The Wrecksite | Preserving

The Wrecksite

The turret on the wreck of the USS Monitor before its recovery in 2002.

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

Established: January 30, 1975
-
Managed by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
-
Fact: The first U.S. national marine sanctuary
-

On January 30, 1975, the 113th anniversary of the vessel's launch, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was created. It was the first U.S. national marine sanctuary.

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

The official announcement, on March 8, 1974, of the discovery of the Monitor off Cape Hatteras, NC, created a huge buzz in the maritime world. There were excited talks of raising the wreck and preserving it as the historically important piece that it is. Government officials, however, had to wrestle with the more basic problem of how to protect it. It appeared as though no legal precedent had been set for such a case: it was too far offshore for North Carolina's laws to provide shelter and the US Navy had abandoned the title to the ship more than 20 years prior.

Agencies involved in locating the Monitor, joined by the Smithsonian Institution, organized efforts to identify a means of preserving the wreck. Finally, it was decided that Title III of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA) offered the most feasible means of protecting the Monitor. MPRSA authorizes the Department of Commerce and its agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to manage the site.

On January 30, 1975, the 113th anniversary of the vessel's launch, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was created. The sanctuary, which was the first U.S. national marine sanctuary, consists of a vertical column of water one mile in diameter located on the eastern continental shelf 16.1 miles off Cape Hatteras. In 1987, the USS Monitor was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Management of the sanctuary is focused on preventing further deterioration of the wreck, recovery of important ship components and artifacts, and protecting the wreck from damage by human activities such as vessel anchoring and fishing.

The Monitor Today

Today the Monitor lies upside down on a relatively flat sandy bottom at a depth of 240 feet. The bow of the wreck is oriented at 290 degrees, almost directly east-west. The port side of the armor belt is just over a foot above the bottom at the bow, but rises to almost nine feet at the stern. Most of the starboard armor belt is buried in the bottom sediment, providing some support to the hull.

Divers have noticed significant changes at the site during recent expeditions by NOAA and NOAA-permitted organizations. The majority of the changes have occurred from the midships bulkhead aft. In 1991, an anchoring incident by a private fishing vessel caused drastic and accelerated changes to the wreck. The vessel's anchor snagged the rudder/propeller shaft support skeg and pulled it to starboard. As a result, the plating at the stern ripped open, exposing the aft areas of the engine room. The skeg was dropped considerably toward the bottom. In an effort to prevent additional damage, the propeller and 11 feet of shaft were recovered in 1998.

The Gulf Stream is the prevailing current in the Sanctuary, generally crossing the wreck in a northeasterly direction. However, in the vicinity of the Sanctuary—an area often called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic—the warm waters of the Gulf Stream interact dynamically with cold water intrusions associated with the southerly flowing Labrador Current, creating unpredictable currents and eddies. As a result, environmental factors such as weather, surface sea condition, current, water temperature, and bottom visibility change rapidly and without warning.

A 1998 rendition of the wreck of the Monitor.

The Hull
The hull has deteriorated considerably. Virtually none of the lower hull forward of the midships bulkhead remains standing. The only relatively intact portion of the lower hull is the area over the galley and engineering spaces behind the midships bulkhead. All of the associated framing and side plating on the port side lower hull is missing, exposing the engine room and port coal bunker. The deck support stanchions are mostly intact and probably contribute greatly to the remaining support on the port side. The majority of the side plating on the starboard side of the lower hull is also missing, but most of the side frames and deck support stanchions remain. The loss of plating on the starboard side allows the prevailing current to pass through the wreck.

The Bulkhead
The midships bulkhead has partially collapsed. The turret support truss has separated from the bulkhead and is canted to starboard. The weights associated with the boilers and machinery are beginning to pull down on the remaining lower hull, as indicated by several bent deck support stanchions along the port side.

The Deck
The inverted deck is also starting to show evidence of deterioration. Light can be seen under the wreck, penetrating several openings through the deck. Most of the openings are believed to result from missing hatch covers. The wood deck under the original location of the turret has deteriorated, leaving a hole approximately 21 feet in diameter through the deck. Elsewhere, plating has been observed to have separated from the deck; at least one plate hangs from the deck with one end resting on the sand below.

In 2001, divers discovered that the deck had begun to open and collapse where it comes into contact with the turret. The hull stabilization completed in 2000 is expected to prevent a catastrophic collapse in the stern. The removal of the engine in 2001 was expected to relieve much of the stress that was contributing to the collapse of the hull around the turret.

The Armor Belt
The armor belt, constructed of wood covered by layers of iron armor, is also showing increasing signs of disintegration. A wood sample was cored from the armor belt just aft of the turret in 1998. The recovered sample was surprisingly sound and showed no evidence of shipworm (teredo) damage. However, the stern end of the portside armor belt has deteriorated approximately six feet since the wreck was discovered in 1974, and approximately 24 feet of the stern has disintegrated since the vessel sank in 1862. Hull plating can be seen lying in the sand at the stern of the wreck.