EXPLORER: CIVIL WAR SHIP RUSTING AWAY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992                   TAG: 9202140003
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
EXPLORER: CIVIL WAR SHIP RUSTING AWAY
The Civil War ironclad, the USS Monitor, is disintegrating rapidly in its grave off Cape Hatteras, N.C., according to a part-time underwater explorer who wants to return to the 130-year-old wreck.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a rival explorer agreed Thursday that the Monitor is deteriorating. But they said the 235-foot-deep relic is in no danger of collapsing within a decade, as diver Peter E. Hess said at a government hearing on his application.
"The corrosion and disintegration caused by time and salt water continue, but at a snail's pace," said NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman. "I don't think any marine archaeologist would think it is going to be a totally unrecoverable bucket of iron in five to 10 years."
The Monitor's fabled battle with another ironclad, the Confederate vessel Merrimack, at Hampton Roads in the spring of 1862 marked the end of the era of wooden fighting ships. Both of the ironclads survived, but the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras in December of that year and the Merrimack was destroyed by its own crew during the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk shortly after the sea battle.
Divers need permission of NOAA to visit the Monitor because its grave is a federal marine sanctuary.
Hess wants to photograph the remains of the Monitor and study the effects of corrosion. His application was rejected last year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB