Iron from the Deep

Robert Sheridan has been part of the Monitor story since the 1970s, when his research vessel first made sonar contact with the long-lost wreck of the famous Civil War ironclad, and he collected the first identifiable artifact. In this book he combines his firsthand perspective of the Monitor’s discovery and efforts to save her artifacts with an authoritative history of the ship that revolutionized naval ship design. Opening chapters discuss the ship’s construction, her successful battle with the Merrimac in 1862 that spelled the end of wooden warships, and the Monitor’s sinking later that year off Cape Hatteras. Comments from the secretary of the Navy who spurred the building of the Monitor, the captain who ordered her into action, and the young lieutenant who survived the sinking, add color to these historically significant events.

In addition to his personal account of the discovery of the Monitor, Sheridan addresses the issue of controls over the wreck and recovery proposals. He describes his nearly twenty years of lobbying to convince Congress that the Monitor’s deterioration called for action.

The book’s final chapters chronicle the raising of artifacts from this national treasure. Although several books have been written about the dramatic history of the Yankee ironclad, and several others have been published about attempts to recover her, this is the first to
cover both subjects in detail.

Robert E. Sheridan is a professor of geological sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey and one of the discoverers of the wreck of the Monitor.