 00:25:02.790 Sometimes the weather got a little bit rocky 481 00:25:02.790 --> 00:25:06.210 but for the most part, our dives were very safe. 482 00:25:06.210 --> 00:25:09.660 We made over 400 mixed gas dives. 483 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:13.950 And it was during daytime, it was at night. 484 00:25:13.950 --> 00:25:15.993 The divers had a light on their helmet. 485 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:21.030 They had the camera there, with the archeologists talking to 486 00:25:21.030 --> 00:25:25.470 them the whole time, guiding them if need be. 487 00:25:25.470 --> 00:25:26.303 And, 488 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:30.900 it was very well executed and planned out. 489 00:25:30.900 --> 00:25:35.900 So every dive was very efficient and very effectively made. 490 00:25:36.750 --> 00:25:41.310 And it had to be that way, in order to maximize 491 00:25:41.310 --> 00:25:44.940 the use of every dive hour that 492 00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:46.833 was made during the operation. 493 00:25:49.140 --> 00:25:52.080 So how did we actually conduct the operation 494 00:25:52.080 --> 00:25:54.960 in order to make sure that we could get 495 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:57.150 the turret ready for lift? 496 00:25:57.150 --> 00:25:59.553 Well, we broke it up into four phases. 497 00:26:00.510 --> 00:26:04.320 And the first phase, of course was to clear the stern 498 00:26:04.320 --> 00:26:06.600 so we could get access to the turret. 499 00:26:06.600 --> 00:26:09.477 And that meant cutting that armor belt. 500 00:26:09.477 --> 00:26:12.420 And of course the armor belt was designed 501 00:26:12.420 --> 00:26:15.480 to prevent any damage to the Monitor, 502 00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:17.820 especially from cannon balls and such. 503 00:26:17.820 --> 00:26:20.950 So the armor belt was gonna be a real tough 504 00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:24.123 thing to get through. 505 00:26:25.800 --> 00:26:27.270 And you can see there that 506 00:26:27.270 --> 00:26:32.270 it was a pretty big piece for us to go against. 507 00:26:32.760 --> 00:26:37.320 48 feet, one ton per linear foot of armor belt. 508 00:26:37.320 --> 00:26:40.950 Now most of the rest of the stern had kind of disintegrated 509 00:26:40.950 --> 00:26:42.660 and there wasn't much left of that 510 00:26:42.660 --> 00:26:44.580 for us to have to deal with. 511 00:26:44.580 --> 00:26:48.090 It was this really that long piece of armor belt 512 00:26:48.090 --> 00:26:50.103 that we needed to worry about. 513 00:26:51.180 --> 00:26:54.600 And, based on the information that we had 514 00:26:54.600 --> 00:26:58.230 from the historians, which was really good information, 515 00:26:58.230 --> 00:27:01.710 it was a composite, and it was a three by five foot 516 00:27:01.710 --> 00:27:04.260 of composite wood and iron beams, 517 00:27:04.260 --> 00:27:08.400 with those five one inch thick armor plates. 518 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.970 So, we didn't have just one thing that we had to deal with. 519 00:27:11.970 --> 00:27:14.490 We had a variety of things that we had to be able 520 00:27:14.490 --> 00:27:15.510 to cut through. 521 00:27:15.510 --> 00:27:20.100 And of course they had been in seawater for 140 years. 522 00:27:20.100 --> 00:27:23.010 So although we had done some practice 523 00:27:23.010 --> 00:27:26.433 before we got out there in the summer of 2002, 524 00:27:27.690 --> 00:27:32.690 we just really weren't exactly sure of what it was gonna 525 00:27:33.090 --> 00:27:34.953 take to get through that armor belt. 526 00:27:36.180 --> 00:27:39.630 We all knew from experience that, you know, 527 00:27:39.630 --> 00:27:42.900 salvage is not a precise art. 528 00:27:42.900 --> 00:27:45.540 You have to plan and plan well. 529 00:27:45.540 --> 00:27:48.720 But you also have to be flexible because you never know 530 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:52.170 exactly what you're going to run across when you get down 531 00:27:52.170 --> 00:27:53.640 into the water. 532 00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:55.620 So we used a variety of tools. 533 00:27:55.620 --> 00:27:57.360 We used the Broco cutting torch, 534 00:27:57.360 --> 00:28:00.630 which worked pretty good against the armor plates. 535 00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:03.120 We used hydraulic chainsaws. 536 00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:05.490 We used a high pressure hydro blaster, 537 00:28:05.490 --> 00:28:07.860 which was the diver's favorite tool 538 00:28:07.860 --> 00:28:11.703 but not necessarily the archeologist's favorite tool. 539 00:28:12.807 --> 00:28:16.560 And then we ended up using a wire sling saw, 540 00:28:16.560 --> 00:28:19.320 which is not necessarily something that 541 00:28:19.320 --> 00:28:21.900 is normally in your tool belt. 542 00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:26.900 And so, we got most of the way through the armor belt. 543 00:28:27.630 --> 00:28:30.333 And then we kinda slowed down, 544 00:28:31.260 --> 00:28:33.600 that last little bit. 545 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:36.300 And it was taking much longer than we had planned 546 00:28:36.300 --> 00:28:37.568 in our schedule 547 00:28:37.568 --> 00:28:40.170 but we just couldn't get that last little bit. 548 00:28:40.170 --> 00:28:42.070 So one of the boatswain mate chiefs 549 00:28:43.620 --> 00:28:45.750 came up with the wire sling saw. 550 00:28:45.750 --> 00:28:47.670 And what we did is, we sent down a piece of 551 00:28:47.670 --> 00:28:49.380 three quarter inch wire 552 00:28:49.380 --> 00:28:53.760 and attached it to a wench up on the deck of the barge. 553 00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:57.720 And we just started sawing back and forth with that wire. 554 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:01.563 And that turned out to be quite effective. 