If you are male and a history nerd like me, you probably grew up reading books about warfare. My obsession was the Civil War. I especially loved poring over David Greenspan's battle maps in The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, with all those little blue and gray figures marching around on beautifully rendered landscapes. I read other Civil War books, including another American Heritage title, Ironclads of the Civil War. I was fascinated by the Monitor and the Merrimack (rechristened Virginia) and their battle in Hampton Roads in 1862, where the two ironclads slugged it out for hours, fighting to a draw.
My fascination wasn't just about the cutting-edge technology that inventors like John Ericsson had developed for naval warfare. I think it was more about the "futuristic" nature of the encounter at the time. Ironclads would come to play an important role in the Civil War, especially on the rivers, but in 1861 they were Superweapons and looked alien and unearthly. Since I was also heavily into reading science fiction at the time, that feature also appealed to my adolescent imagination. It was very cool stuff.
The Monitor later went down in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras in 1862 (the Virginia was blown up by retreating Confederate forces). Parts of the Union warship, including the turret, were raised in 2001 (NOAA website) and placed in a fresh-water bath to limit sea-water corrosion. Recently, according to an article in the New York Times, the turret has been in the open air having the barnacles and sediment scraped from it, all live on webcam. It's a big piece of history. Makes me want to take out Ironclads of the Civil War and read it again and dream.
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