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Conservators hunt for artifacts inside Civil War-era warship

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) – Conservators are hoping to discover more artifacts stuck inside the gun turret of the Civil War-era USS Monitor.

The Daily Press reports that a recently expanded conservation team drained the ironclad warship’s gun turret earlier this week at the USS Monitor Center. The center is part of the Mariners’ Museum & Park in Newport News.

Conservators are set to spend the next two months delicately removing layers of marine accumulation in the hopes of finding small artifacts that might have been trapped when the Monitor sank in rough seas off North Carolina’s coast in 1862.

 

Officers on deck of the USS Monitor James River, July 9, 1862. Public domain image
Officers on deck of the USS Monitor James River, July 9, 1862. Public domain image

 

A 2011 cleaning campaign yielded a bone-handled knife, a monkey wrench, a glass tube and a cartridge for a naval carbine.

The work is being funded following a yearlong fundraising effort.

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Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/

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