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Monitor's Engine Raised From Atlantic

Posted by timothy on from the early-technology-surfaces dept.

Paintthemoon writes: "Naval salvage experts raised the 30-ton steam engine from the Civil War ship Monitor from the bottom of the Atlantic on Monday. The ship had sunk in 1862 while being towed about 16 miles off of Cape Hatteras." The hull of the Monitor, it turns out, is unrecoverable because it's had depth charges and an anchor dropped on it (unrelated incidents), but there are plenty of other pieces still to be brought up and studied.

1 of 10 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    The wreck is located here. Yep, there were several Monitor class ships built including larger versions with two turrets. The ship was a formidable shore-defense platform, but had no open sea sailing capability. The coolest stat of the Monitor was that with the exception of the gunners/captain, all crewmen were located below the waterline. You could call it a semi-submersible.

    I was reading a book on the battle and my favorite line (paraphrased) was that the armies of Europe sat back and watched as their entire military become obsolete in the span of an afternoon.