The USS Monitor, Part 1: History and Legacy

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HOST: This is the NOAA Ocean Podcast. I’m your host, Allison Burrell. Throughout our coasts and Great Lakes lie myriad shipwrecks, some still yet to be found. The focus today is the USS Monitor, where its resting place serves as the first U.S. National Marine Sanctuary. Let’s go back in time to the U.S. Civil War in 1862. The USS Monitor, a first of its kind Civil War ironclad, sinks 16 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. We are joined in the studio by Maritime Archeologist, Tane Casserley, from the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, whose specialties include 19th-century warships and deep-water archaeology. In the first of two episodes we discuss the history of the USS Monitor, its legacy, and why it is still important today.

Now let’s dive in…

I'd like to welcome our guest, Tane Casserley. Thanks for joining us at the NOAA Ocean podcast.

TANE CASSERLEY: Excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

HOST: First of all, why do we study shipwrecks?

TANE CASSERLEY: It's a good question, why do we study shipwrecks. And I look at shipwrecks, is that they're a window to our past. Now, it could be a window looking through, at the technology, because a lot of times when you look at ships back to the age of antiquity, those were almost sort of the phase ships of their time, right? The technological marvels, what they're able to do. But they're also windows back into people's lives and their cultures. So it's always any angle you want to take with it you can learn something from these shipwrecks as we study them.

HOST: We're talking about this amazing ship, the Monitor. Why is this shipwreck significant? What's the history behind this, I'm guessing, well preserved shipwreck?

TANE CASSERLEY: Well, first, it's a technological marvel. Monitor was a prototype. It was the first of its kind ever and it's basically the ancestor of every modern naval vessel today. And it goes back to, you know, If you think about the way ships might be in the age of sail, right? You get the tall ships and all of these guns. But when the ship goes down and is spotting another vessel, the entire ship has to turn because the guns are pointing out from the sides of it. So you go forward, you turn, you fire. So, that was done for hundreds of years. But what made Monitor unique was it now separated the move into the gun from the movement of the vessel. So the vessel could be in any orientation. And because Monitor had the world's first revolving gun turret that went into battle, it was able to move in any direction as well. So that was a huge marker in the change of these technologies. And also, we can't forget that it's a transition from that wooden warship, those wooden walls, now iron and metal, which is modern naval warfare.

HOST: So the design of the Monitor is very unique for its time and this was during the Civil War in the late 1800s, right?

TANE CASSERLEY: In 1861 is when it was being built and it was launched in 1862.

HOST: So why was this particular iron clad ship built? Because there's a great story behind that.

TANE CASSERLEY: The concept of an iron warship wasn't new at the time. People were experimenting with this and they knew that, iron, much like armor on a knight. In the sort of medieval days, it protected the person inside. So these iron warships did the same thing. So we’re really getting into the industrial age and like, you know, late 1700s, early 1800s. We're able to manufacture these things. We can create iron plate, right? We developed riveting. So now these big metal plates can be held together. It was a concept that was known, but not a lot of people had adopted it because also it's very expensive to do this. In the early 1860s, 1861, the South was moving back up into Virginia to these northern, Union held lands. Right, So they came into an area known as Portsmouth, Virginia, which is here in Hampton Roads, Virginia. They took over the Gosport Navy Yard. The Union knew this was happening and they didn't want the South to get any of their equipment, supplies, or ships, right? So what they couldn't take with them, they destroyed. They left cannons; they destroyed them. They left gunpowder; they blew it up. They had naval stores, like food and rations; burned them. And, they just so happened to have a vessel that was being repaired, the USS Merrimack, an older steam frigate at dock. It was under repairs that weren't able to move it so they decided to burn that ship at the dock and sink it. So belief is, don't let the South get it. But, the South knew that this ship was there and they already had plans and how to adapt if they could get themselves ahold of a Union vessel or something in that size, how they could adapt that ship into an iron clad because they didn't have that industrial base to really build these things like the North did. So they had to adapt and overcome. So that's what they did. So they see that vessel there. They raise it, they put it into dry dock, and essentially from the water line up, they totally rebuild it into this Confederate monster. 200 plus feet long, iron plated, just unstoppable force.

HOST: And that's the USS Virginia?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, well, so that's so when the South was rebuilding it. That's when we think that rebuilding time we start calling it the CSS Virginia because it is fundamentally changed, at that point.

