Academia, Military, Science

Meet Two Sailors of the U.S.S. Monitor

An amazing team of historians and forensic experts have released the amazing results of years of construction of the features of two of the men who died in the USS Monitor in 1862. They have come to life in these pictures.


From the skulls discovered in the wreck the scientists were able to conclude the older sailor walked with a limp and always had a pipe clenched in his teeth while the younger sailor had a busted nose and wore beat-up, mismatched shoes. They were both drowned in the ship when it capsized off Cape Hatteras and sank upside down in 40 fathoms of water.

This incredible work was performed as a cooperative effort of over 40 years by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Navy, the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., and other groups.

While most of the 63 crewmen escaped the Monitor, some sixteen died in the wreck. Most are still at the bottom of the Cape. 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the USS Monitor.

Experts believe that the older sailor could be first-class fireman, Robert Williams, 30 — a Welsh man who is known to have similar features.


Source: Washington Post

15 thoughts on “Meet Two Sailors of the U.S.S. Monitor”

  2. I work at UPS, we transported the reconstructed faces from LSU to DC and created this video to engage our people in helping identify the men by watching the video then sharing it with their friends and family and so on. If anyone has helpful informatioin about their identities, contact info appears at the end of the video.

  3. “I think we should thank them and the nearly 300,000 other who died to preserve our country and end chattel slavery. Much of what they fought for was ethereal, there was no “United States” before 1865 and many had never seen a slave.”

    And yet, even today, there are those who claim that war was “not about slavery.” Sigh.

  4. while the younger sailor had a busted nose and wore beat-up, mismatched shoes.

    yes, but did he have on clean underwear.

  5. Rafflaw et al,
    A jealous comment: The good things you have access to; do they compensate for the shit?

    As for “are” and “is”—-that’s why Iraq never will be “is”, now that the Saddam forced unification is gone.

  6. Pingback: Brass Orders Breathalyzers for Sailors, Marines « ~ BLOGGER.GUNNY.G.1984+. ~ (BLOG & EMAIL)

  8. Well mespo and raff…. We have evolved (?) from an us to is to them……

  9. rafflaw:

    I just wish I could twang the word “a-tall” like Shelby Foote did. I watch a segment from that series about once a month. Just superb.

  11. Frankly:

    “I think we should thank them and the nearly 300,000 other who died to preserve our country and end chattel slavery. Much of what they fought for was ethereal, there was no “United States” before 1865 and many had never seen a slave.”

    *************************

    Hear, hear!

    As historian Shelby Foote said, “Before the War, it was said, ‘the United States are.’ Grammatically it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states. And after the war, it was always ‘the United States is,’ as we say today without being self-conscious at all. And that’s sums up what the war accomplished. It made us an ‘is.'”

  13. Having seen a full-scale floating model of that death trap any man who willingly sailed on her was either crazy or heroic, maybe both. I think we should thank them and the nearly 300,000 other who died to preserve our country and end chattel slavery. Much of what they fought for was ethereal, there was no “United States” before 1865 and many had never seen a slave.

    It is particularly fitting at this time when there is an entire political movement based on the social and economic foundations that formed the Confederacy – every man for himself & the devil take the hind most – that we stop and think about those lost to make America the United States and what we could throw away despite their sacrifice.

  15. “……some sixteen died in the wreck”
    And joined 499,984 others who died in that war.
    How does that compare with WWII?
    What freedoms and lives will our next conflict cost us.
    You can be damn sure there won’t be anymore PT-boat commanders injured from the one-percenters. Witness hero George.

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