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| Officers of the USS Monitor on deck, July 1862. |
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Courtesy of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
Monitor Collection
MNMS.01.3.120
This thermometer was recovered by US Navy divers during excavations in and around the engine room in 2001. NOAA archaeologists were pleasantly surprised when several thermometers found in the wreck began to register the temperature on the deck of the recovery barge. They still worked after 139 years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. |
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Manufactured in Brooklyn, New York by Italian-born instrument maker Giuseppe Tagliabue, thermometers such as this one would have been used on board the USS Monitor in the summer of 1862 to register temperatures in various portions of the vessel.
On June 13 of 1862, Engineer Yeoman George Geer wrote home to his wife Martha in New York City that We took the tempriture of several parts of the ship, or rather I did, as I have charge of the Thurmomitor, and found in my Store Room, which is farthest astern, it stood at 110; in the Engine Room 127; in the Galley, where they Cook and after the Fire was out 155; on the Berth Deck where we sleep, 85.
Geer and his shipmates were miserable, and slept on the deck outside whenever possible. However, life on the James |
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Thermometer recovered from the engine room of the wreck of the USS Monitor
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River in enemy territory was never a comfortable spot and the threat of Confederate sharpshooters was always present, making such sleeping arrangements a risky venture at times.
Commanding officer Lieutenant Jeffers realized the dangers that the Monitor’s poor ventilation could mean to the war effort in general and reported the following to Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles – transcribing first from the Monitor’s log book, and then providing his own observations on the situation:
“Friday, June 13, 1862, at anchor.—In the galley, from 8 to 12 m[eridien], 156º 12 to 4 p. m., 164º engine room, 12 to 4, 128º. Door in bulkhead open, blowers running slow, engine room hatch open.
Saturday, June 14, 1862, underway—Galley, 10 to 12 m[eridien]., 146º to 150º water-closet, 10 to 12 m[eridien], 140º; engine room, thermometer hanging over reversing gear blowers running, 120º one blower, 138º. Blowers running fast, engine making 60 revolutions, engine room hatch on.
Saturday. 12 m[eridien]—Thermometer on deck, in shade, 90º; in sun, 125º; berth deck, 120º. Gentle breeze, hatches to berth deck open.
When in action, the berth-deck hatches being closed, the temperature of that deck, and the turret can not be less than 130º to 140º. Human endurance has a limit, and it is impossible that men should not become exhausted if confined for many hours in such an atmosphere. Thus it would very readily happen that, if attacked by one or two faster vessels of much inferior force, armed with long-range guns, the necessity of keeping the crew below would finally compel the commander to destroy this vessel to prevent her falling into the enemy’s hands from sheer inability to work the guns. So at sea in a lesser degree.” |
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