MONITOR WRECK - RE-DUX

 6 June 2022: A few years back, we posted some pictures and the story of the U.S. Ironclad Monitor, the famed start of the "modern" navy - as far a ship construction is concerned. She fought the Confederate ironclad, CSS Virginia (nee Merrimack) in Hampton Roads VA during the American Civil War. Neither won but the concept of iron cladding a ship was proved beyond a doubt. Monitor, during a tow offshore in December of 1862, was overwhelmed with storm seas and was cut lose from her towing vessel as she began to sink. Here is some further info on the wreck following the recovery of her turret (which is on display in the Newport News (VA) maritime museum. It's from the Center Daily Times.

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One of the nation’s most revered military shipwrecks was visited in May by a NOAA-backed team and they made a surprising discovery 16 miles off North Carolina. The Civil War ironclad USS Monitor is apparently refusing to surrender to the forces of nature. Despite being on the seafloor since 1862, the first-of-its-kind ship remains in “an excellent state of preservation,” according to Tane Renata Casserley, resource protection and permit coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. That’s all the more surprising given Navy divers made significant intrusions into the shipwreck in 2002, when they recovered the highly prized turret and other artifacts for preservation, he said. “The wreck is in an astounding condition after being on the seafloor for 160 years and weathering all of the environmental conditions off Cape Hatteras, including exceedingly strong currents and hurricanes,” Casserley told McClatchy News.

Monitor's gun barrel, preserved in Newport News Maritime Museum

 

“During those (2002) projects, it was necessary to cut into the ironclad’s armorbelt, hull, and deck to gain access to the turret since the shipwreck was on top of it. The question for us at NOAA was, did those cuts into the shipwreck cause further deterioration? Would we see significant changes caused by these actions today?” The answer to those questions “was a resounding ‘No’,” he said. It’s a revelation that begs explanation, and Casserley has a theory.

The USS Monitor was visited as part of the Valor in the Atlantic expedition, which sent a remotely operated camera to explore multiple ships sunk during the Civil War and World War II. The USS Monitor was the oldest and most important of them, as the first U.S. warship built with a revolutionary rotating gun turret, NOAA reports. Monitor sank on New Year’s Eve in 1862, in a region off North Carolina known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, due to an estimated 2,000 shipwrecks. Sixteen U.S. sailors were lost in the sinking, historians say. “The waves grew and the wind howled. With each pitch and roll, shock waves ravaged the crew and the hull of the little ship,” according to a NOAA report. “Leaks developed, flooding the engines and reducing steam pressure needed for propulsion. The crew tried using pumps and even bailing with buckets, but the distress was too great. ... The turret was the only escape hatch from below and as the men attempted dashing across the deck many of them were swept into the unknown by the treacherous waves.” The Monitor was rediscovered in 1973 — “lying upside down in 230 feet of water” — by the Duke University Research Vessel Eastward and efforts to protect the first-of-its-kind vessel began almost immediately, NOAA reports. In 1975, the USS Monitor site became “the nation’s first national marine sanctuary,” a move that intends to protect and preserve it as an important part of the “nation’s maritime heritage.”

The Valor in the Atlantic expedition May 15-25 counted as “the first examination of the site” since 2002, and Casserley feared it would show the turret recovery project led to advanced deterioration. Finding otherwise has left the scientists looking for explanations, and Casserley thinks the “robustness of Monitor’s construction” continues to defend it. “That same iron armor that deflected cannonballs fired at point blank range and even collisions ... has now contributed to its longevity on the seafloor,” Casserley says. “That same iron hull and armorbelt built to withstand the rigors of war, has now enabled Monitor to provide a stable habitat in its new role as an island of life. It truly was incredible to see the transformation at the bottom of the ocean. There was often so much marine life on Monitor it was difficult to see the shipwreck itself.” A remotely operated camera examined only the exterior, so questions remain about the what’s happening inside of the vessel, he said. The expedition team, which partnered with the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration, left the wreck realizing much of it remains unaltered, offering an extraordinary opportunity for marine archaeologists and historians. “This area is a time capsule back to 1862 to learn more about how the crew lived and worked aboard a prototype ironclad warship,” Casserley said. “In some regards is in better structural shape than the majority of shipwrecks from the same time period as well as extending to the WWII-era shipwrecks. The bottom line is USS Monitor will be here for generations to come to share its stories of heroism.”

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I have visited the museum and seen the artifacts - amazing to behold - and the reproductions of the  two combatants. A site we can unequivocally recommend should you find yourself in or around Newport News. And as a "P.S.": the prefix USS (United States Ship) was not in common use until January, 1907 (Pres Theodore Roosevelt) and clearly, not during the Civil War as, obviously, the country was NOT the United States!

Until next time,

                                              Fair Winds,

                                                        Old Salt

 

MEMORIAL DAY 2022

 28 May 2022: Monday, 30 May, is celebrated here in the United States as Memorial Day, originally known as "Decoration Day." Most countries have a similar holiday - some call it "Remembrance Day," - but the concept is still the same: recalling to mind and memory those who perished in service to their countries, generally fighting for the ideals espoused by their own nations. Following is the History Channel's description of the genesis of Memorial Day here in the United States. And while it's not specifically maritime in nature, those who died in service came from all the armed forces.

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Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2022 will occur on Monday, May 30. 

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I.

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

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So, for those of you here in the US of A, take a moment to reflect on those we have lost; it is because of their sacrifice that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today. That is the true meaning of Memorial Day; it isn't just hot dogs, barbecues, and baseball.

Until next time,

                                    Fair winds,

                                              Old Salt

PITCAIRN ISLAND: REMOTE OUTPOST

 22 May 2022: Hope you all are enjoying a taste of spring/summer (in some places) and getting out on the water a possible. We hope to be out this coming week - in time for Memorial Day here in the states.

The following is post fairly timely, given that the event occurred on April 28th, albeit in 1789. And, while it is not, in itself, strictly maritime, it stems from a maritime event. Everyone knows the story (or should!) of the Mutiny on the Bounty, where Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian took command of HMAV Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh and with 9 crewmen (the other 19 stayed in Tahiti) and sailed off to find a remote location where the Royal Navy would be unable to find them. Bligh, along with 18 followers was put in the longboat and completed one of the most famous open ocean feats of navigation, seamanship, and survival ever recorded. (And for the record, Bligh was not the tyrant he was depicted as in history. A great seaman but an inept administrator and leader, who was given a ship pretty much doomed to failure from the start.)

Christian and his 9 English crew along with a bunch of Tahitian islands ultimately found a mis-charted Pitcairn Island and took up residence. Christian stripped and burned Bounty to preclude any change of heart. Here is a modern look at Pitcairn today:

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 The story seems quite implausible. In 1789, several sailors led by Fletcher Christian seized control of the HMS Bounty, then set Capt. William Bligh and his supporters adrift in the South Pacific sea. (The story was told in the movies "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "The Bounty.") Fearing prosecution if they settled in a local community, the British mutineers spent several months scoping out remote locales, picking up 19 Tahitian companions along the way. Eventually, the group decided to make their new home on a deserted volcanic island they'd discovered some 1,350 miles (2,170 kilometers) southeast of Tahiti. Today, against all odds, their descendants still live on that same subtropical island, Pitcairn.

 Pitcairn is part of the four Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory considered one of the world's most remote inhabited islands. The other islands in the group, all uninhabited, are Ducie, Henderson and Oeno. Pitcairn is small — just 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide. It's also rugged, with steep cliffs and no easy way for boats to dock. In fact, visiting ships still drop anchor several hundred yards from Bounty Bay, then are met by residents steering longboats.

Despite being settled for more than 200 years, Pitcairn's population hasn't changed much. While it reached a peak of 233 in 1937, today the island is home to just 50 or so residents, not many more than when the mutineers first arrived.

With limited acreage and few residents, amenities on the island are minimal. There's a general store, health clinic, post office, museum, library, treasury and tourism center, plus Pulau School, which educates kids through primary school. (Currently, it has just three students.) After that, children typically receive their higher education at boarding school in New Zealand.

 

Since there's no airport on the island, residents are linked to the outside world mainly via a passenger/cargo ship, the MV Silver Supporter, that travels between French Polynesia and Pitcairn on a limited basis. The trip requires spending at least two nights at sea and there are just 12 visitor berths. The ship comes about once a month.

Interestingly, most native Pitkerners are Seventh-Day Adventists. Originally followers of the Church of England, the mutineers' religion, the group was converted in 1887 by an Adventist missionary and the only church on the island is a Seventh-day Adventist church.

How Pitkerners Make a Living

In the early days, the settlers on Pitcairn were self-sufficient, growing crops, constructing homes and crafting clothing. After American whalers discovered the island in 1808, ships began regularly stopping in, including English vessels that brought over books and various supplies. In 1898, Britain assumed control of the island and began providing additional assistance.

By 1937, after searching for ways the island could become more self-sufficient, the British government landed on the idea of postage stamps. At that time, the island had no post office and had been using New Zealand stamps. Three years later, in 1940, the Pitcairn Islands opened its first post office. Its initial set of stamps were an immediate hit, quickly becoming popular with philatelists around the globe. Soon stamps were the island's largest source of revenue. However, revenue declined at the end of the 20th century with the general decline in letter writing and stamp collecting.

Today, while stamps are still available, the Pitkerners power their nano-economy by selling a well-regarded island honey, known for its rich, fruity flavor, as well as handmade crafts such as wood carvings, jewelry, clothing, soap and stationery. Its main private revenue generator, and one to which it is currently devoting much effort, is tourism.

 

In 2015, the British government established a marine reserve around the islands. At 324,000 square miles (834,000 square kilometers), it's the largest in the world. A few years later, in a bid to foster astro-tourism, Pitcairn applied to be named an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. It received this designation from the International Dark Sky Association in 2019, the only island group in the world to carry it. Pitcairn is also marketing itself to adventure travelers in search of unique, hard-to-access destinations and to cruise ship travelers.

Visitors can sign up to go whale-watching or fishing on one of the island's famous longboats. You can check out the grave of John Adams, one of the original mutineers, then swim in a sea-carved tidal pool. There's a guided tour down a 700-foot (231-meter) cliff, which features ancient Polynesian petroglyphs at the bottom, evidence of earlier inhabitants. And, if you're a certified scuba diver, you can explore the ruins of the HMS Bounty, which the mutineers sank after arriving to avoid being discovered by the British. (Wisely, they did first strip it of all useful items.) You can also simply wander around the island to take in the incredible views. Everything is well signed, and maps are available.

If Pitcairn's marketing efforts are successful, there may be one potential problem: lodging. There are no hotels or resorts on Pitcairn Island, although the tourism department helps arrange accommodations with local families. There is also a smattering of private homes and units for rent.

Searching for New Residents

Living on a remote tropical island may sound very enticing. But as we said earlier, Pitcairn's population has been decreasing since the end of World War II, with scores of young people opting to live elsewhere. Immigration, Pitkerners know, is key to their future.

To encourage new residents, the island is working to make immigration less onerous. It's now easier to obtain land for a home, for example, as well as subsidized medical treatment. Same-sex marriages are welcome. Yet despite these changes, the government warns you shouldn't move here on a whim. For life on such a remote island can be challenging, both physically and mentally.

Since there are so few people and so little contact with the outside world, islanders are expected to be able to perform a variety of tasks and pitch in as necessary. And while internet and cell service are available, the speeds and service quality aren't on par with what you'll find in developed and less insolated countries. There is only one television channel, too, although they're working on increasing coverage. As far as jobs, there may be a limited number of government jobs available, but many people support themselves through selling items to tourists or hosting them in their homes.

The government website warns that life on Pitcairn island is not for everyone. "It is not a place to get rich. The island's isolation and small size at times make life on Pitcairn physically demanding and emotionally challenging." Still, the website says, life there is diverse, both quiet and vibrant, and certainly never dull — probably the same conditions experienced by Fletcher Christian and crew more than 200 years earlier.

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So, friends, if you want to disappear or drop out from society, here's the spot to do it! But as it mentions in the post, don't do it on a whim! Sounds pretty bleak

Until next time, 

                                      Fair Winds,

                                            Old Salt