THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603050081
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
What started out as a dare 13 years ago has turned into a time-consuming passion for Bill Horton and his two sailing buddies, Mike Harrison and Ron Hess.
As the three Norfolk men have discovered, the demands of breathing life into the legendary Civil War naval battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (don't call it the Merrimack, thank you) is no easy job.
Before each mock battle, thousands of cannon charges have to be rolled in tin foil. The boats' safety gear has to be checked out, the motors tuned up. Dozens of holes, blown into the sides of the boats from previous battles, have to be patched and painted.
Then, of course, there are the reporters who want to interview them, uniforms that need to be pressed and pleated, and the navy cutlass that could stand some spit and shine.
Nevermind the money it costs to remove the boats from their storage cradles, haul them to the battle sites and launch them into the water.
``We do about two or three mock battles a year, and they're major undertakings,'' said Horton, a Wards Corner pet shop owner. ``It takes months to get ready. We don't make any money on this; we just try to make our expenses. But we have a lot of fun.''
The three friends had no idea the re-enactments would create such a stir when they first hatched a scheme to build scale models of the boats in 1983. Horton and his boating pals were anchored in the Elizabeth River one Harborfest, eating shrimp, drinking beer and watching the fireworks when they noticed a 14-foot runabout with ``this absurd turret'' fashioned on its deck. A sign draped across the front christened the boat the CSS Virginia.
``It didn't even have a real gun,'' said Horton, still amazed at the historical inaccuracies.
Avid Civil War buffs, the men began to take the tiny boat to task. Before long, Harrison and Hess dared Horton, a boat builder since childhood, to recreate the Confederacy's most famous ironclad ship.
He accepted the challenge. After countless hours of research, Horton spent months more in his Willoughby Spit back yard, building the superstructure of a wooden boat, clad in iron. When the boat was done, it was about one-fifth the size of the original Virginia.
``I made it large enough to get people in there, but not so large that it would be cost prohibitive,'' Horton explained.
Hess, owner of a Wards Corner-area gun shop, fashioned the eight black-powder cannons - worth more than $1,000 - for the boat.
The next year at Harborfest, they sailed her. The public was fascinated.
``But we soon realized, we needed something to shoot at,'' Horton recalled.
So Horton returned to his backyard workshop, this time to make a replica of the Monitor.
By the next Harborfest, both the Monitor and the Virginia were complete. As part of that year's waterfront activities, the men staged their first mock battle, complete with ``real'' cannon volleys, crews of marine historical re-enactors and a slew of period accouterments.
``It was a big hit from the beginning,'' Horton recalled. ``We had no idea we'd get such a reaction.''
After that, the Monitor and the Virginia began to do battle on a regular basis - at waterfront festivals and historical re-enactments from Virginia to the Ohio River.
This weekend, they'll be in the spotlight once again when the Norfolk Historical Society sponsors a weekend of re-enactment activities at historic Fort Norfolk in commemoration of the 1862 engagement.
But it won't be those original wooden boats clad in iron Horton made a decade ago.
``We blew so many holes in those first boats that we had to build a second set,'' he said.
With contributions of money and materials from the community and interested friends, the second versions of the Monitor and the Virginia models were made of fiberglass and steel.
But the effect - and the ear-deafening cannon volleys - will be the same.
``All we really care about is that it all looks right ... not that the materials are all historically accurate,'' Horton explained. ``This is a visual thing. It's just like a movie set. It's all really chewing gum and cardboard.
``But all our uniforms are authentic and the accouterments are real, from the shin gear and my watch to the cigar case that I use. It's almost like being there for the real thing.'' by CNB