Melissa Ryan News

NOAA scientists and partner researchers are set to explore the shipwreck of the USS Monitor, natural reefs and the maritime cultural landscape off the North Carolina coast, and starting May 15, the public will be able to follow along.The two week mission — titled “Valor in the Atlantic” — will use state-of-the-art, remotely-piloted submersibles and other technologies to explore notable sites surrounding America’s first National Marine Sanctuary. The Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration is providing much of the technology for the mission…

Ocean Technology Foundation historian Peter Reaveley spent more than 30 years researching the battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis, using everything from eyewitness and literary accounts of both the battle and damage to the ship found in archives and libraries all over the world. Using these accounts, as well as wind, weather and tidal data from the time, OTF created a computer simulation to hopefully pinpoint the location where Bonhomme Richard is located. Still, explained project manager Melissa Ryan, the data they’re using is almost as old as the United States itself. They’re hoping that merging history, science and technology will give them an edge. The software they used to select their search area, Ryan said, is the same software that the U.S.