Nova: Lincoln's Secret Weapon (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)While the title is incorrect, the material about the Union ironclad Monitor is accurate. For the ship was hardly a secret weapon. As much a submarine as it was a warship, it revolutionized naval warfare and did more to save the Union than is generally historically acknowledged. Furthermore, the battle between it and the Merrimac was witnessed by thousands of soldiers on both sides of the battle.
The primary focus of the tape is on a salvage operation being mounted by diving experts of the United States navy. Shortly after the Civil war ended, the Monitor sank in 230 feet of water off the coast of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Once the wreck was located, an operation was mounted to recover some of the rapidly deteriorating ship. While modern technology allows for diving to be conducted at that depth, the operation is more complex than it would first appear. That area is where the warm ocean currents from the tropics meet the cold ones from the Arctic and storms and strong undersea currents can arise very quickly.
There are two points of interest on the tape. The first is of course the history of the Monitor. While John Erricson is not widely mentioned as an inventor whose inventions changed the course of American history, he should be. For it was he who designed and constructed the Monitor, a ship that was built very quickly in response to the threat of a southern ironclad, and contained on the order of forty patentable inventions. While the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac was officially a draw, in reality it was a complete Union victory. The consequences were that the Union blockade remained firm and that guaranteed that the south would run out of the resources needed to wage war. Quite correctly, a narrator argues that it was the most critical battle of the war, although I personally would not go that far. To me, Gettysburg is still the most important battle, for if the south had won there, Washington, D. C. would most likely have fallen. The psychological loss of the Union capital would have been severe and could have led to a stalemate and a recognition of the south by Britain or France.
The second point is the description of the complexity of an underwater recovery of sunken ships. Until I watched this tape, I really had no idea how difficult the task is and how dangerous. Now, I appreciate the level of training and professionalism that these divers possess.
History can be viewed as a flowing river subject to sharp bends based on certain events. The development and action of the Monitor clearly altered the course of that historical river and it is good that there is a major attempt to recover what is left of it. From this tape you can learn one part of how that is being done.

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