March 6, 2012
-- This handsome face could look like someone you might notice on the street today, but this man died 150 years ago on the USS Monitor. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Navy and a forensics lab at Louisiana State University have been collaborating to try and recreate the faces of two men whose remains were recovered on the Union army ship that sunk on Dec. 31, 1862. This is the younger of the two men. He is estimated to be between 17 and 24 years old. He could be one of three people: William Eagan of Ireland; Jacob Nicklis of Buffalo, N.Y.; or Samuel Auge Lewis of West Chester, Pa. He was about 5 foot, 7 inches tall.
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NOAA scientists believe this may be the face of a Welshman named Robert Williams. Williams was likely in his early 30s and about 5 foot 6 inches tall. He smoked a pipe, served on two other Navy ships before joining the Monitor, and may have been a fireman. He also had arthritis and likely suffered from syphilis.
The remains of one of the men -- as first seen underwater inside the sunken ship's turret.
Researchers at Louisiana State University used skull casts of the remains found inside the wreck for the facial reconstruction of both unknown sailors.
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A diver explores the bow of the USS Monitor.
Eighty-five percent of the USS Monitor remains on the ocean bottom. But when researchers raised the turret of the ship in 2001 (shown here), they recovered the remains of the two men.
This painting by J. O. Davidson depicts the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862. The battle was the first between two ironclad warships.
Officers of the USS Monitor are seen on the ship's deck in this July 9, 1862 photo by Union photographer James F. Gibson. The Monitor was a smaller, more nimble ship with a swiveling gun turret on its deck. It was built in 1862 in Brooklyn.
Crew of the USS Monitor take a break on deck in this 1862 photo, also by Gibson. The remains of the USS Monitor lie on the ocean floor, which David Alberg, superintendent of the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, says "it's treated as a grave site."
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