555 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.093 And so on July 5th, 2002, 556 00:29:08.100 --> 00:29:09.630 we were able to make 557 00:29:09.630 --> 00:29:12.240 that last little bit through the armor belt. 558 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:15.690 Of course we had the armor belt attached to the 559 00:29:15.690 --> 00:29:19.746 100-ton crane on the deck of the WOTAN barge 560 00:29:19.746 --> 00:29:21.420 because it was quite heavy 561 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:24.930 and we didn't want it landing on the top of the turret. 562 00:29:24.930 --> 00:29:28.860 So, before we got all the way through the cut, 563 00:29:28.860 --> 00:29:32.370 we took the weight on the crane and then the crane lifted it 564 00:29:32.370 --> 00:29:36.720 off and set it down gently onto the ocean floor, 565 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:39.510 right next to the Monitor, where it is still sitting. 566 00:29:39.510 --> 00:29:43.290 And, hopefully at some point we'll be able to go back, 567 00:29:43.290 --> 00:29:45.810 take a piece of that armor belt, not the whole thing 568 00:29:45.810 --> 00:29:49.080 but just a piece of it and recover it, 569 00:29:49.080 --> 00:29:52.500 as one of the artifacts that are brought to the surface. 570 00:29:52.500 --> 00:29:53.790 Phase two then. 571 00:29:53.790 --> 00:29:56.550 We needed to excavate on the outside of the turret 572 00:29:56.550 --> 00:29:59.733 so we could lower the lifting device called, the SPIDER, 573 00:30:01.320 --> 00:30:03.720 that will eventually bring it up to the surface. 574 00:30:04.590 --> 00:30:07.440 So, the lifting device 575 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:08.273 was 576 00:30:11.490 --> 00:30:12.323 devised 577 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:15.240 and fabricated 578 00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:17.220 by our Phoenix team. 579 00:30:17.220 --> 00:30:20.400 And it took us a while to come up with this concept. 580 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:22.500 I remember sitting around the conference table 581 00:30:22.500 --> 00:30:25.530 at our command, during the planning phase 582 00:30:25.530 --> 00:30:28.890 and looking at all the different ideas about 583 00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:32.070 how we were going to safely and successfully 584 00:30:32.070 --> 00:30:34.950 lift the turret without crushing it. 585 00:30:34.950 --> 00:30:37.480 And if you think about a soda can 586 00:30:39.060 --> 00:30:41.380 and trying to lift it up 587 00:30:42.690 --> 00:30:46.890 with some sort of device by squeezing it, 588 00:30:46.890 --> 00:30:49.860 without squeezing it and crushing it in the middle, 589 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:53.040 that was kind of the concept of what we were trying to do. 590 00:30:53.040 --> 00:30:56.160 If we had just gotten some sort of mechanism 591 00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:58.410 that was gonna hold it tight enough 592 00:30:58.410 --> 00:31:01.440 around the middle, without, you know, 593 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.900 we didn't know how fragile the turret was gonna be. 594 00:31:03.900 --> 00:31:06.930 But we didn't want to, you know, do any damage to it. 595 00:31:06.930 --> 00:31:10.140 So we had to come up with something that would be strong 596 00:31:10.140 --> 00:31:13.173 enough to bring it to the surface without squeezing it. 597 00:31:14.040 --> 00:31:17.610 And eventually, a couple of our very smart engineers, 598 00:31:17.610 --> 00:31:19.800 one of them being my executive officer 599 00:31:19.800 --> 00:31:22.650 and another one being the engineer at Phoenix, 600 00:31:22.650 --> 00:31:24.180 came up with this plan. 601 00:31:24.180 --> 00:31:26.913 And you can see the rough drawing there, next to it. 602 00:31:28.353 --> 00:31:32.910 And, it obviously was named the SPIDER, as you look at it. 603 00:31:32.910 --> 00:31:36.810 But the legs of the SPIDER would be out 15 degrees 604 00:31:36.810 --> 00:31:38.640 before we lowered it down. 605 00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:41.583 And then once we lowered it to the turret, 606 00:31:42.630 --> 00:31:47.490 then the divers would operate the legs with a hand-operated 607 00:31:47.490 --> 00:31:50.400 hydraulics, to bring the legs back in 608 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:52.710 and underneath the bottom of the turret, 609 00:31:52.710 --> 00:31:55.320 so that the turret would set on those 610 00:31:55.320 --> 00:31:57.420 feet or those claws 611 00:31:57.420 --> 00:32:00.240 and then lift it up without 612 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:03.333 putting pressure on the sides of the turret. 613 00:32:04.830 --> 00:32:06.150 But in order to do that, 614 00:32:06.150 --> 00:32:09.870 we had to excavate around the outside of the turret. 615 00:32:09.870 --> 00:32:11.170 Because the turret was 616 00:32:12.780 --> 00:32:16.860 buried partially down in the sand and the silt. 617 00:32:16.860 --> 00:32:20.970 So we had to get that excavated out so that the legs 618 00:32:20.970 --> 00:32:24.570 of the SPIDER could fit around the outside of the turret 619 00:32:24.570 --> 00:32:27.660 and then get down underneath the turret. 620 00:32:27.660 --> 00:32:32.310 And some of that sand and silt was packed in very hard. 621 00:32:32.310 --> 00:32:36.180 So, again, we had to use different tools 622 00:32:36.180 --> 00:32:37.890 to excavate that sand 623 00:32:37.890 --> 00:32:41.520 and silt carefully from around the outside. 624 00:32:41.520 --> 00:32:44.883 We didn't wanna knock anything off of the turret. 625 00:32:45.750 --> 00:32:47.730 There's concretion, which is a word 626 00:32:47.730 --> 00:32:48.990 that I had never heard before 627 00:32:48.990 --> 00:32:52.860 but the archeologists were educating us on these terms. 628 00:32:52.860 --> 00:32:56.103 We didn't wanna knock any concretion off the side. 629 00:32:56.970 --> 00:33:01.620 and we wanted to make sure that we got the area cleared 630 00:33:01.620 --> 00:33:04.623 where the legs needed to go down along the edges. 