Monitor Sinks in Storm
- When
- late December 1862
- Where
- Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
USS Monitor sank during a heavy storm off Cape Hatteras while being towed by USS Rhode Island, with structural failure caused by violent waves.
Monitor put to sea on 31 December 1862, under tow from USS Rhode Island, as a heavy storm developed off Cape Hatteras. The overhang between the upper and lower hulls came loose and partially separated during the storm from slamming into the violent waves, leading to the ship's sinking. A red signal lantern, possibly used to send a distress signal to Rhode Island, was the last thing seen before the ship sank.
Sources
- USS Monitor Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.