HOST: Oh, CSS, the Confederate.

TANE CASSERLEY: The CSS the Confederate state ships. The South were building this because it was unstoppable. The unit had nothing that could go against it, so they knew that, like on a naval front with tactics, they had a weapon. But they also used propaganda. There were drawings of things of this ship being built. It wasn't a secret news being built. The North knew it. They hurriedly put together, under Abraham Lincoln's guidance, the iron clad board, to take in designs to something that could counter that Confederate threat. What can counter that CSS Virginia that's being built? And the design that eventually made it through was the Monitor. This crazy unique thing that's never been seen before. Monitor was a prototype, you can't forget. Nothing like it's been built like it before. That's what they put forward to battle the Virginia.

HOST: They're building the Monitor in response to the South building this half submersible?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, and imagine these poor guys right who are used to working on open decks, working the masts and the sails in the open air. Now they're told you're going to work in this, what looks like to be an iron coffin. You can't see the sky, it's hot, and you just hope to all the heaven above that you don't sink, because this thing is so strange looking. But they did, they all volunteered to do it.

HOST: I bet there wasn't very good airflow down there.

TANE CASSERLEY: It had some force ventilators and things, but it took a little adapting things to make sure we had some good airflow, so it was a little stuffy and it could be very hot at times.

HOST: The history behind the Monitor is so interesting and I'm just curious because this was during the Civil War period, were there any notable historical figures associated with this ship that we might be familiar with?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, well, the most exciting one was President Abraham Lincoln. So he visited the ship twice, so he actually walked the decks. He was honored, he went inside, he went into the engine room, and it's really because this ship was so incredible and was so different, it instantly became an icon. Of course, after the Battle of Hampton Roads, what the Union says, you know, the Monitor won the battle. Abraham Lincoln has to go down there to see that ship and to praise the crew. You know, it's incredible. It's just amazing to me that he was on that vessel that we get to work with every day.

HOST: And there's almost photographic evidence of this.

TANE CASSERLEY: There is. In July of 1862, a photographer came to Monitor, and it was supposed to be to document Lincoln coming again to visit the ship. And unfortunately, the two missed each other, so there's these fantastic historic photographs of the crew and the officers on the deck of Monitor. So we have that, right? So, you know, we get that glimpse back in time. But unfortunately, we did miss Abraham Lincoln being on it. But he was there too.

HOST: I bet that photographer was kicking himself for missing the opportunity to photograph a president.

TANE CASSERLEY: He's a very famous guy called Gibson, so I'm thinking he maybe had other opportunities.

HOST: But I guess this was before there was a staff photographer that just followed the president around?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, well, again, you think about the 1860s where the practice of photography was also a newer practice as well. Yeah, that's why we would love to, if we have more images of Monitor, but we have what we have and we're grateful for it.

HOST: So the Monitor is in saltwater, but what's the difference between salt and freshwater shipwrecks?

TANE CASSERLEY: Shipwrecks in freshwater generally are very well preserved. So that cold, fresh, water, you can almost think of it like a chiller or freezer, you know, type of thing where you don't have those salts that are going to intrude into the metals and into the other sort of materials on a shipwreck. So it keeps it very well preserved. So oftentimes in the Great Lakes, especially very deep, the preservation's near perfect, like it's amazing, you know, what you can see down there. You could open up a trunk and you could see clothing, fabrics, hats. You know, that's so well preserved in that cold freshwater. It's stunning. We have national marine sanctuaries in the Great Lakes that are fantastic to visit to see that. The challenge in saltwater is that the marine life and especially those salts basically attack those materials. It may be that you have wood boring mollusks that are going to eat the wood remains of a shipwreck. So they eat all the wood and you're just left with the metal fittings. It could be, you know, you've got other marine life that are moving things around or digging through things. And the biggest challenge of course is going to be that salt. And Monitor’s an iron ship in saltwater. And if you know anything about iron and salt, they don't mix. It was deteriorating at an accelerated rate when we really started studying Monitor in the 80s and 90s. So we had to make a decision about what we're going to do with that vessel.

HOST: How and when was the Monitor found?