631 00:33:05.790 --> 00:33:07.920 At the same time, phase three, 632 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:12.540 we needed to excavate the inside of the turret as well. 633 00:33:12.540 --> 00:33:14.670 Because we had to lighten the load. 634 00:33:14.670 --> 00:33:17.910 We couldn't lift the turret when it was filled. 635 00:33:17.910 --> 00:33:22.230 You can see there that it was filled with sand, silt 636 00:33:22.230 --> 00:33:25.050 and there was some coal there also that had fallen out 637 00:33:25.050 --> 00:33:28.170 of a coal bunker when the ship landed on top of it. 638 00:33:28.170 --> 00:33:30.780 And we had to get a lot of that out, not all of it 639 00:33:30.780 --> 00:33:33.480 but we had to get a vast majority of it out, 640 00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:37.680 to make it light enough for it to safely be lifted by 641 00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:39.123 the 500-ton crane. 642 00:33:40.020 --> 00:33:43.380 And we needed to do it carefully inside the turret. 643 00:33:43.380 --> 00:33:46.390 Because we knew that there were some artifacts in there 644 00:33:47.490 --> 00:33:52.230 and possibly some remains of some of the missing sailors. 645 00:33:52.230 --> 00:33:53.160 So, 646 00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:57.090 to do the excavation inside the turret, 647 00:33:57.090 --> 00:34:00.520 we had to use special techniques and 648 00:34:01.590 --> 00:34:03.480 primarily an adapter, 649 00:34:03.480 --> 00:34:08.220 which is like vacuuming it out and taking all that sediment 650 00:34:08.220 --> 00:34:12.180 and material from inside the turret 651 00:34:12.180 --> 00:34:14.670 and putting it into a salvage basket, 652 00:34:14.670 --> 00:34:17.610 which was then lifted to the barge, 653 00:34:17.610 --> 00:34:20.760 where the archeologist and the museum personnel 654 00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:23.820 would sift through it by hand 655 00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:27.270 and then find these treasures, as small as a button. 656 00:34:27.270 --> 00:34:31.260 And they found all sorts of things in that sediment. 657 00:34:31.260 --> 00:34:34.620 Which, are on display at the museum now. 658 00:34:34.620 --> 00:34:36.633 And just incredible stuff that we found, 659 00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:42.663 including the two sailors that were found in the turret. 660 00:34:43.740 --> 00:34:46.930 We also, fortunately, did find the Dahlgren guns 661 00:34:48.962 --> 00:34:49.795 and that was 662 00:34:50.850 --> 00:34:53.583 a wonderful feeling to find those guns still in there. 663 00:34:56.220 --> 00:35:00.250 So we finally got the outside of the turret 664 00:35:01.860 --> 00:35:05.550 excavated, and we got the inside excavated. 665 00:35:05.550 --> 00:35:08.580 And it was time to install the SPIDER. 666 00:35:08.580 --> 00:35:12.210 So, we slowly lowered the SPIDER down. 667 00:35:12.210 --> 00:35:15.270 And I have to say that the crane crew 668 00:35:15.270 --> 00:35:18.420 on the WOTAN barge were incredible. 669 00:35:18.420 --> 00:35:22.680 Can you imagine lowering that SPIDER down 230 feet 670 00:35:22.680 --> 00:35:27.680 through the water column, in a precise manner, 671 00:35:27.810 --> 00:35:31.030 with the crane operator and his 672 00:35:32.310 --> 00:35:36.240 rigging crew, giving hand signals, 673 00:35:36.240 --> 00:35:41.240 based on the diver being down there with his helmet camera, 674 00:35:41.700 --> 00:35:43.090 showing the 675 00:35:44.100 --> 00:35:44.933 crane 676 00:35:46.860 --> 00:35:51.300 operator, the crane crewman, the crane rigger, 677 00:35:51.300 --> 00:35:53.880 who was giving hand signals to the crane operator, 678 00:35:53.880 --> 00:35:56.433 on how to maneuver the hook, 679 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:00.420 to get the SPIDER carefully onto the turret 680 00:36:00.420 --> 00:36:02.970 without damaging the turret. 681 00:36:02.970 --> 00:36:06.390 It was amazing and very well done. 682 00:36:06.390 --> 00:36:10.260 So the SPIDER came down onto the turret 683 00:36:10.260 --> 00:36:13.530 and then the divers got there and operated the hydraulic 684 00:36:13.530 --> 00:36:15.180 legs to bring them in, 685 00:36:15.180 --> 00:36:17.403 to get underneath the edges of the turret. 686 00:36:18.630 --> 00:36:20.430 A couple other things had to be done 687 00:36:21.350 --> 00:36:25.200 to shore up the top of the turret so that things didn't fall 688 00:36:25.200 --> 00:36:27.780 out of the bottom as we lifted it. 689 00:36:27.780 --> 00:36:29.710 But eventually all that was done 690 00:36:30.630 --> 00:36:34.623 and the turret was ready to be lifted to the surface. 691 00:36:35.460 --> 00:36:38.280 Now all we had to do, was make sure that 692 00:36:38.280 --> 00:36:40.530 the weather was 693 00:36:40.530 --> 00:36:42.810 right for this lift. 694 00:36:42.810 --> 00:36:44.760 The last thing we wanted to do 695 00:36:44.760 --> 00:36:47.500 was endanger any of our people 696 00:36:48.570 --> 00:36:53.130 or break the turret as we were bringing it to the surface. 697 00:36:53.130 --> 00:36:58.130 It was early August, we were getting into hurricane season. 698 00:36:59.130 --> 00:37:01.263 The weather was not getting any better. 699 00:37:02.250 --> 00:37:07.050 We were seeing higher winds, we were seeing higher currents, 700 00:37:07.050 --> 00:37:11.850 and it wasn't getting any nicer out there. 701 00:37:11.850 --> 00:37:15.750 On top of that, we had a lotta media attention. 702 00:37:15.750 --> 00:37:18.090 So we had a lotta media on board. 703 00:37:18.090 --> 00:37:21.390 And the day that we were looking at 704 00:37:21.390 --> 00:37:23.910 possibly lifting the turret, 705 00:37:23.910 --> 00:37:26.880 we of course had a lot of attention from, 706 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:29.160 what we referred to as VIPs. 707 00:37:29.160 --> 00:37:32.613 But these were people that were very big supporters and, 708 00:37:34.500 --> 00:37:38.610 you know, wanted to be there to see history in the making. 