I have finished Ironclad (see previous post) and am glad that I bought this as a used book instead of paying the new price. Approximately two thirds of the book is devoted to the efforts to raise the USS Monitor's turret by a combined team of Navy divers and marine archeologists. While in itself not a bad thing, much of this portion was composed of matters related to diving in general, individual team members' personal and professional histories and dive stories not related to the USS Monitor. This portion could have been cut by at least half with no impact on the story of raising the turret.
I also think that much of what was written here about the vessels, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia was abbreviated and general, probably appearing in many prior publications about the ships and their one day of combat. I will have to get deeper into the historical data but that is my first impression.
I came away with little I did not already know about the basic histories of the two ships and their combat, and a lot about diving that I really did not care about since the book was supposed to focus on the two ironclads and the recovery of the USS Monitor, which turned out to the the Monitor's turret.
I also bought the Kindle version of The H. L. Hunley, the Secret Hope of the Confederacy by Tom Chaffin 2008. From the extracts I have read and a few recommendations from historians, I suspect this will be a more full account of the fish-boat, it's design, history and operation. More to come on this one.
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