TANE CASSERLEY: In the late 60s, early 70s, there were several expeditions going out to try to find the Monitor, where it sank up the coast of North Carolina off Cape Hatteras. So, we have the ship logs. You know, we can look historically at what the storms and currents were doing at the time, the way the winds were. So, it was a group out of Beauford, North Carolina out of Duke University. Going out there with MIT, National Geographic, the North Carolina, their sort of history and archives division with their maritime archaeologist. And they went out in ‘73 searching for the Monitor using the USS Rhode Island's logbook and looking at a whole bunch of other factors. And the USS Rhode Island was the vessel that was towing the Monitor when it sank, so they had a lot of really great information. As it happens, almost in every expedition, on the very last day of their survey going out, they find what they call a long amorphous echo on their side scan sonar on the sea floor. And what they expected to see with this sonar in the sonar is really think of it like it's creating an image through sound. So you use that to look at the sea floor or other things. They expected to find a vessel with two pointy ends and a round protuberance in the center. And that is not what they found, right? They found what appeared to be a shipwreck on the bottom that was long, it had a pointy end, and sort of a crushed broken stern and that was it. So like, whoa, it seems to be the Monitor, but it's not quite this isn't what we expect to see. And they did put down a drop camera and a drop video camera. But you kind of remember back in the 70s, these were hazy black and white images. They're seeing maybe four or five square feet down there, you know, they can't really control it. So it literally took them a year of going through all those images and things to really stare at it. And it was actually one of my mentors, my graduate school in East Carolina University, Dr. Gordon Watts, who was that maritime archaeologist from North Carolina on the ship. He posed the question, what happens if the ship is upside down? And then all the pieces came together. The turret is underneath, the ship's upside down and they go back out in ‘74. They get a better image of it in ‘75, they're like, this is it.

HOST: This is it. Wow, that's so interesting. Yeah, you're just not thinking, oh, what if it flipped over as it sank? How deep is the Monitor?

TANE CASSERLEY: 240 feet. They do the currents really move the sediments around, so it does vary a little bit. But if we were diving we would call it a 240 table.

HOST: So can scuba divers investigate this ship? Is 240 feet doable?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah. Absolutely. But yeah, it's a technical dive. So, you know, you've got to be properly trained, you have the right equipment. But the shipwreck, the purpose of it as well is to to open it up so recreational divers can visit it.

HOST: How far off shore is the Monitor?

TANE CASSERLEY: The Monitor is about 16 and a half miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

HOST: OK, so it's pretty far. It's pretty far out there.

TANE CASSERLEY: It's, I mean, you could, you know, it's an hour or two out of the harbor. But what makes it so challenging out there is that, you know, Cape Hatteras is known for the storms. It's known for the rough weather. And that happens all the time. So even with our dive expeditions, we would expect to lose at least half the days because of those challenges of just the marine operations offshore. You never know what you're going to get out there.

HOST: Now, I'm going to compare it to a very well known shipwreck, the Titanic. You were saying mollusks and the salt are all degrading it. Now, this ship is even older than the Titanic. Is it disintegrating at the same speed as the Titanic? Or is it in better condition or worse condition? I'm just curious.

TANE CASSERLEY: Well, it's a good question. The difference between Monitor and the Titanic. Both, you know, metal hulled vessels in that marine environment. But you know, there's such different environments. To be honest, you know, the pH is different. The temperature’s different. So I think in some ways, it's very difficult to compare the two because they are so different. I mean, even the base hull materials are different. So I couldn't say which one is better preserved, because there's so many other factors that come into play. But, I will say with all ship wrecks over time, they will come to a point where they will collapse. So some of those iconic views that we have of it, it's just how nature works with these structures. You know, they will collapse over time. But that doesn't change how special they are. They're still grave sites. That doesn't change at all. It's just the way you look at it might be a little different.

HOST: But I mean, they're 50 years apart, approximately. And the Monitor is still there. It hasn't collapsed yet? There's still…

TANE CASSERLEY: You know, the Monitor is still in great shape. Well, we have to remember too that the two vessels were made for very different purposes. So Titanic, you know, open ocean luxury passenger liner. Very specific. So the Monitor is also very specific where it's an iron clad built warship with an iron hull. I think that the Monitor was built so stoutly to withstand these cannonballs and things with its deck. It's that armor belt that wraps around it. It's almost now that the ship is upside down, I believe that's really creating a protective framework to hold the Monitor together. So it's really done us a favor that it protected it during its years in battle and war. But that armor belt is really protecting it now as a thriving reef.

