phil sheridan, doc edgerton, and gordon watts as part of a research expedition off the coast of north carolina testing out new technologies and sonar with the "monitor" as their target. and lo and behold they found the shipwreck at the time sitting on the high seas 18 miles off the coast of -- or 17, demanding you how measure it, about 18 miles off the coast of north carolina but outside of state waters and outside of u.s. territorial waters at the time. so in '74, a year after she was found, the governor of north carolina requested that congress establish the monitor national marine sanctuary to protect the site and the rest is history. it was established on january 30th, 1975. so -- which was the date, the anniversary date of the launching of the "monitor." and what i want to talk about specifically -- we'll be covering much of the history of the ship over the rest of the day. but i want to talk about the two remains. when noaa went out to recover the shipwreck and congress asked noaa after the designation of the sanctuary and after about a decade of monitoring the "monitor," it was

phil sheridan and gordon watts off the coast of north carolina, testing out new technologies and sonar with the monitor as their target. they found it on the high seas 18 miles off the coast of north carolina but outside of state waters and outside of u.s. territorial waters at the time. in '74, a year after she was found, the governor of north carolina requested that congress establish the monitor national marine sanctuary to protect the site and the rest is history. it was established on january 30th, 1975. which was the date -- the anniversary date of the launching of the monitor. and what i want to talk about specifically and we'll be covering much of the history of the ship over the rest of the day. but i want to talk about the two remains. when noaa went out to recover the shipwreck and congress asked noaa after about a decade of monitoring the monitor. it was noted the ship is deteriorating, which is a notion that we fight a little bit against today trying to help people ask me, what is the condition of the ship? and i will point out that as a ship, it's in terrible shape obviou