Researchers Debunk 142 Year Old Legend.

www.noaanews.noaa.gov
Aug. 25, 2005 — Conservators from The Mariners' Museum and NOAA scientists were able to debunk a 142-year-old legend with 90-percent confidence this past week after spending most of August documenting and excavating the bore of both 11-inch Dahlgren cannons from the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor's iconic gun turret. One of the most popular legends in the history of the Monitor, it began with a crewmember from the vessel, Francis B. Butts, who claimed during the night the ironclad sank, he shoved his coat and boots in one cannon, and a cat in the other.

In a December 1885 article entitled "The Loss of the Monitor," Butts says:

"I took off my coat—one that I had received from home only a few days before (I could not feel that our noble little ship was yet lost)—and rolling it up with my boots, drew the tampion from one of the guns, placed them inside, and replaced the tampion. A black cat was sitting on the breech of one of the guns, howling one of those hoarse and solemn tunes which no one can appreciate who is not filled with the superstitions which I had been taught by the sailors, who are always afraid to kill a cat. I would almost as soon have touched a ghost, but I caught her, and placing her in another gun, replaced the wad and tampion; but I could still hear that distressing yowl."

"We've excavated and screened enough material from both cannons to say with certainty that neither cannon is loaded. We have also failed to find any trace of organic material such as leather, wool or bone," said the Mariners' Museum Assistant Conservator David Krop. "Although we are still clearing concretion and sediment from inside both bores that may hide cat bones or organics, I seriously doubt anything will turn up."

The cannons were removed from the Monitor's gun turret in 2004 as part of the ongoing conservation process. After resting on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for more than 142 years, the guns filled with concretions and sediment that must be removed as one of the first steps in the conservation process. Conservators used caution during this process in case Butts' story ended up true, and because they could not immediately verify if the guns were or were not loaded. Excavation has revealed the guns were not loaded.


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