HOST: The Union navy was building this ship in response to the South building a ship. How long did it take to build Monitor?

TANE CASSERLEY: Well, so since Monitor was being built, the whole reason it was being built is in response to the construction of the CSS Virginia. And because the CSS Virginia was so much further along in that construction process, stipulation with the construction of Monitor was, this ship had to be built in a hundred days.

HOST: Wow, a hundred days. That sounds really short.

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, it's incredibly short for this type of ship that's never been seen or built before. Almost what happens today with shipbuilding or naval construction is that the contract goes out to manufacturers in the region. So in the Northeast, scores of manufacturers are requested to build parts of the vessel. The iron plate for it. Here's where the wood’s coming from. Here's where some of the engines are coming from. Here's where the steam machinery is coming from, and that it all comes together at Greenpoint, New York, where it's all built at the shipyard there and comes together. So it's incredible that not only were many of these things designed just for Monitor and unique that had to be built, that they all came together and they actually worked is incredible.

HOST: And who is the designer behind this ship?

TANE CASSERLEY: So the designer of Monitor is a brilliant man named John Erickson, he's a Swedish engineer. He's an immigrant to the U.S. and just an incredible man in terms of what he designed, developed, came up with. And also a man of a large personality. He was a very proud man, very proud of Monitor. He let people know it.

HOST: I bet he helped, that personality helped, with pushing this build through in a hundred days.

TANE CASSERLEY: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. It's just a force of will. But also people knew he was a brilliant engineer. The concepts seem completely crazy. They knew it would probably work, but you know, he did have controversy where people thought, you know, Erickson's folly, they called the Monitor. Right? This thing is going to launch and then slip right underneath the water and hit the bottom of the Hudson River. But Erickson, being again a man of strong will and personality, said, I'm going to stand on the deck as this ship is launched. And I'll prove to you the ship will float and it did.

HOST: I mean, I bet there are a lot of skeptics out there. All this iron, it's super heavy. How the heck is it going to float?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, it's incredible. And it's so again, we have to think back then in the 1860s, it was such a strange concept to look at. It was so different. I mean, it truly looked like something that you would bury somebody in. So he proved them wrong.

HOST: So did they start building more iron clad ships?

TANE CASSERLEY: They did. Well, and funny thing was. So the Monitor was built in response to the Virginia. This was not initially supposed to be the next wave of U.S. Navy warships or design. But in some ways, it did become that. So they built over 60 of these Monitor-style vessels.

HOST: 60?

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, over 60. It's incredible because it just became so iconic with the U.S. Navy. And there was so much momentum of this American design vessel that it really became an iconic part of the U.S. naval history and what we became known for in the mid-late 1800s.

HOST: Were they all built out of that Brooklyn shipyard?

TANE CASSERLEY: No, once they had the initial designs, John Erickson did have a few different types of Monitors. But then other naval engineers came in as well. And they put their own touches. You know, it could be that Monitor had one turret. Well, now some Monitors had some Monitor-style warships had two turrets, right? Monitor head one propeller. Some had two. Some had different kinds of hulls. So what's exciting is to see that evolution, right? Or how they built on that design. But also when you start looking at the hull, getting a little more of a V shape. You know, the hull coming a little more up out of the water to go into bigger seas. And now what we're starting to see is the precursor to battleships. All leading back to Monitor that started this whole thing.

HOST: We can attribute the Monitor to the game battleship that I played as a kid. That’s amazing.

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, those are very famous sort of American World War II battleships that we've seen in movies time and time again. You know, the working of that turret and its design is very similar to the Monitor. And it's only separated by 70 years, 80 years?

HOST: That’s amazing.

TANE CASSERLEY: A difference in scale, of course. But it's essentially the same thing, which is amazing.

HOST: It's a shame that the Monitor sank. But because it did, it's somewhat preserved. And we can go and look at it and see its design and see some of the unique design features. Some of the future iterations of Monitor, like the Passaic, that ended up being sold for scrap metal. So if the Monitor hadn't sank, maybe eventually it would have been decommissioned, sold to someone, and turned into scrap. And we would have no historical record of the actual first ironclad ship that is responsible for the design of all our future battleships.

