The Loss of MONITOR
31 DECEMBER 1862
THE LOSS OF MONITOR
Our Navy first entertained the new technology of armor plating in 1842 when Congress authorized inventor Robert L. Stevens to construct an ironclad steamship for coastal defense. However, delays in construction, funding, and the death of Mr. Stevens squelched the project. It was left to the Europeans to develop the first workable ironclads. During the Crimean War, in 1855, the French deployed three iron-plated floating batteries, LAVE, TONNANT, and DEVASTATION. Standing only 800 yards off Russian Fort Kilburn, these batteries impressively withstood over 200 hits while reducing the fort to rubble. The French launched GLOIRE in 1860, a wooden steamer plated over with iron. Shortly the English followed with WARRIOR, an armored, iron-hulled steamer.
In response to rumors of Confederate plans in 1861, the Union Navy seriously revisited the ironclad concept. Indeed, John Ericsson’s MONITOR’s successful operational debut against CSS VIRGINIA in Hampton Roads in March 1862 engendered a Navy-wide obsession with these craft. Inflated perceptions of MONITOR’s invincibility led to calls for her use in recapturing Charleston, the symbolic birthplace of the Rebellion. Accordingly, in December 1862, MONITOR was ordered from Hampton Roads to Beaufort, SC, the embarkation point for the planned assault on Charleston. Had the skipper of the side-wheeler USS RHODE ISLAND had the benefit of weather forecasts, he might not have taken MONITOR under tow that December day. Top heavy, with minimal freeboard, MONITOR was clearly built only for calmer inshore waters.
By the evening of December 29th, mounting seas off Cape Hatteras began overwashing MONITOR’s deck. Oakum packing around the turret loosened. Conditions worsened through the next day. By the evening of the 30th, MONITOR was crashing through heavy seas that admitted water down her blower pipes. And with each broach, more seams loosened. Her bilge pumps strained. Unable to find a good riding position, skipper J. L. Bankhead in MONITOR began to fear capsizing. At 2230 he ordered her abandoned.
Careful to stay clear of MONITOR’s pitching, iron-plated hull, RHODE ISLAND lowered two boats. But halfway through the rescue MONITOR lost all power and fell into the trough. Bankhead loosed the anchor, which brought the craft to a more stable position into the seas. In spite of this some of the remaining sailors, fearful of being washed off the deck, refused all pleadings to leave. After midnight Bankhead, himself, departed only minutes before MONITOR disappeared, taking sixteen with her.
She remained lost until 1973 when scientists on the research ship Eastward located MONITOR’s 111 year grave off Cape Hatteras.
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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
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Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 415.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 91.
Fowler, William M., Jr. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 92-93.
Keeler, William F. and Robert W. Daly. Aboard the USS MONITOR: 1862. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1964, pp. 252-60.
Lyons, Justin. “Raising the Turret.” Naval History, Vol 16 (6), December 2002, pp. 20-26.
Stick, David. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1952, pp. 52-57.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Years on the sea floor (and pilfering by sport divers) deteriorated the wreck of MONITOR substantially over the decades since its discovery, inspiring a joint effort by NOAA, the Newport News Mariner’s Museum and the US Navy’s Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 to salvage the historic wreck. In 5 August 2002 the MONITOR Expedition 2002 succeeded in raising significant portions of the wreck, notably MONITOR’s revolving turret. It is currently preserved at the Mariner’s Museum above.
