Posted on 12/20/2010 2:45:54 PM PST by thecodont
Reporting from Newport News, Va. — When archaeologists and Navy divers recovered the warship Monitor's steam engine from the Atlantic in 2001, the pioneering Civil War propulsion unit was enshrouded in a thick layer of marine concretion.
Sand, mud and corrosion combined with minerals in the deep waters off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to cloak every feature of Swedish American inventor John Ericsson's ingenious machine, and they continued to envelop the 30-ton artifact after nine years of desalination treatment.
This month, however, conservators at the Mariners' Museum here and its USS Monitor Center drained the 35,000-gallon solution in which the massive engine was submerged and began removing the 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of concretion with hammers, chisels and other hand tools.
Working slowly and carefully to avoid harming the engine's original surface, they stripped off more than two tons of encrustation in their first week of work, gradually revealing the details of a naval milestone that had not been seen since the historic Union ironclad sank in a storm in December 1862.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Civil War ironclad ship ping.
Is there a waiting list to get on the Civil War ironclad ping list? Will I have to wait for somebody to die?
Hate to say it but this is exactly the kind of stuff that should not be paid for if done by governmnet funding. We can’t afford it.
The Mariners’ Museum is well worth a visit if you are ever in the Norfolk area.
I particularly enjoyed the full scale replica behind the museum. Monitor was bigger than I thought.
Only going to take another 15 years. I may not be around by then.
But... funding such work is not high on my list of wasteful Government spending.
Well I hear you - it is a drop in the bucket overall. But there are a jillion such things funded that when added up equal big money.
The Museum was founded decades ago by Newport News Shipbuilding. It was a repository for all the ship models from the shipyard model shop. The Museum has evolved into one of the finest nautical museums in the world. Well worth the visit if you're in the Hampton Roads area.
Next time you are in Vicksburg Miss....
The Cairo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cairo_%281861%29
When I was in highschool I was treated to be introduced to Sen Everett Dirksin of Illinois at a Republican rally.
He said it best.
“A million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
By today’s standards, it is a billion here a billion there. Soon it will be a trillion.
And that of course was the Senators point, he saw it coming for sure.
Unfortunately, no one listened to him.
Oh geez. Used to have weeklong meetings there every fall. But no more.
Upon reflection, it is astonishing that someone with the fiscal/political views of Dirksin could have represented Illinois in the Senate just forty years ago. He was truly a great one.
Awesome! Thank you!
It is the few that make the rest right.
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