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, well, I think that's one of the most amazing things about shipwrecks. If you think about some of these naval ships with their lifespan, sometimes they do survive the entire war, and they have long lives, and then they're sold off and do different things, or they're scrapped. But some of them, but they're lost. They're gone to history, but some of them, when they go down in a shipwreck, that is the classic preserved time capsule. Everything is from that battle, from that storm, what those men on board, the sailors, the officers, the crew, what they were going through, and those final moments, you know, are still there. So those stories that we told of that are timeless and priceless.

HOST: Well, and what's so interesting is it's not just a historical record that's down there. There is wildlife that is thriving. So what kind of wildlife lives on and around this wreck, because I'm sure it's different in different parts of the ocean.

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah, and absolutely. We've seen that time and time again. When we do our NOAA expeditions out to the Monitor, or really any shipwreck site, when we work through the National Marine Sanctuary, is that we're looking at the ship historically, archeologically, but also as a marine habitat, right? Those are all very important functions that that ship or that site has. Yeah, it's exciting to go down, and now you see it's gone from that weapon of war to an island of life. And when you look at the environment to the sea floor off North Carolina, it really is a desert environment. In a lot of respects, lots of sand. There is live rock and live bottom and things too, but it's very patchy. So when you get these wrecks, especially these larger wrecks, the marine life does accumulate there. So you see the smaller fish and the juveniles and things that are living on it, bringing in the larger fish, and the larger fish after that, and then the predators. And then, you know, we get this beautiful covering of soft corals and sponges and things. And the whole site has now come alive with these vibrant colors. So it's exciting to see that that's another story we can tell about Monitor. It's not just a warship, it's not just going through the battle, or not just being defined by the sinking. It's now being defined as its role today. What makes it so exciting to talk about Monitor or even to visit it in different ways, is that a, you know, you sort of you choose your adventure. What do you want to explore Monitor? It's up to you.

HOST: And if that ship wasn't there, would there be as much of a concentration of wildlife nearby?

TANE CASSERLEY: No, no. If the ship wasn't there, it would just be a sandy bottom. So really, it is providing that extra habitat, which is incredible.

HOST: That's incredible.

TANE CASSERLEY: We can't forget Monitor was cold fired. It didn't use petroleum products, it didn't use oil. So all of those things are pretty inert down there. So there's nothing else that's damaging or toxic for that marine life. Really, it really just provides a really nice strata for everything to live and grow on.

HOST: So the Monitor is a National Marine Sanctuary. And you work for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries here at the National Ocean Service. What is the significance of being designated a marine sanctuary?

TANE CASSERLEY: Well, first I should mention, Monitor’s the first sanctuary.

HOST: Wow.

TANE CASSERLEY: We're very proud of that. Designated back in 1975.

HOST: So the first ironclad ship and the first marine sanctuary.

TANE CASSERLEY: Absolutely. Yes. So we're very proud that, you know, we're also the smallest. But National Marine Sanctuaries, you know, of course, you're going to be thinking about national parks and things in the same vein. And very similar to that, but you know, national marine sanctuaries, they're there to really highlight, celebrate, protect and manage these incredible resources that belong to the public. So whether it be historical, cultural, indigenous, technological, biological with reefs, you know, fish, invertebrates, whales. Each one of our sanctuaries focuses on a particular aspect or collection aspects of those things to protect and celebrate these things that are so special in our marine environment. You know, whether it's in the ocean, rivers on the Great Lakes. We would love to protect all shipwrecks, but you know, sometimes it's just not able to do that. But in our sanctuaries, many of them are dedicated to just protecting shipwrecks. A lot of them in the Great Lakes, you know, Monitor of course. There's the Mallows Bay Potomac River in the Potomac River. But a lot of our sanctuaries too protect shipwrecks alongside those biological resources. So the marine life, the local ecology, the beautiful whales and things, you know. So it really is, it's an incredible organization to work for with this sort of vast management responsibility, with some of these resources that are dwindling. So it's incredible to be part of that to help preserve it for American people.

HOST: So the Monitor is 16 miles offshore. So obviously, if the public comes down, they're not going to get on a ship and go two hours out to the sanctuary. So there is the Mariners’ Museum. And it's the proud home to the USS Monitor Center. You house over 5,000 artifacts and over 200 tons of archaeological material that's been recovered from the Monitor shipwreck. What artifacts were brought up from the wreck and why were they chosen in particular?