709 00:37:38.610 --> 00:37:40.560 So it was only natural 710 00:37:40.560 --> 00:37:42.753 that we'd have a lot of interest that day. 711 00:37:45.150 --> 00:37:46.113 So, 712 00:37:47.520 --> 00:37:49.590 it was a lot of stress. 713 00:37:49.590 --> 00:37:52.240 And Dr. Broadwater and I 714 00:37:53.130 --> 00:37:55.623 had to make some hard decisions. 715 00:37:57.030 --> 00:37:59.500 Unfortunately, the weather was just not 716 00:38:01.620 --> 00:38:04.410 good enough for us to, 717 00:38:04.410 --> 00:38:06.750 in good conscious, make the decision 718 00:38:06.750 --> 00:38:11.313 to lift the turret off the bottom on August 4th. 719 00:38:12.180 --> 00:38:15.210 And a lot of people were disappointed 720 00:38:15.210 --> 00:38:19.800 but obviously, they understood that we had to be safe. 721 00:38:19.800 --> 00:38:21.820 So, many people left 722 00:38:23.490 --> 00:38:25.080 that day. 723 00:38:25.080 --> 00:38:26.523 Then on August 5th, 724 00:38:27.450 --> 00:38:29.670 Dr. Broadwater and I got up early 725 00:38:29.670 --> 00:38:31.170 and we looked at the weather 726 00:38:31.170 --> 00:38:33.420 and we talked to a lot of our experts. 727 00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:36.270 And, the weather was better 728 00:38:36.270 --> 00:38:39.270 but we still had a very strong current. 729 00:38:39.270 --> 00:38:41.760 We ended up moving the barge around a little bit, 730 00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:43.110 which took a while. 731 00:38:43.110 --> 00:38:46.740 But, we decided to go slowly, 732 00:38:46.740 --> 00:38:51.673 step-by-step and reevaluate after each step of the way 733 00:38:53.490 --> 00:38:55.260 and started the process. 734 00:38:55.260 --> 00:38:57.360 And, our people 735 00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:00.360 were very well trained, 736 00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:03.270 very professional, went slowly 737 00:39:03.270 --> 00:39:05.493 and looked at it each step of the way. 738 00:39:09.540 --> 00:39:11.580 It took a lot longer than we anticipated 739 00:39:11.580 --> 00:39:13.980 because we did go very slowly. 740 00:39:13.980 --> 00:39:14.813 And, 741 00:39:16.050 --> 00:39:18.457 at 5:47 on August 5th, 742 00:39:20.100 --> 00:39:24.390 the Monitor's turret came to the surface 743 00:39:24.390 --> 00:39:28.890 and it was intact and it was an incredible feeling, 744 00:39:28.890 --> 00:39:30.300 and I 745 00:39:30.300 --> 00:39:34.110 think everybody was just overjoyed. 746 00:39:34.110 --> 00:39:39.110 And John Broadwater and I were so proud of that crew. 747 00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:42.363 And it was a history making moment. 748 00:39:45.330 --> 00:39:48.360 So, what were the Navy's benefits 749 00:39:48.360 --> 00:39:51.990 from this entire expedition? 750 00:39:51.990 --> 00:39:56.990 I can say in hindsight that the training and the experience 751 00:39:57.030 --> 00:39:59.020 that the sailors 752 00:40:00.060 --> 00:40:04.090 received from the Monitor expeditions 753 00:40:05.040 --> 00:40:07.710 were just unparalleled. 754 00:40:07.710 --> 00:40:12.570 I look back at names and faces that were out there on 755 00:40:12.570 --> 00:40:16.770 the barge and on the Monitor expeditions 756 00:40:16.770 --> 00:40:21.770 and there were so many of them that went on to become 757 00:40:22.020 --> 00:40:24.450 leaders within the diving community. 758 00:40:24.450 --> 00:40:27.720 There were young sailors, young divers, 759 00:40:27.720 --> 00:40:30.390 that were out there making their very first dives, 760 00:40:30.390 --> 00:40:32.040 from dive school. 761 00:40:32.040 --> 00:40:35.280 That went on to become master divers 762 00:40:35.280 --> 00:40:39.813 and chief warrant officer divers and diving officers, 763 00:40:42.060 --> 00:40:44.700 over the 20 years since then. 764 00:40:44.700 --> 00:40:46.110 And maybe they would've anyway 765 00:40:46.110 --> 00:40:49.980 but I think there were a considerably higher percentage 766 00:40:49.980 --> 00:40:53.043 of those young men and women who did that. 767 00:40:54.060 --> 00:40:56.940 And the middle grade divers 768 00:40:56.940 --> 00:41:00.870 who went and immediately became diving leaders 769 00:41:00.870 --> 00:41:03.210 from that operation, were much higher. 770 00:41:03.210 --> 00:41:05.950 So I think that this operation 771 00:41:08.670 --> 00:41:12.510 created a whole generation of diving leaders 772 00:41:12.510 --> 00:41:14.460 within the diving community. 773 00:41:14.460 --> 00:41:19.460 This also provided field testing for new equipment 774 00:41:19.920 --> 00:41:24.690 and definitely new procedures within the dive tables 775 00:41:24.690 --> 00:41:27.040 and dive medicine, that 776 00:41:27.900 --> 00:41:28.733 were 777 00:41:28.733 --> 00:41:30.093 just incredible. 778 00:41:31.170 --> 00:41:33.390 And it definitely rejuvenated the 779 00:41:33.390 --> 00:41:35.560 Navy saturation capability to 780 00:41:36.587 --> 00:41:39.613 the position that it is today. 781 00:41:40.683 --> 00:41:44.040 But, also equally important is, 782 00:41:44.040 --> 00:41:46.590 being involved in this historic moment. 783 00:41:46.590 --> 00:41:49.830 It wasn't just a part of U.S. history 784 00:41:49.830 --> 00:41:51.690 but this was a part of naval history. 785 00:41:51.690 --> 00:41:55.320 And it was so appropriate that the Navy be a part of this 786 00:41:55.320 --> 00:41:56.853 piece of naval history. 787 00:41:58.530 --> 00:42:02.610 So the Monitor's turret came up and went to The 788 00:42:02.610 --> 00:42:05.553 Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. 789 00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:12.320 Shortly afterwards, the museum was able to build 790 00:42:12.342 --> 00:42:15.570 and open the USS Monitor Center, 791 00:42:15.570 --> 00:42:20.460 which holds the artifacts that came from Monitor, 792 00:42:20.460 --> 00:42:25.080 with the turret being the cornerstone of the center. 