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USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy. ‘‘Monitor’’ was the first in a long line of Monitor-class U.S. warships.
While the design of Monitor was well-suited for river combat, her low freeboard and heavy turret made her highly un-seaworthy in rough waters. This feature probably led to the early loss of the original Monitor, which foundered during a heavy storm. Swamped by high waves while under tow by Rhode Island, she sank on December 31, 1862 in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 of 62 crewmen were lost in the storm.
In 1973, the wreck of the ironclad Monitor was located on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean about 16 nautical miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 230′ of sea water. The wreck site was designated as the United States’ first marine sanctuary. Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is the only one of the thirteen national marine sanctuaries created to protect a cultural resource, rather than a natural resource.
The Expedition
The theme of this expedition is technology.
The USS Monitor is by far one of the most historically significant warships in US history. By virtue of her rotating gun turret the Monitor has earned the title of being the mother of all modern day warships. However, in recent years this accolade has been challenged by today’s emerging technology. As more and more warships roll off the assembly line the, once ubiquitous turreted guns are missing; now replaced by bay doors that release an even deadlier arsenal of satellite guided rockets and missiles. In its day, the USS Monitor was the height of technology and in this expedition we plan to use the height of today’s technology to explore, capture images, and collect data from this historic relic. Though the Primary focus will be on the USS Monitor, we will also be exploring other shipwrecks in this area known as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”.
The expedition is also a collaboration between private industry, academia, and government agency consisting of expedition Deep Explorers, who has recruited marine scientists from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina to work side-by-side with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
For over a decade, private research groups have contributed immensely to the knowledge base of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (MNMS). Private research expeditions have assisted the Monitor NMS with artifact recovery, surveys, imaging, etc. particularly in the years that proceeded and through the large artifact recovery expeditions that culminated in August 2002 when the Monitor’s rotating gun turret was successfully recovered from the depths. Since then, additional private research expeditions have proven invaluable in helping the Monitor NMS update the changes made to the wreck.
It is the intent of this expedition to show the benefits of this type of cooperative effort and to use this expedition as a blueprint for future projects by other academic institutes and government agencies.
inews reports:
With technology being the theme of the expedition, we plan to employ several state-of-the-art technological advancements in diving technology, marine science, underwater robotics, imaging, and internet media production. As part of the National Marine Sanctuaries’ education and outreach program, each day’s activity and progression will be detailed in online internet reports, which we have dubbed as “inews” reports. These reports will be posted on this site each morning. In these reports, we will profile all of the technological elements employed by the dive team, the marine scientists, and media production crew highlighting key elements of each, as we progress through the week.
High Definition video:
Video acquisition portion of the expedition adds two elements of technology. One will be the use of state-of-the-art High Definition (HD) video equipment, which without a doubt, will reveal detailed images of the wreck and provide stunning image quality to document the entire expedition. More important is the means in which the video is recorded. As part of this collaboration of private industry, academia and a government agency, Sony© will be providing our expedition with the latest in their arsenal of HD video equipment that records to an optical disc and solid-state Compact Flash memory cards rather than the familiar video-tape formats. These formats will be a vast improvement over the tape based formats of the past, especially for our intended use. These new state-of-the-art formats will help to facilitate the production of the daily inews reports by allowing instant access to a specific clip without having to spend hours rolling back and forth through tapes. This will significantly increase work flow and decrease the over all production time.
Having the latest in HD equipment would be useless without having a good eye for the camera. One of the unsung heroes of great video is the lens in which the camera looks through to record the image. We will also be taking a look at the challenges that had to be overcome by companies such as Fujinon©, one of the world’s largest suppliers of HD lenses, for the new HD standard.
Rebreathers:
Dive technology has come a long way over the years and in recent years one of the oldest dive technologies “rebreathers” has been re-invented. Today, rebreathers have become the de facto tool for expedition diving. Unlike open circuit, or regular SCUBA, the dive gear that most people are familiar with where the air is exhaled out into the water, rebreathers are devices that reclaim the air that the diver exhales to be reused; hence the name “rebreather.” As the diver breathes, the gas circulates through a breathing loop where carbon dioxide is scrubbed out and the oxygen that the diver metabolizes is replenished, either manually or via electronic controllers. By re-circulating the exhaled air, the diver can remain at depth for extended periods on a very small supply of gas. To put things into perspective, one open circuit diver will use more gas on one dive to the Monitor than our entire team of ten rebreather divers will use on the same dive.
REMUS:
Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Science (IMCS) and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will be conducting low level side scan and water quality surveys utilizing an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as REMUS, an acronym for Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS. This type of survey will be the first of its kind to be conducted over the Monitor site and surrounding area. With the REMUS being an un-tethered device, the vehicle has much more flexibility to maintain course speed and depth providing a more accurate track line. This technology can be used for a wide range of military, academic, and commercial applications. The US Navy has embraced this technology for unmanned mine hunting in shallow water, and it was use extensively during the Iraqi war. It is also ideally suited for search missions and coastal surveys, such as this expedition. It is small enough to be carried by one man, yet contains enough complex sensor, navigation, and power resources to perform detailed sonar and oceanographic surveys over very larger areas.
Remote Current Sensing Buoy:
In March 2005, the Diamond Shoals data buoy was relocated to the waters within the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. In April 2009, the buoy was replaced with an updated 3-meter discus buoy that now includes an ADCP Doppler current meter. The current meter provides the speed and direction of the current impacting the Monitor from 20 feet to the sea bed in 13 feet increments. The buoy continuously provides valuable data, not only to the dive community, but to the sport fishing boats that also frequent this area of the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Weather Forecast and Satellite Imagery:
Weather will play a critical roll in the success of this expedition and NOAA’s weather service will play a critical roll in forecasting the daily events. In addition NOAA’s real time satellite and radar imagery will allow the team to make plans for the following days events and, if need be, make on the spot decisions about approaching weather systems.
Check out the satelite images & radar imagery here
Expedition Goals
Primary:
Conduct overall survey of the Monitor wreck site using high definition video and still photography. The focus of this survey will be to;
- Look for signs of continuing deterioration.
- Examine for current scouring around the hull.
- Examine for current scouring around the mechanical shoring (grout bags) under the port armor belt.
- Survey for artifacts exposed by current or wreck inhabitants
- Survey as much of the sanctuary as practicable with AUV guided side scan sonar.
- Survey for non-indigenous marine species such as Lion-fish which is an invasive species that has infested the area shipwrecks.
- Sample marine life for the possibility of contaminants introduced by shipwrecks from a varying time period and on board and fuels.
Secondary:
If the primary goals are completed, additional AUV SS survey and image capturing will be conducted of some of the World War II wrecks in the Monitor’s vicinity.
Our Team
Expedition Sponsors
Though the expedition is self funded there are organization who have helped us to see this project to fruition by contributing time, equipments, and support. Please consider using/purchasing their products and services of the companies and organizations listed below.
Deep Explorers, Inc.