TANE CASSERLEY: Well, that's a good question. You know, we partnered with the Mariners’ Museum Park here in Newport News, Virginia. We started that relationship back in 1987, because we realized as a sanctuary, we needed a place to put our archival documents. But also when we started recovering smaller items from the shipwreck, where can that go to be conserved properly, but also the most importantly displayed for the public. You know, when we look at artifacts, you’ve got to think about a couple things. First of all, the act of recovering it from the sea floor and bringing it to the surface is not the end of the project. That's like the first fifth of what you have to do. The larger responsibility where the expertise comes in and a lot of the funding needs is that conservation work, which is absolutely required or the artifact will be destroyed. And then of course, the end goal of all this is that it should be on display for the public. Over the years we did small recoveries of some of the personal items from the crew members that we found that were on the surface. So that was telling the story. But then, you know, we started realizing in the mid 90s that, you know, Monitor the iron vessel and saltwater starting to corrode and deteriorate. What they thought was an accelerated rate. So they said, what can we do to protect this heritage? Do we do nothing and we let it fall apart? Well, you can do that. Can you recover everything, the entire ship? Well, you can think about that too, but do you think of the exorbitant expense and maybe damaging. Well, you try to do good, but you've actually damaged more so by the wreck falling apart because you can't something happens.

HOST: And taking away the wildlife.

TANE CASSERLEY: Yeah. And you would take away that reef as well. So they, I think feel, I feel very, that they made the right decision smartly to go after targeted pieces. So they said, what made the Monitor special? Well, it's that turret, right? That first rotating gun turret. That's what made it special. That's what it's known for. There's other aspects, but that's what, but you imagine in your head. Just so happens that the Monitor's entire drive train as the vessel sank was on top of the turret. Well, that's also very iconic and all of these things happen to be designed and built by John Erickson, the Monitor's designer. Well, the Navy working alongside NOAA, said, what can we do? And I said, well, why don't we target those mechanical spaces, the drive train and the turret.

HOST: What's a drive train?

TANE CASSERLEY: That's a good question. The drive train, we think about like a car, right? It's the engine. It's going to be the propeller shaft and the propeller itself. Basically, those things that make the ship go. All of that was on top of the turrets. Because as the vessel sank, the turret falls off, flips upside down, the rest of the Monitor flips upside down and falls on top. And it just so happened that it was scooted back a little bit where that engine space is now over that turret on the sea floor. It made sense. Let's focus on that. But also leave those crew areas intact where the officers and crew lived and worked is still totally intact on the sea floor and we managed to protect it because you know, it is a gravesite. So we focused on these mechanical technological parts. And that's what we worked with the U.S. Navy with from 1998 to 2002, where we conducted literally the largest archaeological metals recovery in history, bringing up over 200 tons of the pieces and parts of the shipwreck. And now here at the Mariners’ Museum and Park is the largest metals conservation marine project in the world, all dedicated to Monitor.

HOST: Is the recovery of items complete or is it ongoing?

TANE CASSERLEY: We look at the recovery items of the shipwreck now as on pause. We've got a lot of material to go through still. So the turret was brought up, for example, in 2002, that's still undergoing conservation to hear we are in 2026. So we really need to get through what we have now, I think, and get that on display. You know, there's a cost to that too that we have to think about, how do we do this? Again, never been done before, just like Monitor, something like never been built before. Something of this scale as a marine metal conservation project has never been put on display before. So it's exciting. But I like to think once we get through all of that, then we can rethink what's next, right? And that's always a great thing with Monitor. Ask the question, what's next? Because there always will be something next.

HOST: Thank you so much for telling me the entire history of the Monitor. It's so fascinating. And it's funny that you say what's next, because in our next podcast, we'll be discussing just that.

HOST: This has been Allison Burrell with the NOAA Ocean Podcast. Thanks to Tane Casserley for giving us a deep dive into the history of the USS Monitor. In Part 2 we’ll return to the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary to cover a new imaging technology that strives to capture the most detailed scan of the USS Monitor to date. What has happened to the USS Monitor over the last 140 years, what have we learned from the wreck, and what is being done to preserve its most treasured parts? Be sure to check out all our episodes through the National Ocean Service website or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. Let’s keep making waves.