793 00:42:25.080 --> 00:42:28.350 It's not out of the conservation tank yet 794 00:42:28.350 --> 00:42:31.890 but it's part of the conservation part of the center 795 00:42:31.890 --> 00:42:34.500 and it's still fabulous to go and visit, 796 00:42:34.500 --> 00:42:37.170 if you haven't been there to see it, I encourage you to go. 797 00:42:37.170 --> 00:42:41.850 It is an amazing place and its educational value 798 00:42:41.850 --> 00:42:44.040 cannot be overstated. 799 00:42:44.040 --> 00:42:45.810 It's a wonderful place 800 00:42:45.810 --> 00:42:49.610 to take the younger generation and even those of us 801 00:42:49.610 --> 00:42:51.210 of the older generation. 802 00:42:51.210 --> 00:42:55.470 And I think it'll be fabulous for generations to come. 803 00:42:55.470 --> 00:42:58.633 Not only teaches history but is a wonderful place 804 00:42:58.633 --> 00:43:00.633 to teach science. 805 00:43:03.990 --> 00:43:05.860 We also were able to 806 00:43:07.230 --> 00:43:10.320 take the two crew members that were recovered 807 00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:12.630 from the turret. 808 00:43:12.630 --> 00:43:15.930 And on March 6th of 2012 [Sic 03/08/2013], 809 00:43:15.930 --> 00:43:20.460 they were in turn in Arlington National Cemetery, 810 00:43:20.460 --> 00:43:21.550 in an amazing 811 00:43:22.740 --> 00:43:23.583 service, 812 00:43:24.690 --> 00:43:27.120 as well as a plaque that was dedicated to 813 00:43:27.120 --> 00:43:30.633 honoring all 16 members that were lost on Monitor. 814 00:43:34.020 --> 00:43:37.110 The service was incredible. 815 00:43:37.110 --> 00:43:39.610 The Secretary of the Navy and the Director of NOAA 816 00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:47.480 spoke at the service, with just heartfelt remarks. 817 00:43:48.030 --> 00:43:51.240 And it was an inspirational 818 00:43:51.240 --> 00:43:52.660 service 819 00:43:52.660 --> 00:43:53.493 and 820 00:43:54.570 --> 00:43:55.403 something that 821 00:43:57.930 --> 00:43:58.763 will 822 00:43:59.640 --> 00:44:01.260 be 823 00:44:01.260 --> 00:44:03.213 remembered by everybody who attended. 824 00:44:05.670 --> 00:44:07.140 As I mentioned before, 825 00:44:07.140 --> 00:44:10.800 I wasn't pleased about having all the media on board. 826 00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:14.520 It was kind of irritating to have those people 827 00:44:14.520 --> 00:44:16.863 roaming around, that I kept bumping into. 828 00:44:18.030 --> 00:44:21.953 But, I have to say that I'm so glad they were there, because 829 00:44:21.953 --> 00:44:25.810 I think it's important that the expedition was documented, 830 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.000 and I'm glad that they were the ones that documented, 831 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:33.510 they were actually very wonderful people, 832 00:44:33.510 --> 00:44:34.810 now that I think about it. 833 00:44:35.910 --> 00:44:40.200 I highly recommend the two books that I have on the screen. 834 00:44:40.200 --> 00:44:42.540 I think they did a fabulous job of 835 00:44:42.540 --> 00:44:44.070 talking about the expedition 836 00:44:44.070 --> 00:44:47.580 and other areas of Monitor history. 837 00:44:47.580 --> 00:44:49.650 We had two film crews on board, 838 00:44:49.650 --> 00:44:53.460 a National Geographic Explorer and Discovery Channel 839 00:44:53.460 --> 00:44:55.740 and they were fabulous. 840 00:44:55.740 --> 00:44:59.370 They did a great job of filming without 841 00:44:59.370 --> 00:45:03.540 actually getting in the way, which was kind of amazing. 842 00:45:03.540 --> 00:45:05.520 They were there on the day of the lift. 843 00:45:05.520 --> 00:45:08.400 And I have to say, I had two mics on me 844 00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:09.390 on the day of the lift, 845 00:45:09.390 --> 00:45:11.673 which was a pretty stressful day. 846 00:45:14.126 --> 00:45:15.180 And I had to really watch myself, 847 00:45:15.180 --> 00:45:16.960 that I didn't say any bad words 848 00:45:18.090 --> 00:45:21.130 during that day, with those two mics on 849 00:45:22.260 --> 00:45:24.060 because, at the time I didn't have any children, 850 00:45:24.060 --> 00:45:27.090 I have children now, and I'm glad that those documentaries 851 00:45:27.090 --> 00:45:30.180 don't show me saying anything bad. 852 00:45:30.180 --> 00:45:33.303 But, I'm glad that they were there and they did a good job. 853 00:45:35.190 --> 00:45:38.130 We recently just had a reunion, 854 00:45:38.130 --> 00:45:42.840 celebrating the turret's 20th anniversary of the recovery. 855 00:45:42.840 --> 00:45:46.050 The Mariners' Museum hosted the reunion 856 00:45:46.050 --> 00:45:48.900 and did a amazing job. 857 00:45:48.900 --> 00:45:51.100 It was just a fabulous 858 00:45:52.299 --> 00:45:53.580 event. 859 00:45:53.580 --> 00:45:55.690 And we had over 100 860 00:45:57.030 --> 00:45:58.480 members of the 861 00:45:59.640 --> 00:46:02.220 Expedition 2002 862 00:46:02.220 --> 00:46:06.150 team and other expedition team members. 863 00:46:06.150 --> 00:46:06.983 And, 864 00:46:08.686 --> 00:46:10.770 it was a wonderful evening. 865 00:46:10.770 --> 00:46:13.920 And then the next day the museum opened up for Family Day, 866 00:46:13.920 --> 00:46:15.900 with VIP behind the scene tours. 867 00:46:15.900 --> 00:46:19.443 And we're hoping that we will have another reunion, 868 00:46:20.310 --> 00:46:22.590 maybe sooner than 20 years from now. 869 00:46:22.590 --> 00:46:24.370 But it was definitely 870 00:46:25.770 --> 00:46:27.213 an event to remember. 871 00:46:28.590 --> 00:46:31.830 I started out my presentation talking about 872 00:46:31.830 --> 00:46:33.090 the crew members 873 00:46:33.090 --> 00:46:38.007 of both the Monitor and the Monitor Expedition 2002. 874 00:46:38.007 --> 00:46:41.490 And I will end it talking about 875 00:46:41.490 --> 00:46:43.623 the people that made this happen. 876 00:46:45.060 --> 00:46:49.170 These are just a few of the dive team 877 00:46:49.170 --> 00:46:53.280 from 2002 that were responsible for 878 00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:55.210 making it a successful 879 00:46:56.430 --> 00:46:57.263 mission. 