THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190375
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Strong sub-surface currents sank plans to retrieve the four-blade propeller from the ironclad Monitor on Wednesday.
A team of Navy divers and three scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assembled on the Outer Banks Wednesday morning. They had planned to spend the afternoon hoisting artifacts from the Civil War ironclad ship, which rests upside down in 230 feet of water about 17 miles off Cape Hatteras. But the ocean's deep currents were too swift to set an anchor line, said John Broadwater, manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
The crew plans to try diving again at 7 a.m. today - if weather permits.
``We're so close. It's killing us not to be able to get down there today,'' Broadwater said Wednesday afternoon from the deck of a 283-foot ship, the Edenton, that's anchored above the shipwreck site. ``Just two or three dives would do the job. But the weather just won't cooperate.''
Wednesday's aborted expedition marked the fourth time Broadwater and his divers have tried to dive on the Monitor site and been blown out of the water.
The first time, Hurricane Felix disrupted their plans and Outer Banks officials evacuated the islands. The second time, tropical storm Jerry washed out their hopes. The third time, the water was perfect. But a helicopter crash off Virginia called the Navy's salvage vessel away - so the research work had to wait.
Although Broadwater said he and his crew were ``extremely frustrated'' after so many failed attempts, he said the weather is indicative of why the Monitor sank in the first place - during a midnight storm on Dec. 31, 1862. ``We've all been talking about the fact that the Monitor sank because of weather much worse than this,'' Broadwater said as the divers watched movies playing on a ship-board video cassette recorder.
``This Graveyard of the Atlantic is just such a dangerous area,'' said Broadwater. ``Cape Hatteras has lots of little tricks for us.''
Launched on Jan. 30, 1862, the Monitor was built in 100 days, measured 172 feet long and weighed 776 tons. It was owned by Union forces. In March, 1962, the Monitor engaged in the world's first battle between ironclad ships when it skirmished with the Confederate ship Virginia - formerly the USS Merrimack - off the coast of Hampton Roads. by CNB