Bringing Back Monitor Preservation of the ironclad is complicated by damage done by strong currents stemming from the meeting of the cold Labrador current and the warm Gulf Stream. The First Battle of Ironclads On March 9, 1862, the Confederate ironclad Virginia, formerly the Union frigate Merrimack, attacked the Union blockade in Hampton Roads, Va. The skirmish between the ships marked the first battle between ironclad warships. While the combat ended in a draw, the battle revolutionized naval warfare. Divers guided Monitor's propeller and shaft to surface last week. (AP Photo)   The Ships' Fate Virginia was scuttled by its crew to prevent capture. Monitor foundered during a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C., on Dec. 29, 1862. Sixteen crew members were lost. In 1973, the ship was found, bottom up, in 230 feet of water. SOURCES: "Encyclopedia of the Civil War," NOAA, "The Civil War: A History," by Harry Hansen

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 11, 1998; Page D01

OFF CAPE HATTERAS, N.C.—Two hundred and thirty feet below the surface of the sea, the Monitor was putting up one more struggle.

For 21 hours, Navy divers assisting in a federal research expedition worked to free the propeller of the historic Civil War ironclad, making eight dives in the window of time opened by the slackening of strong currents that usually swirl over the ship.

"This Monitor shaft did not want to give up," said Cmdr. Christopher C. Murray, the Washington native in charge of the Navy divers who took turns hacking at the nine-inch-thick iron drive shaft with a guillotine saw.

Finally, as Murray worked the saw, an adjustment to the sling holding the shaft broke it loose. "Hey, topside, she's free – bring 'er up," Murray told the crew aboard the Kellie Chouest salvage ship. A school of curious amberjack followed the divers and the propeller as they were slowly brought to the surface.

When the propeller shaft broke the surface about 11 p.m. last Friday and was swung onto the deck of the Kellie Chouest, expedition members were too exhausted to celebrate. "We went to sleep," Murray said. But the team had recovered one of the most significant artifacts raised from the rapidly disintegrating Monitor since it was found 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras in 1973.

"Twenty-five years ago – I can't believe it's taken this long to do something," said Bob Sheridan, one of the scientists who discovered the wreck. Sheridan, making his first visit to the site in two decades, lovingly examined the smelly, barnacle-encrusted propeller aboard the salvage ship Monday.

Although the site has been protected as a National Marine Sanctuary in that quarter-century, the Monitor's condition has deteriorated dramatically. Lying upside down in silty sand in 230 feet of water, in a spot where the cool Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream meet, the 173-foot wreck is buffetted by strong ocean currents. Attempts by Sheridan and others to get funding to raise the Monitor in the 1970s and early 1980s ended in failure.

The Monitor arrived in Hampton Roads, Va., in March 1862, a day after the newly unveiled Confederate ironclad, the larger Virginia (known as the Merrimac before being placed in service for the South), had wreaked havoc on the Union fleet. The ensuing battle between the world's first two ironclads, one of the most famous in history, was a standoff, but it changed the face of naval warfare by foreshadowing the end of wooden fighting ships.

Though ungainly – it was described as steering "like a drunken man on a sidewalk" – the Monitor incorporated revolutionary designs, including an armored revolving gun turret and underwater screw propeller.

In December 1862, while being towed from Hampton Roads to South Carolina, the Monitor sank in a gale in these waters, known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, taking 16 officers and crewmen to their deaths.

A report prepared by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration delivered to Congress last week describes the Monitor as being in a state of crisis and, with a marked increase in the rate of deterioration over the last five years, on the verge of being lost forever.

"It's still recognizable, but for those of us who've been out here over the years, it's not the same Monitor," said John Broadwater, director of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and chief scientist for the expedition, as he prepared for a dive Monday. "Without the work going on now, it would quickly disintegrate."

Federal officials launched the current NOAA-Navy expedition as the first step of a long-term, $22 million preservation plan that calls for shoring up the Monitor's hull using sand bags, grout bags and jacks, and recovering some particularly significant items, including the gun turret, engine and propeller.

Now the four-bladed propeller – nine feet in diameter on an 11-foot shaft – lies on the deck in a cradle constructed by the Navy crew, wrapped in wool blankets and plastic tarps and kept wet by a garden hose dripping water on it. A black Jolly Roger flag flies next to it. "You feel like pirates when you bring something off the bottom," Murray said.

Cmdr. Christopher Murray adjusts packing for a deck plate brought up from the wreck. (AP Photo)

The current remained slack for days. "This has almost been a miracle for me," Broadwater said. "I've been coming out here since 1973; I've never seen such a stretch of favorable conditions."

Teams of Navy divers wearing black hot suits and yellow helmets were lowered on a diving stage to the Monitor, directly beneath this ship. On the deck above, tenders played out divers' air hoses.

Divers from NOAA and the Cambrian Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to studying historic wrecks, accompanied the Navy teams on some dives to provide archaeological expertise. Visibility varied from a few to several hundred feet in waters visited by barracuda, dolphins and an occasional shark.

It's a dream assignment for the Navy divers – many of whom had worked in the past on the far grimmer task of removing bodies from the wreck of TWA Flight 800, which crashed off Long Island two years ago next month, and the Haitian ferry disaster last fall.

"You feel like you're diving into history," said Lt. Chris Johnson, a Navy diver.

Divers also have recovered two deck plates that show further evidence of the Monitor's deteriorated state. Wrought iron that was a half-inch thick when the Monitor was built is now paper thin.

Yesterday, the Kellie Chouest set sail for Newport News, where the propeller will be brought to the Mariners Museum, where a tank has already been constructed for the trophy. Three to five years of restoration will be necessary before the propeller goes on permanent display.

NOAA and Cambrian divers will work for another two weeks from a second vessel in an attempt to shore up the Monitor's hull.

Raising the turret will wait for a future expedition and more funding. Though the propeller was tricky, raising the turret, which weighs 120 tons and lies underneath armor plating, will be far more difficult.

Sheridan, part of the first group of visitors brought by boat to the expedition site on Monday, was all smiles as he poked at the propeller. "I'm just happy to be here. That's a piece of history, right here, being here when it was recovered. Another moment in the long history of the Monitor. We need to get as much up as we can."