Two of the most innovative 19th-century warships were lost at sea during the U.S. Civil War

USS Monitor

Late in the summer of 1861, the United States Navy received reports of the near completion of Confederate ironclad warship CSS Virginia. The Union scrambled to develop a counter measure, and began accepting designs for the construction of its own ironclad. Engineer John Ericsson won the design competition, presenting a model with an armored revolving turret containing two guns, and a deck only 18 inches above shoreline. These innovations allowed the vessel, dubbed the USS Monitor, to both aim at opposing ships regardless of its orientation and avoid easy targeting. Clashing in the battle of Hampton Roads off southeast Virginia in March of 1862, Monitor and Virginia heralded a new era of naval warfare, one dominated by vessels powered by steam and constructed entirely of iron plates. Sunk in a storm in December 1862, much of Monitor still rests submerged off the coast of North Carolina. In 1975, the site became the first National Marine Sanctuary, and was designated a National Historic landmark in 1986. Several segments of the ship have been raised, and can be viewed at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

H.L. Hunley

At the same time as the ironclads were being rushed into production, the Confederacy was developing an innovative underwater military vessel: the submarine. Launched in 1863, the H.L. Hunley was the culmination of years of unsuccessful submarine designs by marine engineers Horace L. Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson. Hand propelled by seven men and steered by one, Hunley became the first submarine to successfully attack an enemy warship, sinking the USS Housatonic in February, 1864 with an electronically detonated spar torpedo. The vessel however never returned to harbor, and the mystery of its disappearance was not solved until it was raised in August 2000 (www.hunley.org). Submerged in silt, the sub and its contents were incredibly well preserved, allowing archaeologists to conclude that the vessel sank when its crew lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen.

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