On a recent March Sunday while that cloudy, cold wind coming off the Rappahannock River was casting a chill over the town of Urbanna, we decided it was a perfect day to visit a museum. We had not been to the Mariners Museum in Newport News in more than 40 years and decided it was time for the native, Chip Buxton, and me to return.
The changes we saw were amazing and we were happy we had planned such an interesting visit. The best part of the museum was the new “Monitor” wing, which presented a display and explanation of the “Battle of the Ironclads,” the “Monitor” and “Merrimac,” which took place during the Civil War in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862.
The Battle Theater at the museum has an ongoing movie every 30 minutes that explains the event in living color. All those who attend — expect lots of cannon booms as the sea battle rages on between the two iron ships for four hours finally ending in a draw.
The Confederate ship “Merrimac” was created from the once wooden ship “Virginia,” that had been covered with an iron armor and was captained by Captain Franklin Buchanan. What made this ship special for us is after Captain Buchanan was wounded by Union rifle fire from off shore, his command was turned over to Lt. Catesby R. Jones, whose grandson by the same name practiced law for many years in Gloucester.
His son (also by the same name) founded “Peace Frogs” clothing line soon after graduating from college in 1985 that uses an adorable green frog as its logo. We knew both parties and that made learning about the battle even more meaningful for us.
The Confederate “Merrimac” had attacked and destroyed several Union wooden frigates that were in the area at the time, the “Cumberland” and the “Congress.” When the Yankee iron clad ship “Monitor” approached and entered battle with the “Merrimac, “the two ironclads fought broadside for four hours neither doing any serious damage to the other. However, the “Monitor’s” presence protected the Yankee frigate “Minnesota” that was also in the area and had been attacked and prevented her from being destroyed.
The Confederates evacuated Norfolk that May and since the “Merrimac” drew too much draft to escape up the James River to Richmond, it was abandoned and eventually set fire and sank.
The “Monitor” ended up being sent to the North Carolina coast to help with the Union blockade there but ran into a ferocious storm with gigantic waves that flooded the engine room. She eventually sank off Cape Hatteras with the loss of 16 men.
Other films that we watched in the exhibit described the stormy night that sank the “Monitor” off the coast of North Carolina and the retrieval efforts of her gun turret over a century later when the shipwreck burial site was discovered in 1973, more than 100 years later.
Funds were raised to finance this project with many natives of Newport News and Hampton contributing to this massive effort. Work started in 1980 and by 2002 the turret was retrieved and eventually sent to the Mariners Museum.
Skeletons of two U.S. Navy sailors were found inside the turret but their identity is still unknown. The Newport News shipyard built an exact replica of the “Monitor,” which is also on display at the museum and we were thrilled to walk on it and even ring the ship’s bell.
There were two major changes in warfare that came about with the battle of the ironclads for both the north and the south. One was the era of wooden ships was over. Two was the Monitor’s revolving gun turret that could maneuver the guns to take aim rather the entire ship replaced stationary cannons.
There are many other displays at the museum, the famous ship “Oracle” that won the America Cup, and models of the “America,” the first superliner built at the shipyard, “Queen Elizabeth,” “S.S. Rotterdam,” “Liberty,” along with antique figureheads and ship furnishings and china place settings from many cruise liners.
They also had a collection of small crafts typical of the Chesapeake Bay area which looked interesting but we did not have time to visit. It was near closing time, so we headed for the exit. That exhibit would have to wait for the next visit.
As we left the museum near closing time we noticed there were many walkers on the Noland Trail, which circumvents the Mariners Lake which looked inviting for another day. The land and park around the museum is lovely and we decided to come back on another day and enjoy walking on the trail.
There was one more lesson both sides learned from the Civil War from nearly a million casualties. War is stupid. We must find other ways to settle differences.
It was horrifying to see films of Americans killing each other. I find it difficult today to understand how political fervor no matter what was the cause could ignite enough hatred and passion between northerners and southerners to cause such a tragic war. It seems that once the passion and zeal begins, then the name calling starts — and then it isn’t long before as Rudyard Kipling called it — “the guns begin to shoot.”
I am hoping that someday the passion and zeal that causes people to do violence on their fellow man can be controlled, perhaps by meds, perhaps by mutated genes, I know not which. But the fighting, the killing, the violence must stop. I can only hope that one day this becomes a reality.
There is a gift shop and coffee shop. They have wheelchairs at check in, admission is only $1 a person. How wise for a museum to charge so little that people keep coming back again and again.
We stopped at the Blue Crab restaurant in West Point for a fried cod dinner, which was the perfect ending to a very informative and interesting day.
For Civil War buffs especially, run, don’t walk, to the Mariners Museum for a great day trip and an important piece of local history.
