Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508140081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The USS Edenton will leave the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base for a location 16 miles off the North Carolina coast, east of Cape Hatteras. The Monitor has rested there since it sank in a storm late in 1862, the same year of its historic battle with the rival Merrimack.
The Edenton will serve as a platform for Navy and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration divers, who will try to shift the Monitor's skeg, the section off the rear keel where the rudder and propeller are attached.
The divers will attempt to move the rudder aside and recover the propeller in an effort to prevent them from damaging the warship's deteriorating hull.
``It's been breaking loose from the hull,'' John Broadwater, the NOAA's manager for the Monitor National Maritime Sanctuary, said of the skeg. ``We're afraid it's going to fall over and damage the rest of the hull.''
The Monitor site has been protected as a federal sanctuary for the past 20 years. But about five years ago, an anchor from a fishing vessel that wandered into the site apparently caught on the skeg.
The Monitor rests in about 230 feet of water on its turret, with the hull sticking up. Divers plan to move the loosening piece away from the hull ``where it won't cause a stability problem,'' Broadwater said.
Past dives on the Monitor have recovered the anchor and more than 100 artifacts, many of which are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News. The artifacts include pepper and mustard containers - some still sealed with cork - as well as medicine bottles and brass oar locks.
``Our priority is to recover only things threatened with damage or destruction,'' Broadwater said. ``The currents are so strong that artifacts will wash through holes in the deck. You'll find artifacts washed out in the sand that weren't there before.''
If the propeller recovery is successful, the piece will be taken to the Mariners' Museum for preservation and eventual public display. But although the dive is expected to be completed by the end of this month, Broadwater said public viewing could be several years off.
Corrosion and algae growth on the anchor required it to be treated continuously for three years before it could go on display, he said.
On March 9, 1862, the era of iron navies began when the Union-built Monitor and the Confederate ship Virginia, better known by its original frigate name, Merrimack, battled to a draw in Hampton Roads harbor.
The Merrimack, like the Monitor, did not survive the war. Too big to sail up the James River to Richmond, it was scuttled as Union forces took Norfolk.
by CNB