The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995              TAG: 9510050417
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: HATTERAS                           LENGTH: Short :   26 lines

SALVAGE OF IRONCLAD'S PROPELLOR IS ON HOLD

A Navy ship serving as the platform for divers trying to recover the propeller from the Civil War ironclad Monitor suspended operations Wednesday off the North Carolina coast because of heavy seas.

The Navy said the salvage ship USS Edenton would return to its Norfolk base on Friday after stopping to assist recovery operations at the site of a Navy helicopter crash off the Virginia coast Tuesday night.

The Monitor, which sank in a storm in 1862, lies 17 miles off Cape Hatteras. Officials are concerned that the upright propeller may collapse into the hull of the historic wreck.

If the propeller is successfully raised, it will be taken for preservation to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va. by CNB