Battle of Hampton Roads anniversary: They flocked to a Va. museum to look at USS Monitor artifacts and get a good view of its turret, which is normally submerged

Patrons take photos of turret interior (Kyra Duffley/The Mariners' Museum and Park); view of exterior (MMP)

Hundreds of those attending a Battle of Hampton Roads anniversary event at a Virginia museum got a rare glimpse Saturday at the USS Monitor’s battle-marked turret out in the open, rather than awash in conservation solution.

Conservators at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News in January accessed the turret for the first time in more than five years, following draining of the 90,000-gallon tank that surrounds the remarkable ironclad artifact.

Since then, a treatment solution has been drained and filled weekly as conservators perform maintenance in its interior. Dents from Monitor's 1862 duel with the CSS Virginia are visible today.

Will Hoffman, director of conservation, told the Picket the 20-year conservation process is working.

"What we have seen is the further loosening of corrosion since the last time we were in the tank. This corroborates what our electrochemical monitoring system has shown," he said.

Sabrina Jones, senior director of advancement at the museum, told the Picket in a Monday email an estimated 70 percent of Saturday's 1,000 visitors attended an open house at the “wet lab” that houses the upside-down turret and other Monitor items still undergoing conservation.

Following this weekend, a new treatment solution will be incorporated into the turret tank by the end of the week, Jones said.

"Conservators will not enter the tank again until maintenance is required (likely years) or until we are ready to 'flip' the turret. We do not have a timeline on the flipping as it needs several partners to 'engineer' it and a campaign to fund the materials and work," said Jones.

The tank was drained to allow for the assessment of the desalination process (removing harmful ocean salts), routine maintenance and the removal of nut guards from underneath the turret. The nut guards are the remains of thin armor plating used in part of the turret.

March 8-9 was the anniversary of the clash between the ironclad and Virginia.

Conservators perform maintenance recently inside the artifact (Courtesy Mariners' Museum and Park)

“That turret is the first turret that fought in combat in world history,” Hoffman told TV station WAVY ahead of the weekend. “Every turret on a ship, you know, from gun battleships all the way through now with autonomous Lidar you see on modern ships, all that comes from the turret that’s sitting in that tank behind me.”

The turret was raised off Cape Hatteras, N.C., by U.S. Navy and other divers in 2002 and brought to Newport News. The Mariners’ Museum and Park displays hundreds of Monitor items recovered since its discovery in 1973.

Many artifacts, including two Dahlgren guns, gun carriages and personal effects from sailors were recovered from inside the turret. The finds there included the remains of two men who were unable to escape when USS Monitor sank during a storm on Dec. 31, 1862, as it was being towed south in the Atlantic Ocean.

A child-sized display pool set up Saturday (Kyra Duffley/The Mariners' Museum and Park)

Saturday’s events included lectures, 3D-printed artifacts, a STEM design program and tours of the museum galleries. It was cosponsored by NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. This year's focus was about maritime careers, such as engineering and underwater archaeology.

"This weekend was an absolute home run as the galleries were buzzing all day with new and returning folks," said Jones.

USS Monitor Center director emeritus John Quarstein, who was among the speakers, told the Picket he has been inside the turret numerous times over the years.

Visitors gaze Saturday at the turret and other artifacts in wet lab (Kyra Duffley, Mariners' Museum and Park)

“My amazement is based on several experiences.... when I thought about the shot damage, when I think about the men serving in the turret and what they experienced, when I realize how the turret revolutionized naval warfare, etc. I also think about the many design flaws found when looking at the turret and then think about all of the graft, greed and grift involved in ironclad construction during the War of the Rebellion,” he wrote in an email.

Quarstein has a new book, “From Ironclads to Admiral: John Lorimer Worden and Naval Leadership,” coming out next month. Worden skippered the USS Monitor during the battle and later served on the USS Montauk.   

Retired atmospheric physicist and author Charles McLandress presented a lecture about William F. Keeler, his great-great grandfather. Keeler’s numerous letters home are the basis of a book by McLandress, "Ink, Dirt and Powder Smoke: The Civil War Letters of William F. Keeler, Paymaster on the USS Monitor."

“The main points of my talk were to highlight the importance and beauty of Keeler's Civil War letters and to tell the life story of this complex and fascinating individual (Forty-Niner, dry goods merchant, watch maker, iron founder, inventory, orange grower, newspaper correspondent and more),” McLandress told the Picket. “I interweaved the story of the Monitor with Keeler's impressions of events and people, with focus on the Monitor.”

Georgia's Fort McAllister next month may formally dedicate wall panels about USS Montauk and other Union monitors

Interpretive panels explaining the role of the USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean are expected to formally debut next month at a Georgia park.

Fort McAllister State Historic Park manager Jason Carter in May said the site near Savannah might reopen an exhibit detailing the vessels and the Rebel raider CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake) on July 4. The CSS Nashville was destroyed by USS Montauk near the fort in February 1863. Park officials on July 2 said the panels were not yet up, and a date would be announced.

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) produced the panels and a 3D model of the USS Montauk. The model is expected to be put on display later this year. There’s also hope for an accompanying film, though that would be down the road.

The five new wall panels in the museum will cover these topics: Civil War monitors, the Passaic class of monitors, armament, ironclads versus an earthen fort, and what happened to the USS Montauk and the others at Fort McAllister after the fighting. The panels will feature photographs, drawings and illustrations.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and fellow monitors Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863. It was considered a trial run of sorts for the armored vessels, which effectively brought to an end the day of the wooden fighting ship. (Fort McAllister thwarted the attacks and held on until December 1864.)

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden, the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the USS Montauk 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1 found the ironclad, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells.

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it pounds CSS Nashville, upper right.

Its big day came on February 28, 1863. The sidewheeler CSS Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River

The 215-foot ship commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck after it ran aground near the fort.

“During the February 28, 1863 attack, Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider CSS Nashville. Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog post. “However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad and he, the hero of USS Monitor, received even greater laurels for his newest decisive actions.”

CSS Nashville artifacts in the museum (Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources)

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, Fort McAllister’s grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts and facsimiles.

A pavilion houses several pieces of the engine and the interior collection includes part of a cannon, ship fixtures, fittings, cargo tag, personal items and much more, including a model of the CSS Nashville.

Carter said the current exhibit on the CSS Nashville will remain the same. “We are going to create a ‘loading dock’ scene in the corner once we have the panels up. There will be boxes of rifles, munitions, etc, stacked up.”