880 00:46:58.440 --> 00:47:00.510 Just a fraction of them. 881 00:47:00.510 --> 00:47:01.740 There were so many more, 882 00:47:01.740 --> 00:47:03.310 that I couldn't possibly 883 00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.350 put on this slide. 884 00:47:07.350 --> 00:47:09.500 These just happened to be some of them that 885 00:47:10.440 --> 00:47:12.933 are very important to my career. 886 00:47:13.860 --> 00:47:15.180 But, 887 00:47:15.180 --> 00:47:16.013 I am a 888 00:47:17.070 --> 00:47:18.310 big believer that 889 00:47:19.530 --> 00:47:22.020 nothing can be accomplished without 890 00:47:22.020 --> 00:47:25.503 a team working together and making it so. 891 00:47:26.340 --> 00:47:28.293 And these are part of the team. 892 00:47:29.340 --> 00:47:30.630 And I thank you very much 893 00:47:30.630 --> 00:47:33.693 for this opportunity to talk about my team. 894 00:47:35.730 --> 00:47:36.563 Thank you. 895 00:47:39.060 --> 00:47:43.563 All right, thank you so much for an amazing presentation. 896 00:47:45.648 --> 00:47:46.648 I heard you say that 897 00:47:48.870 --> 00:47:50.820 some people's first dives were on the Monitor 898 00:47:50.820 --> 00:47:53.500 and I could not even imagine having my first dive 899 00:47:54.494 --> 00:47:55.980 be on the Monitor. 900 00:47:55.980 --> 00:47:58.110 So now we are going to take questions. 901 00:47:58.110 --> 00:48:00.120 Remember, at the bottom of your toolbar, 902 00:48:00.120 --> 00:48:01.800 on the right hand side of your screen, 903 00:48:01.800 --> 00:48:03.720 you can type in your questions into the chat, 904 00:48:03.720 --> 00:48:05.340 and we will answer them one by one. 905 00:48:05.340 --> 00:48:09.333 And I will go ahead and start with a question. 906 00:48:10.470 --> 00:48:12.840 Actually, can you just tell us a little bit more about 907 00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:15.423 what it was like to live on that barge? 908 00:48:16.530 --> 00:48:19.080 I don't really think of barges as being a place to live 909 00:48:19.080 --> 00:48:20.010 for a month and a half. 910 00:48:20.010 --> 00:48:21.210 Tell us more about that. 911 00:48:25.223 --> 00:48:26.056 It was like living in an industrial area. 912 00:48:29.451 --> 00:48:33.210 It was, you know, a big steel, well, it was pretty big 913 00:48:33.210 --> 00:48:34.380 but it didn't feel very big 914 00:48:34.380 --> 00:48:39.380 because it was crammed full of equipment everywhere. 915 00:48:39.450 --> 00:48:44.190 And, we had these trailers that were packed 916 00:48:44.190 --> 00:48:47.580 full of our, you know, our bunks. 917 00:48:47.580 --> 00:48:49.420 So it was pretty crowded 918 00:48:51.414 --> 00:48:52.590 and it was noisy. 919 00:48:52.590 --> 00:48:55.500 I mean, it had compressors running, 920 00:48:55.500 --> 00:48:58.650 it had generators running and so it was noisy 921 00:48:58.650 --> 00:49:00.540 the whole time. 922 00:49:00.540 --> 00:49:04.560 So, you were living in an industrial area 923 00:49:04.560 --> 00:49:06.600 and you had to wear a hard hat all the time 924 00:49:06.600 --> 00:49:08.150 because of the cranes operating. 925 00:49:10.433 --> 00:49:12.030 And there was no place to, you know, 926 00:49:12.030 --> 00:49:13.320 there was no privacy anywhere 927 00:49:13.320 --> 00:49:15.210 because there were people all over the place. 928 00:49:15.210 --> 00:49:20.210 But there was such a high level of energy and excitement 929 00:49:20.340 --> 00:49:23.857 all the time, that, you know, you didn't care that, 930 00:49:23.857 --> 00:49:26.250 you know, that it was noisy and it was loud 931 00:49:26.250 --> 00:49:28.740 and it was hot and it was, you know, 932 00:49:28.740 --> 00:49:31.350 you were sweaty and, if you look at the pictures, 933 00:49:31.350 --> 00:49:34.300 we're all running around in a t-shirt 934 00:49:35.483 --> 00:49:39.030 and the green shorts or the tan shorts or, you know 935 00:49:39.030 --> 00:49:42.243 or, the divers with no t-shirt. 936 00:49:45.720 --> 00:49:48.420 But it was so exciting to be a part of this historical 937 00:49:48.420 --> 00:49:50.310 moment that nobody cared. 938 00:49:50.310 --> 00:49:53.790 So, it wasn't pleasant but it didn't matter 939 00:49:53.790 --> 00:49:56.550 because it was just wonderful. 940 00:49:56.550 --> 00:49:58.053 And people were, 941 00:49:59.970 --> 00:50:02.280 I don't want to say they were dying to be part of this. 942 00:50:02.280 --> 00:50:05.160 But I got so many calls from people saying, 943 00:50:05.160 --> 00:50:06.663 how can I get out there? 944 00:50:07.890 --> 00:50:11.733 So, people were fighting to be part of that operation. 945 00:50:13.860 --> 00:50:14.823 I would be too. 946 00:50:15.660 --> 00:50:17.460 Another question about the diving, 947 00:50:17.460 --> 00:50:21.090 you said that the saturation divers were down there for 948 00:50:21.090 --> 00:50:24.840 12 hours at a time, with six hour shifts. 949 00:50:24.840 --> 00:50:28.663 And the mixed gas divers were out there for, 950 00:50:28.663 --> 00:50:31.770 I think you said 30 minutes at a time, right? 951 00:50:31.770 --> 00:50:33.068 Yes. 952 00:50:33.068 --> 00:50:36.180 My question to you is, how long does it take to get from, 953 00:50:36.180 --> 00:50:39.000 say like the deck of WOTAN to the Monitor? 954 00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:41.643 Like, how long of an actual dive is it? 955 00:50:44.070 --> 00:50:46.803 It takes, oh, I wanna say, 956 00:50:53.970 --> 00:50:55.260 somewhere in between, 957 00:50:55.260 --> 00:50:57.450 I don't know exactly off the top of my head, 958 00:50:57.450 --> 00:51:00.060 the rate of descent but I'd say, 959 00:51:00.060 --> 00:51:04.293 three or four minutes to descend to Monitor, 960 00:51:06.060 --> 00:51:09.423 you know, going down to Monitor. 961 00:51:16.016 --> 00:51:19.320 So, depending on how quickly the diver 962 00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:21.033 can clear their ears. 963 00:51:22.650 --> 00:51:24.930 So, if somebody's having trouble 964 00:51:24.930 --> 00:51:25.763 clearing their ears, 965 00:51:25.763 --> 00:51:27.963 we slow down the rate of descent. 