King's Chronicles

One of my favorite things about living in Virginia is being surrounded by tons of history. Whether it is the history of colonial America from the first colony at Jamestown to the victory over the British at Yorktown or one of the dozens of Civil War battlefields, it really gives you a sense of accomplishment about how far we have come as a country. One the greatest turning points in that history is the Battle of Hampton Roads.

The Battle of Hampton Roads is more commonly known as the duel between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (also known as the Merrimack). While this first battle between ironclad warships ended in a stalemate, it would change the rules of naval warfare forever. Unfortunately, the fates of these two ships was less glamorous. The Virginia is destroyed by her own crew to avoid capture and the Monitor was lost at sea off the coast of Cape Hatteras.

Luckily, in recent years the wreck of the Monitor was found and efforts made to recover artifacts from the wreck. These artifacts are now being housed at the newly opened Monitor Center at The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA. It has always been a wonderful museum and can only imagine that the new addition of Monitor artifacts has made it even better.