The Monitor’s Dahlgren Guns, Frank Butts’ Boots and the Wailing Black Cat

On New Year’s Eve, 1862, USS Monitor was under tow off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in a winter storm. The ship was taking on water and in grave danger of sinking. Francis “Frank” Butts, of Providence, R.I., the Monitor‘s helmsman, … Continue reading

On the Anniversary of the Sinking — A Review of John Broadwater’s USS Monitor

As this is Thursday, which is to say “Throwback Thursday“, as well as the anniversary of the sinking of the USS Monitor, which sank off Cape Hatteras 153 years ago tonight, it seems a good time to repost our review … Continue reading

John Broadwater’s USS Monitor – A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage, a Review

On December 31, 1862 while under tow in a gale off Cape Hatteras, USS Monitor sank. The Monitor had been in service for only ten months and yet in that brief time had revolutionized naval warfare. The wreck of the … Continue reading

The Battle of the Ironclads – USS Monitor and CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, 150 Years Ago Today

The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia were not the first iron-clad war ships, but they were the first to face each other in battle. One hundred and fifty years ago today, the two ironclads met in Hampton Roads, VA and fought each … Continue reading

Faces of the USS Monitor – Using Forensic Reconstruction to Identify Unknown Civil War Sailors

When the revolutionary ironclad warship USS Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, NC during the Civil War, in December of 1862, 16 of her crew of 62 were lost.  One hundred and forty years later, in August of 2002, when the turret of … Continue reading

Clocks from the Monitor’s Engine Room and the Lusitania’s Captain

Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along two articles about historic maritime clocks.   The conservators at the Mariner’s Museum have restored the engine room clock from the USS Monitor which sank in 1862.   On the other side of the Atlantic, … Continue reading