It’s late Monday evening. The phone rings. It’s Dave Alberg, Superintendent of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. “We need some additional crew to take our research vessel, the SRVx, down to Beaufort, NC. Want to join us?” I didn’t even need time to think. “Sure thing, Dave. What time do we leave?” “0-dark-30. The boat [...]
Hi Everyone, It’s been a very busy summer here in the lab! We are a little behind on our posts, but we promise to catch up soon. Just wanted to let you all know that we now have a Twitter account for the conservation project! Please follow us @USSMonitorLab as we plan to try and upload [...]
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the USS Monitor’s gun turret conservation in action! June 25 – July 27, 2012 Come observe Mariners’ Museum conservators and NOAA archaeologists as they perform a variety of activities as part of a 20-year plan to stabilize this 120-ton Civil War icon. Museum visitors will have an [...]
This past week the 30,000 gallon tank containing Monitor’s steam engine was drained for a key milestone in the conservation of this unique artifact. The purpose for the tank drain was the installation of a new support system under the engine that will enable the eventual disassembly of the object. Up to this week, the engine which [...]
This past week, the Monitor conservation staff began screening concretion and corrosion products removed from the interior of the turret over the last 10 weeks (see previous posts and video links on the main page). As with any archaeological excavation, we want to make sure that even small objects and fragments are recovered for future [...]
This is our 100th post, and it’s an important one! The Virginia Collections Initiative in conjunction with the Virginia Association of Museums is once again generating its list of “Virginia’s Top Ten Endangered Artifacts”. http://www.vatop10artifacts.org/ USS Monitor‘s revolving gun turret is on the list of nominees for 2011, and we hope to be selected for [...]
As concretion removal on the turret has continued, a host of new finds have been discovered!!! The focus of concretion removal has shifted around a bit during the last several weeks (look at previous blog posts). We began work with the documentation and removal of the roof stanchions, which then moved to the excavation of [...]
After the removal of remaining roof stanchions on the turret (see previous post below), conservation staff shifted their work efforts to its interior. Over the last several weeks we have been using an assortment of pneumatic and other hand tools to remove remaining concretion and loose corrosion products embedded in between the roof rails and [...]
The Mariners’ Museum and Monitor Conservation Project were fortunate to attract the attention of John Tierney and the New York Times. John visited the museum on two recent occasions and published an article about the Monitor in the NY Times on August 8. The article coincides with the 150th anniversary of the publication (in the NY [...]
In preparation for their removal from the turret, photographic documentation was undertaken to record the location and orientation of remaining roof stanchions (in situ in their mounting brackets), which once supported a canvas canopy above the turret. In the photograph below taken in July of 1862, you can see the starboard side of the turret in [...]
