Onboard Gear

Thermometer

Monitor’s engine register. Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Mariners’ Museum

Several thermometers were found on the shipwreck during excavations in and around the engine room in 2001. Surprisingly, after being brought to the surface following 139 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, a few of them still worked and began to register the temperature on the deck of the recovery ship. The thermometers were made in Brooklyn by and Italian instrument maker named Giuseppe Tagliabue. They were kept on the ship to keep track of the temperature on various areas of the ship. This was important because the Monitor burned coal and was almost completely made of iron with no real windows, which allowed temperatures to rise to extreme levels. The crew wrote about these uncomfortable living temperatures which could sometimes rise to more than 150 degrees in certain parts of the ship.