NOAA webinar will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the USS Monitor

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.

Meet the Presenter: Dr. John Broadwater John D. Broadwater is president and founder of Spritsail Enterprises, an archaeological consulting company. During 2007-2010, he was chief archaeologist in the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). From 2005-2007, he served as program manager of NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program. From 1992-2005 he was manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, during which time he directed seven major expeditions to the remains of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. During 1978-90, as senior underwater archaeologist at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Broadwater directed a study of shipwrecks from the Battle of Yorktown, 1781. John has participated in numerous national and international underwater archaeological expeditions, including deepwater archaeology expeditions in the Black Sea and North Atlantic. He has served on numerous archaeological advisory boards and is a Fellow in The Explorers Club. In addition, John has published a variety of technical and popular articles and contributed to numerous archaeological books and encyclopedias including USS Monitor: a Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage (Texas A&M University Press, 2012).  He has a master’s degree in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, and a Ph.D. in Maritime Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Submerged NC webinars are part of the National Marine Sanctuaries webinar series and are brought to you by NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology. You can view archived webinars on the Submerged NC webinar archived page.

The National Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series provides educators with educational and scientific expertise, resources, and training to support ocean and climate literacy in the classroom. This series currently targets formal and informal educators, students (high school through college), as well as members of the community, including families. Click here to visit the sanctuaries’ archived webinar series to catch up on presentations you may have missed.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The webinar ID is 813-310-963.