David Alberg News

Researchers from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partners are set to visit what remains of two ships—a German U-boat and a Nicaraguan freighter – which sank off Cape Hatteras during World War II’s “Battle of the Atlantic,” which pitted the U-boats of the German navy against combined Canadian, British, and American forces defending Allied merchant ships. By July 1942, the United States had been in World War II for less than a year, but the fight was coming to the nation’s shores.

Partnering U.S. agencies have commenced surveying the historic shipwreck of an American lightship shelled and sunk by a German U-boat during World War I nearly 100 years ago. Teams from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), on Sunday, August 30, began a survey of the historic wreck of Diamond Shoal Lightship No. 71, the only American lightship to be sunk by enemy action during World War I.

A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two vessels, in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, is a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII.

Recreates faces of two sailors found in ill-fated ship’s gun turret, asks public for help to identify. Nearly 150 years after 16 USS Monitor sailors died when their vessel sank in a New Year’s Eve storm, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries has released forensic reconstructions of the faces of two crew members. Officials unveiled the reconstructions and dedicated a plaque in memory of the Monitor crew during a ceremony sponsored by the United States Navy Memorial Foundation at the Navy Memorial in Washington today.

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries today launched a new website highlighting the 150-year history of the USS Monitor on the anniversary of the ship’s launch. The website, http://monitor.noaa.gov/150th, takes viewers from the iconic warship’s construction through its recovery to recent science expeditions undertaken to protect its legacy. The website, also offers students, teachers and history enthusiasts a variety of education materials and a calendar of upcoming events celebrating the Monitor.

NOAA and the U.S. Navy embarked today on a two-day research expedition to survey the condition of two sunken Civil War vessels that have rested on the seafloor of the James River in Hampton Roads, Va., for nearly 150 years. Using state-of-the-art sonar technology to acquire data, researchers will create three-dimensional maps of the two shipwrecks, USS Cumberland and CSS Florida, to  analysis on their current conditions and better understand the technological innovations of the time. “The remains of the USS Cumberland and CSS Florida, preserved in the waters of Hampton Roads, remind us of the sacrifices made during the Civil War and give us a unique and rare opportunity to explore a pivotal chapter in our nation’s history…