
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993                   TAG: 9307290140
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HATTERAS, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

DIVERS SURVEYING WRECKAGE OF MONITOR

Divers have begun sizing up the wreckage of the Union ironclad Monitor off the North Carolina coast to determine if part of the warship can be raised.

The Monitor sank in a storm approximately 16 miles off Cape Hatteras on Dec. 31, 1862, as it was being towed south for blockade duty during the Civil War. Divers began inspecting the wreckage Tuesday.

"It's truly one of the American icons," said John Broadwater, manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and coordinator of the expedition. "It was such a remarkable milestone in naval technology. It had over 100 newly patented items on the ship."

Historians point to the Monitor's battle against an ironclad Confederate warship on March 9, 1862, as a turning point in naval warfare. The battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac at Hampton Roads, off the Virginia coast, pitted armored warships against each other for the first time.

- Associated Press

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB