The Search for USS Monitor – 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Monitor!

August 31, 2023

In the early morning hours of New Year's Eve 1862, the Civil War Ironclad, USS Monitor, sank beneath the ocean waves during a terrible storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. That morning, 16 men went down with the ship, and although numerous people searched for it for over a century, the Monitor’s final resting location remained a mystery until 1973.

Join John Broadwater, president and founder of Spritsail Enterprises and former superintendent at Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, to learn about the search for the USS Monitor. Discover why the shipwreck was difficult to locate and learn about the expeditions to find it. Go back in time to August of 1973, when John G. Newton led a team of scientists in search of the elusive shipwreck. Learn why it continued to be difficult to identify once they thought they found it and what finally convinced the team it was indeed the USS Monitor.

This webinar is one of the first in our 50th anniversary celebrations of USS Monitor. Stay tuned for more, as we commemorate the confirmation of the location of Monitor in 1974 and the shipwreck becoming our nation's first national marine sanctuary in 1975.