And it so happened that on the pages of TOPWAR an extensive photo collection of images of warships of the American Civil War in 1861-1865 was posted. Unfortunately, only "pictures", without signatures, they say, who needs it, look for yourself. Commenting on the photos, many VO readers expressed their wishes to learn about the fate of, say, the same "Monitor", which, of course, is interesting in all respects, since this is the first truly combat tower battleship in the world. Interesting material about his further fate and, most interestingly, the fate of his dead sailors, was found in the American magazine "National interest", and it seemed to me so interesting that I would like to offer this article as a continuation of the "monitor" topic to all topics whom she is interested in. So, what do the Americans themselves write about the fate of their first monitor, which died in a storm off Cape Hatteras?
Chromolithography of the battle on the Hampton roadstead, produced by Louis Prang and K. Boston.
It is not for nothing that "Monitor" was called "a tin can on a raft." It really was a kind of armored raft, acting as a deck, the height of which was only 18 inches above sea level. The ship's designers ruled out the possibility of hitting the ship's systems and living quarters below the water level, since all this was in the hold of the ship. Instead of conventional cannons, the monitor was armed with two 11-inch Dahlgren cannons. These smoothbore cannons, housed within a rotating turret, allowed the crew to fire in any direction without turning the ship. On March 8 and 9, 1862, the Confederates tried to break through the blockade of Union ships on the James River with the help of their new miracle weapon - the battleship Virginia. The ship was a converted wooden frigate of the US Navy, formerly known as the Merrimack. Now it was sheathed with armor, equipped with a battering ram and … in its new capacity, it was moved against the ships of the federal fleet, anchored in the Hampton roadstead. On the first day of the battle, the Virginia destroyed two wooden Union warships. On the second day, the Monitor appeared in the harbor and the battle took on the character of a duel between two different types of armored ships.
Comparative sizes and device of "Monitor" and "Virginia".
The Monitor, which was inferior to the southern ship in all respects, was shorter by 100 feet and 3500 tons lighter than the Virginia. But, despite this, in the battle for many hours, "Monitor" actually won. This battle caused a violent reaction in the newspapers, and even President Lincoln himself boarded the ship. Women lined up for excursions, which after that began to be taken to the Monitor, and the ship itself and its crew became a legend and instantly became famous.
He was then driven to Chesapeake Bay, where his crew suffered more from mosquito bites and heat than from enemy gunfire. On December 30, 1862, the Monitor, towed by the Rhode Island ferry, set out to sea towards Buford and was caught in a violent storm. William Keeler, the ship's treasurer, in a letter to his wife described the festive atmosphere that reigned on the ship that day. “At 5 o'clock in the evening we sat down to dinner, everyone was cheerful and happy, and thought that, well, he’s shaking, and let him shake, and the waves above our heads caused laughter and jokes, everyone around was happy that our monotonous, passive life was over and ours” little mentor "will finally add laurels to his name."
On the deck of the Monitor. Photo from that time.
But the sea, without ceasing, attacked the ship and the situation became very serious. The waves reached 20 feet in height and began to roll over the ship, pouring it through the slightest crevices. At about 11 pm, the crew raised a red lantern on the tower, which signified a distress signal. Boats were immediately dispatched from Rhode Island to pick up the panicked people from the monitor. Some of them were washed off the deck and tried to swim to the lifeboats. Some, paralyzed by fear, refused to even try boating. And then the ship suddenly landed abruptly on board, capsized and sank!
It happened on December 31 at 1 am. Twelve sailors and four officers were killed with the ship. Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published obituaries, but it wasn't enough for the families of the victims. They wanted to know exactly where exactly the Monitor died, but this place remained a mystery for over a century.
In 1973, a team of scientists from the University of Dhaka Marine Laboratory set out on a two-week journey to find a "monitor" that was spotted on a radar screen on August 27, 1973. With this instrument, the team obtained acoustic images of what lay 230 feet below them. The following year, the US Navy, using a deep-sea submarine, confirmed that the Monitor had indeed been sighted about 16 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras.
Monitor and Virginia models.
Over the next three decades, researchers studied the remaining wreckage. In 2002, the tower was raised to the surface, leaving the rest of the ship at the bottom. Much survived in the tower: guns, high quality wool, a jar of spices and medallions engraved with the names of sailors. Two skeletons were also found, and one of them died when he almost reached the exit hatch!
It was decided that the found remains of the sailors from the "Monitor" will not remain unnamed, but will be subjected to genetic testing. To identify the sailors, archaeologists sent the remains to the United States to the joint Central POW and Missing Persons Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for analysis. “It is very important to identify these war heroes,” said Professor Broadwater, the expedition leader.
In turn, John Byrd, director of the laboratory, explained that "sunken ships can have very good conditions for preserving remains" due to the protective properties of the silt that forms above them. This was precisely the case when, inside the "Monitor" tons of coal mixed with silt, and this created anaerobic conditions that prevent chemical reactions and the activity of microorganisms that destroy skeletons.
Using the latest advances in forensic science, Byrd's team created biographical profiles of two sailors. HR-1 (Human Remains 1), whom Broadwater believed to have almost made it to the hatch, turned out to be a male between the ages of 17 and 24 and 5 feet 7 inches tall.
The medical examiners determined that the HR-2 could be as tall - 5 feet 8 inches, and that he was between 30 and 40 years old, and judging by the state of his teeth, he smoked a pipe. The sailor suffered from arthritis and had an asymmetrical leg. Both men were white (three of the 16 crew members of the deceased ship were African Americans).
Lisa Stansbury set about identifying them. She compared information from forensic evidence with biographical records, including medical journals of other ships where the men served, in order to calculate these two of the 16 sailors who died. In her opinion, one of them could be Jacob, 21, from Buffalo, New York. He is on the list of people who match age, height and race, as determined by Byrd's team. The second sailor is Robert Williams, who was born in Wales and joined the US Navy in 1855, a first class firefighter. His medical record most closely matches HR-2 data.
The monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras. Painting by a contemporary artist.
Scientists believe that further analysis will show where the victims of the disaster were born. The fact is that the chemical composition of food and water consumed during the first years of a person's life is retained in the enamel of the teeth, traces of which are characteristic of a geographic region (for example, grain). Half of the Monitor's crew were immigrants from Europe, most from Ireland. This information can significantly narrow the list of candidates. Byrd says researchers at the Smithsonian have expressed interest in testing seafarers' remains. The Dover Air Force Laboratory will compare mitochondrial DNA recovered from the remains of each sailor. True, until now it has not been possible to identify Williams' relatives, although in the city where he lived, photographs continue to be published in order to find relatives of the victims. True, it seems that he managed to find his great-great-nephew, who is ready to take a DNA comparison test. However, there is a queue. Today it is about 750 people, mainly from Vietnam and the Korean War, that is, there is a lot of work.
December 31, 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the ship, and then it was decided to bury the identified crew members with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, which was done with all the proper ceremonies. Money is being raised for a monument to the Monitor's crew; commemorative events and exhibitions are regularly held in honor of the war of the Americans against the Americans that took place more than a century and a half ago.