966 00:51:29.070 --> 00:51:32.640 It's easier in the diving, for the saturation divers 967 00:51:32.640 --> 00:51:34.320 because they're already at pressure. 968 00:51:34.320 --> 00:51:37.530 So the bell can go down much faster than the dive stage 969 00:51:37.530 --> 00:51:38.973 for the mixed gas divers. 970 00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:42.720 So, you know, will take three or four or five minutes 971 00:51:42.720 --> 00:51:46.920 for the mixed gas divers to get down to the Monitor. 972 00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:48.940 And so that counts as bottom time 973 00:51:51.570 --> 00:51:53.430 for the mixed gas divers. 974 00:51:53.430 --> 00:51:56.610 So that counts all towards the 40 minutes of total bottom 975 00:51:56.610 --> 00:51:58.710 time for the mixed gas divers. 976 00:51:58.710 --> 00:52:02.070 And then, on the way back up it'll be much slower 977 00:52:02.070 --> 00:52:04.983 because you're doing the decompression stops. 978 00:52:06.390 --> 00:52:09.693 Which doesn't count as bottom time for the mixed gas divers. 979 00:52:11.490 --> 00:52:13.530 Wow, interesting. 980 00:52:13.530 --> 00:52:14.610 We do have another question here 981 00:52:14.610 --> 00:52:17.400 that's talking about the wildlife. 982 00:52:17.400 --> 00:52:20.790 Were there any dangerous fish 983 00:52:20.790 --> 00:52:22.473 that you needed to watch out for? 984 00:52:23.310 --> 00:52:24.793 Well, not on the wreck. 985 00:52:24.793 --> 00:52:29.220 Not on the Monitor, the sea life on Monitor was amazing. 986 00:52:29.220 --> 00:52:32.730 You know because Monitor's got growth on it 987 00:52:32.730 --> 00:52:36.030 and it's like a natural reef. 988 00:52:36.030 --> 00:52:38.580 It's got this amazing amount of sea life. 989 00:52:38.580 --> 00:52:42.153 We saw so many beautiful fish and, 990 00:52:43.230 --> 00:52:44.830 you know, it's a beautiful dive, 991 00:52:45.780 --> 00:52:47.850 both, daytime and nighttime. 992 00:52:47.850 --> 00:52:50.373 I loved making the night dives. 993 00:52:51.900 --> 00:52:54.810 The light on my helmet would illuminate 994 00:52:54.810 --> 00:52:58.440 just the area around me and you could see 995 00:52:58.440 --> 00:53:01.200 the growth on the wreck. 996 00:53:01.200 --> 00:53:06.000 Not that I had time to lollygag and, 997 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.340 you know, look around as a tourist. 998 00:53:08.340 --> 00:53:10.770 But as you're coming down and you see the Monitor 999 00:53:10.770 --> 00:53:12.120 as the stage is lowering, 1000 00:53:12.120 --> 00:53:15.060 you get a chance to kinda watch as you're coming down. 1001 00:53:15.060 --> 00:53:16.920 And then you get off the stage and you go to work 1002 00:53:16.920 --> 00:53:18.480 and you don't get to watch. 1003 00:53:18.480 --> 00:53:19.313 But, 1004 00:53:20.430 --> 00:53:21.360 having said that, 1005 00:53:21.360 --> 00:53:23.580 that it's beautiful on Monitor, 1006 00:53:23.580 --> 00:53:26.580 as you're coming up on the stage 1007 00:53:26.580 --> 00:53:29.760 and you're stopping at your decompression stops, 1008 00:53:29.760 --> 00:53:31.563 then you see the barracuda. 1009 00:53:32.460 --> 00:53:37.170 And so, we didn't see sharks, at least I never saw a shark. 1010 00:53:37.170 --> 00:53:39.870 I don't remember anybody seeing sharks. 1011 00:53:39.870 --> 00:53:43.080 There were a lot of barracuda and they always 1012 00:53:43.080 --> 00:53:45.870 would come around when we'd stop at our 50-foot stop 1013 00:53:45.870 --> 00:53:47.133 for our decompression. 1014 00:53:48.450 --> 00:53:52.440 And, you know and I think everybody knows that barracuda 1015 00:53:52.440 --> 00:53:54.270 like shiny objects. 1016 00:53:54.270 --> 00:53:56.010 And the face 1017 00:53:56.010 --> 00:53:59.820 mask of our dive helmet has a nice 1018 00:53:59.820 --> 00:54:04.820 shiny silver ring around the front of the face mask, so. 1019 00:54:06.030 --> 00:54:07.140 They never did anything. 1020 00:54:07.140 --> 00:54:08.790 I mean the barracuda left us alone 1021 00:54:08.790 --> 00:54:11.220 but it was always kinda, little creepy, 1022 00:54:11.220 --> 00:54:13.353 as they would circle the stage. 1023 00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:15.113 Wow. 1024 00:54:15.113 --> 00:54:16.740 So, 1025 00:54:16.740 --> 00:54:17.573 I'm sorry, 1026 00:54:17.573 --> 00:54:21.480 so you, as kind of like the head honcho of this operation, 1027 00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:22.830 I'm sure it was very busy for you 1028 00:54:22.830 --> 00:54:25.083 but you got to have a chance to dive? 1029 00:54:27.120 --> 00:54:27.953 Yes. 1030 00:54:28.860 --> 00:54:32.340 My job really was top side, being overall 1031 00:54:32.340 --> 00:54:34.740 in charge of the operation. 1032 00:54:34.740 --> 00:54:38.553 But I made sure that I also got in the water and dove, 1033 00:54:41.490 --> 00:54:44.550 you know, whenever I could, for a couple of reasons. 1034 00:54:44.550 --> 00:54:48.090 One, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly 1035 00:54:48.090 --> 00:54:53.090 what the conditions were like down on Monitor, 1036 00:54:53.160 --> 00:54:56.380 so I knew what my divers were 1037 00:54:57.720 --> 00:54:58.953 experiencing. 1038 00:54:59.850 --> 00:55:02.430 So, it was important for me to understand 1039 00:55:02.430 --> 00:55:04.533 what was going on on the dives. 1040 00:55:06.660 --> 00:55:08.469 And two, 1041 00:55:08.469 --> 00:55:11.520 I wanted also, for my divers to know 1042 00:55:11.520 --> 00:55:15.513 that I was willing to do what they were doing. 1043 00:55:16.770 --> 00:55:20.190 That, you know, I wasn't going to subject them to something 1044 00:55:20.190 --> 00:55:22.143 that I wasn't prepared to do. 1045 00:55:23.820 --> 00:55:24.653 But, 1046 00:55:25.770 --> 00:55:26.603 they were, 1047 00:55:26.603 --> 00:55:28.110 you know, 1048 00:55:28.110 --> 00:55:31.323 most of my divers or at least the senior ones, 1049 00:55:32.849 --> 00:55:35.940 were much better equipped to do the work down there 1050 00:55:35.940 --> 00:55:36.773 than I was. 1051 00:55:36.773 --> 00:55:37.606 I mean, 1052 00:55:40.822 --> 00:55:42.780 I didn't have as much hands-on experience 1053 00:55:42.780 --> 00:55:44.130 doing what they were doing. 