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Science Technology

Monitor's Engine Raised From Atlantic 10

Posted by timothy 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.
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Monitor's Engine Raised From Atlantic More

Monitor's Engine Raised From Atlantic

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  • Re:Where? (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18, 2001 @09:41AM (#76533)
    The wreck is located here [thehistorynet.com]. 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.

  • There was U-boat activity along the east coast of the U.S. during WWII. See this link [uboat.net].


    OpenSourcerers [opensourcerers.com]
  • I'm not sure what the advantages would be, given that its a fairly well-documented boat, and there were a number like it. I tend to think that the Navy just saw all the hooplah surrounding the Hunley's raising and decided to get in on the fun with their most famous Civil War boat.

    It was a marvel of its times, however, and I do wish they'd managed to keep it afloat to be preserved after the war, especially if they could have made an exhibit with it and the Virginia (Merrimack to the Yankees) side-by-side. I'd go see it if it were raised, and I was in the area.
  • So, are the depth charges magnetic? I suppose that would make sense, so they'd be attracted to submarines and stick to them.

  • Still, the task would be monumental and the value quite minimal. Such is the public's fickleness for science...

    Well, as long as they got the engine up. It would make a neat transplant into my Chevette. Sure, I'd have to really pump the bellows, but once the boiler is good and hot, I'd be able to blow the doors off any Mustang that pulled up beside me.

    4,400 horsepower, baby!

  • Just where in the Atlantic is it located? I thought it had sunk in the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe my history is all messed up.
  • Well, normally depth charges were just activated by water pressure and dumped from a small ramp mounted to the deck of the ship...a magnetic depth charge would have blown its own ship to bits
  • I thought Ron Hubbard had his epic battle vs the ocean floor off the west coast?

    With U-boat activity and the mysterious (at the time) sinking of the "Liberty" ships in the Atalantic due to poor design, I'm not surpised that big magnetic things on the sea floor were depth charged in WWII.
  • Read the article and it will tell you. There was also a PBS (nova?) documentry about the team that raised the propeller. Just saw it the other day. I had always thought that their was only 2 iron clads, the PBS show said there were something like 60 of the monitor class built with pictures of some really big ones. Very interesting and how did I miss that in high school history class (oh yea...zzzzzzzzzzzz).
  • ...for a Monitor... it's probably not even color!

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