THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507190189
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
JUST PAST NOON on June 29, 9-year old Eleanor Porter of Chesapeake calmly took her place on the stern of the Harbortown Lady II.
Standing in the middle of a line of 10 sailors in their starched, white uniforms, she stood at attention as the Atlantic Fleet chaplain, Capt. Barry Black, repeated the Navy Hymn over the vessel's intercom. As if answering a silent command, all 11 bent forward ever so slightly and placed a flower-covered wreath in the shape of a ship's helm on the waters of Hampton Roads.
Even though a crowd of television cameras and news photographers nudged closer, filming and clicking away, a silence swept over the scene as all of the vessel's other guests stood in a quiet vigil over the final resting place of the warship Cumberland and more than 200 of her crew.
It was a special day for young Porter, who accompanied her parents to the ribbon cutting of the state's newest tourist information site, the Monitor-Merrimac Center. The day was even more meaningful as she was asked to participate in the wreath-laying ceremony where a ship her great-grandfather designed and built rammed and sunk the Cumberland on March 8, 1862.
But as Chaplain Black said, ``This was a special day and time in our nation
The U.S. Post Office opened a special station in the new tourist center to sell a first day issue cache of 20 stamps depicting the battle between the ironclads Monitor and Virginia and other Civil War events.
Renowned marine artist William McGrath unveiled his newest portraits of that epic engagement that saw the end of wooden warships and the birth of ironclad warfare.
Living historians dressed in Civil War period costumes set up their James River Squadron encampment adjacent to Newport News' Small Boat Harbor while others sang sea chanteys from the 19th century.
Before the day was over, replicas of the Monitor and Virginia fought each other as tourist-filled Harbor Cruise Boats carried visitors to the battle site of Hampton Roads.
After the last of nearly 2,000 visitors headed home, Richard Seay, owner of Harbor Cruises, Newport News Point, took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead and declared the first official day of the Monitor-Merrimac Center over.
Was it a success? ``Beyond my wildest dreams,'' he admitted.
When asked what first drove him to plunge more than $275,000 of his own money and six months of 14-hour work days into building the complex, he simply answered, ``I felt that people getting off Exit 7 of the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel and asking where the first battle between ironclads was deserved an answer.''
From now on, tourists crossing the interstate system that connects Newport News and Suffolk will have an answer and a whole lot more.
``When we first started the tour boat business several years ago, there was no Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, and we only mentioned the battle as a small part of our cruise. But after the bridge tunnel opened, demand has grown. Since we were adjacent to the battle area, it was a natural to recharter our cruise boats, the 60-foot Harbortown Lady and Harbortown Lady II, around the Monitor and Merrimack battle, which in turn has caused us to restructure the entire operation.
``Starting this season, we rewrote our narrated boat tour to include Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth; Craney Island, where the Virginia was finally destroyed; Sewells Point in Norfolk, which was the site of a major Confederate artillery battery; and our side of Hampton Roads, which included the Union batteries at Fort Monroe and those near here along the James River,'' Seay said.
The story of just how the Monitor-Merrimac Center came to be goes back to the Portsmouth waterfront in the spring of 1861 when Confederate naval constructor John L. Porter suggested to Rebel officials in Richmond that the burned hulk of the former steam frigate Merrimack be raised and converted into an ironclad. Porter hoped to send the ironclad against the wooden hulls of the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads, which were planning on recapturing Norfolk and Portsmouth, including the shipyard.
During the remainder of 1861 through February 1862, Porter directed the transformation of the Merrimack into what Confederates rechristened, on Feb. 17, 1862, the ironclad CSS Virginia.
On March 8, 1862, Virginia steamed from Gosport on her maiden voyage and sunk the Cumberland and Congress, ending the era of wooden warships. Having arrived too late that evening to prevent the rebels from attacking, the Federal ironclad Monitor met Virginia March 9 in the world's first battle between ironclads. Even though the battle ended in a draw, journalists from around the world announced the birth of a new era of naval warfare.
Recently, when a new bridge tunnel connecting Suffolk and Newport News was proposed (I-664), the state and various localities agreed to call it the Monitor-Merrimac bridge tunnel. Fortunately for Dick Seay's Harbor Cruise, the Newport News end of the highway system was dropped literally in his own backyard, at Exit 7, within a few yards of where Virginia sunk Cumberland and Congress.
That's when Seay and his marketing and corporate sales director, Tom Cooper, decided to spend the winter months of their off-season redesigning a former restaurant on the property into a public information center and museum that includes the rich heritage of boat building leading up to Monitor and Merrimack.
Free and open to the public, the center is divided into three major galleries, which feature exhibits of Indian dugouts, the Battle of Hampton Roads and the contemporary heritage of modern ship construction.
One of the most popular exhibits in the center is a giant diorama of Hampton Roads that depicts military operations around the entire area March 8-9, 1862, including a scale model rendition of the Battle of Hampton Roads. It simultaneously answers some common geography questions, such as where's Craney Island, Newport News Point, Sewells Point or the Middle Ground?
Seay sees the Monitor-Merrimac Center having a positive effect on other area museums and attractions.
``As a state tourist center, we can now advertise the attributes of the Mariners' Museum, NAUTICUS and the Portsmouth Shipyard Museum and offer their visitors a chance to see and hear about the battle between the ironclads right on the site where it actually took place. Our bottom line is that we want them going home with something to remember.''
During the next several months, Seay is planning on adding two replicas of the Monitor and Merrimack and a radio-controlled model boat tank for visitors to operate themselves. If future events at the Monitor-Merrimac Center are anything close to opening day, a visit will be a day to remember.
For more information about the new center, call 804-245-1533. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Everett Hogg, above left, of the Newport News Historical Society,
and Richard Seay, right, executive director of the Monitor-Merrimac
Center, unveil the commemorative stamp at the center's opening
ceremony. At right, sailors and the media watch the memorial wreath,
at the right side of the stern, as it floats over the resting place
of the Cumberland and 200 members of her crew.
by CNB