Marine archaeological guns always have one big problem in particular – how do you clean the inside?

These are no ordinary cabinets though…they are “Delta” cabinets that are museum specific storage equipment able to maintain a hermetic seal and therefore, a microclimate!!

My name is Kim, and I’m an intern at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in the Batten Conservation Complex this summer.

Well guess what? The tank is now drained and Monitor‘s gun turret is visible in the open air for the first time in over three years. The excitement in the lab is palpable, and we have an ambitious two-week (July 27 – August 7) work window within the lab.

However, there are handful of artifacts that continue to mystify us in the lab, particularly those that have been fully conserved but not properly identified.

A shot ladle was recovered under the wooden chest in Monitor’s gun turret in 2002. Consisting of a copper scoop nailed to a wooden head, it allowed the gunners to perfectly load/unload the Dahlgren guns.

In 1893 the New York Times mentioned a fire resulting in injuries in a shop owned by a Mr. James Gregory at 106 Cannon Street. Mr. Gregory’s metal shop foreclosed in 1897. Take a look at the pics!