The United States Navy’s involvement with USS Monitor did not end when the armored vessel sank off North Carolina on December 31, 1862. Through multiple missions in the 1990s and 2000s, the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explored the wreck and recovered significant portions of the vessel including the gun turret and propeller. They also discovered the remains of two of the sixteen sailors who perished in the sinking, who were buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
National Archives videos 370-MAR-141 and 370-MAR-238 depict the 2004 mission. In the early 2000s, the team utilized two tethered divers with a diving bell. They breathed both surface-supplied air and air from the diving bell, allowing them to stay underwater for extended periods of time. This was a mixture of oxygen and helium which performs well under the high pressure of 240 feet of water. The presence of helium explains the squeaky voices you can sometimes hear in the 370-MAR videos! (See NOAA’s page on this kind of diving for more information.)
The Navy’s Expeditionary Combat Camera captured many hours of incredible underwater footage on their various missions. Sharks and dolphins occasionally swim by, but the really outstanding habitat is the wreck itself, which has evolved into an artificial reef. Coral and sponges grow on the hull of the ship and small fish shelter in the crevices. Although large sections of the vessel have been removed to the surface and placed in the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, the majority of Monitor remains in Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
NARA’s series 370-MAR contains footage from the Navy/NOAA missions as well as private surveys of Monitor and several other wrecks. These films and videos were maintained at the Mariners’ Museum through an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from approximately 2003 through 2015. The records were transferred to the National Archives in 2015. NARA’s Still Pictures Branch holds several related photographic series, for example 370-MF and 370-PD.