1054 00:55:45.180 --> 00:55:48.780 But also, I just wanted to make dives 1055 00:55:48.780 --> 00:55:51.840 because it was such an incredible dive. 1056 00:55:51.840 --> 00:55:54.990 And also, just a piece of history. 1057 00:55:54.990 --> 00:55:58.500 So, I tried to get in the water whenever I could, 1058 00:55:58.500 --> 00:56:00.030 which wasn't very often. 1059 00:56:00.030 --> 00:56:02.790 But, I still tried to get in the water whenever I could. 1060 00:56:02.790 --> 00:56:05.970 So, I have a total of 19 dives on Monitor, 1061 00:56:05.970 --> 00:56:09.483 over the course of three years, three summers, 1062 00:56:10.740 --> 00:56:13.293 which is pretty good for the captain. 1063 00:56:15.060 --> 00:56:19.500 Yeah, I mean, 19 more dives than I have, that's amazing. 1064 00:56:19.500 --> 00:56:22.110 So, I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, 1065 00:56:22.110 --> 00:56:24.870 there are so many questions in the chat box 1066 00:56:24.870 --> 00:56:27.510 and we just don't have time to get to all of them. 1067 00:56:27.510 --> 00:56:30.720 So please, if you really still want your questions answered, 1068 00:56:30.720 --> 00:56:33.210 you can email Shannon or I. 1069 00:56:33.210 --> 00:56:34.890 Or you can rewatch the webinar, 1070 00:56:34.890 --> 00:56:37.410 which we will put on our website soon. 1071 00:56:37.410 --> 00:56:40.210 So thank you again Captain and 1072 00:56:41.460 --> 00:56:42.780 amazing job. 1073 00:56:42.780 --> 00:56:45.690 So now, just a few closing statements here. 1074 00:56:45.690 --> 00:56:48.780 If you haven't downloaded Bobbie's bio in the chat box, 1075 00:56:48.780 --> 00:56:50.670 over there on the right side of your screen, 1076 00:56:50.670 --> 00:56:52.230 you may want to do so now. 1077 00:56:52.230 --> 00:56:54.720 In this bio you'll find way more information about Bobbie 1078 00:56:54.720 --> 00:56:57.000 than we covered here and links that might be of interest 1079 00:56:57.000 --> 00:56:58.383 of you to learn more. 1080 00:57:00.030 --> 00:57:02.160 And, if we did not get to your question today 1081 00:57:02.160 --> 00:57:03.870 or if you have any more dying questions, 1082 00:57:03.870 --> 00:57:05.290 you can always send them 1083 00:57:06.990 --> 00:57:08.670 to Shannon or I 1084 00:57:08.670 --> 00:57:10.530 and the email address listed here. 1085 00:57:10.530 --> 00:57:12.270 And you can also learn more about the 1086 00:57:12.270 --> 00:57:14.280 Women Divers Hall of Fame, 1087 00:57:14.280 --> 00:57:16.563 at the URL listed here on this slide. 1088 00:57:17.640 --> 00:57:20.130 A video recording of this presentation will be available 1089 00:57:20.130 --> 00:57:22.230 on the Sanctuaries' Webinar Archive page, 1090 00:57:22.230 --> 00:57:24.453 found at the URL listed here at the top. 1091 00:57:25.530 --> 00:57:27.870 And, in addition, the webinar will be archived on 1092 00:57:27.870 --> 00:57:30.120 Monitor National Marine Sanctuary's website. 1093 00:57:30.120 --> 00:57:32.190 Click on the multimedia section in the toolbar 1094 00:57:32.190 --> 00:57:33.900 to access the webinar box. 1095 00:57:33.900 --> 00:57:37.170 You will also find future webinars in that same section, 1096 00:57:37.170 --> 00:57:39.150 as well as previous archived webinars, 1097 00:57:39.150 --> 00:57:42.243 like Dr. Broadwater's webinar, last August. 1098 00:57:43.110 --> 00:57:45.180 Don't worry, all of this information will be sent to you 1099 00:57:45.180 --> 00:57:48.080 in a follow-up email, once the recording is ready to view. 1100 00:57:49.980 --> 00:57:50.940 They will be posted on. 1101 00:57:50.940 --> 00:57:53.880 These are the upcoming webinars 1102 00:57:53.880 --> 00:57:55.530 that are slated for the Submerged NC. 1103 00:57:55.530 --> 00:57:58.530 We actually just added another one for March, 1104 00:57:58.530 --> 00:58:00.720 with Alison Ropp. 1105 00:58:00.720 --> 00:58:02.640 But join us February 13th. 1106 00:58:02.640 --> 00:58:05.100 I can't think of anything more romantic than joining me 1107 00:58:05.100 --> 00:58:08.250 here, to talk about, with Kamau Sadiki, 1108 00:58:08.250 --> 00:58:09.180 from Diving With a Purpose, 1109 00:58:09.180 --> 00:58:11.760 as he talks about connecting ancestral memory 1110 00:58:11.760 --> 00:58:14.613 through history and archeology of slave ships. 1111 00:58:15.690 --> 00:58:18.839 And these will also be posted on the website, 1112 00:58:18.839 --> 00:58:21.030 so make sure you check that out. 1113 00:58:21.030 --> 00:58:24.210 And of course, we invite you to follow us on social medias 1114 00:58:24.210 --> 00:58:27.000 to stay in touch with what's happening in the sanctuary. 1115 00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:29.940 And we will also be posting about those future webinars 1116 00:58:29.940 --> 00:58:32.463 and when the webinar is uploaded onto the website. 1117 00:58:33.630 --> 00:58:35.250 Lastly, as you exit the webinar, 1118 00:58:35.250 --> 00:58:38.250 there is a short survey for formal and informal educators. 1119 00:58:38.250 --> 00:58:39.390 If you are an educator, 1120 00:58:39.390 --> 00:58:41.580 NOAA would really appreciate it if you would take a minute 1121 00:58:41.580 --> 00:58:43.620 or two to complete this survey. 1122 00:58:43.620 --> 00:58:46.530 Your answers will help develop future webinars 1123 00:58:46.530 --> 00:58:47.970 that meet your needs. 1124 00:58:47.970 --> 00:58:49.440 Your participation is voluntary 1125 00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:51.740 and your answers will be completely anonymous. 1126 00:58:52.830 --> 00:58:54.240 Once again, we want to thank Bobbie 1127 00:58:54.240 --> 00:58:55.860 for an excellent presentation. 1128 00:58:55.860 --> 00:58:58.860 And thank you for taking the time to join us today. 1129 00:58:58.860 --> 00:59:00.507 Have a wonderful day, a wonderful week. 1130 00:59:00.507 --> 00:59:02.523 And this concludes the presentation.