Ironclad. The Epic Battle, Calamitous Loss, and Historic Recovery of the USS Monitor

book summary

"A cheesebox on a shingle", scoffed on observer as the USS Monitor steamed slowly toward the Confederacy's hulking iron battleship in March 1862. But the odd-looking contraption with its revolving gun turret revolutionized naval warfare. Its one great battle in the spring of 1862 marked the obsolescence of wooden fighting ships and may have saved the Union. Its terrible end in a winter storm off Cape Hatteras condemned sixteen sailors to a watery grave. An the recovery of its 200-ton turret in August 2002 capped the largest, most complex and hazardous ocean salvage operation in history.