<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654526125190,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017c-2d8e-d3f3-a7fc-7ffef6720000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654526125190,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017c-2d8e-d3f3-a7fc-7ffef6720000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54526115", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1025351"} }); ","_id":"00000181-3971-d421-ada5-7d7d12d00000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedA sea wreck found off the coast of North Carolina appears to be in “astounding condition” despite being underwater for 160 years.
The Union-operated Navy ironclad warship USS Monitor sank in 1862 amid the Civil War and was discovered in 1973. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has assisted in recovering and tracking the vessel’s status since the initial discovery. Its latest expedition, “Valor in the Atlantic,” set out to see what sort of biological habitats may have formed around the vessel and how the ship’s hull has held up.
“The wreck is in an astounding condition after being on the seafloor for 160 years and weathering all of the environmental conditions off Cape Hatteras, including exceedingly strong currents and hurricanes,” Tane Renata Casserley, resource protection and permit coordinator at NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, told McClatchy News.
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The vessel’s hull has survived more than 300 hurricanes and become a notable habitat for local wildlife, according to the News and Observer.
“That same iron armor that deflected cannonballs fired at point-blank range and even collisions … has now contributed to its longevity on the seafloor,” Cassidy noted. “That same iron hull and armor belt built to withstand the rigors of war, has now enabled Monitor to provide a stable habitat in its new role as an island of life. It truly was incredible to see the transformation at the bottom of the ocean. There was often so much marine life on Monitor it was difficult to see the shipwreck itself.”
The Monitor is best known as one of the United States’s first ironclad warships. The vessel gained notoriety in the Battle of Hampton Roads, where it fought the Confederate-operated ironclad CSS Virginia to a stalemate. The ship operated in at least two sea battles during its career and sank to the bottom of the ocean on Dec. 24, 1862.
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The ship was eventually rediscovered in 1973 with a towed sonar system and has since been the focus of local recovery efforts and scientific analysis, including multiple efforts to recover parts of the ship, such as the turret or the vessel’s guns.
