Lack of Funding Closes USS Monitor Conservation Lab

NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA—The wet lab where the turret from the USS Monitor is being conserved in a 90,000-gallon water tank will close to the public due to budget constraints and a lack of federal funding. “Obviously, we’re not going to let these things fall apart. This is the largest marine metals conservation project in the entire world,” said David Krop, director of USS Monitor Center, an extension of The Mariners’ Museum that opened in 2007. The federal government retains ownership of the historic Civil War-era ironclad ship, including the two guns, a propeller, and a steam engine from the Monitor that are housed in the museum.