On December 31, 1862, the USS Monitor—the U.S. Navy’s first ironclad warship—sailed into a storm and sank off the coast of North Carolina. Now, more than 160 years later, experts have produced the first high-resolution sonar images of the Monitor, offering an unprecedented look at the pioneering Civil War vessel as it rests on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
In September 2025, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Stantec and Northrop Grumman surveyed the Monitor shipwreck using an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with specialized sonar mapping technology.
The scan produced highly detailed images that scientists are now using to study features that were previously obscured by the murky water, including the vessel’s internal framework, reports WVEC-TV’s Jordie Clark.
Researchers were also surprised to see the wreck was still in “fantastic shape,” Tane Casserley, a maritime archaeologist with the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, tells the Virginian-Pilot’s Emma Rose Brown.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member