You Are There - The Monitor and the Merrimac

“You Are There” is the best radio dramatization I have ever heard. Each show begins with “live” background coverage of the historical event, and then the “on the scene reporters” take over. Everybody knows there were no radio announcers onboard the Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria, (or from Ancient Greece, Medieval France, or the Battle of Gettysburg either!) but you will be transported back in time anyway as the show “broadcasts” from the ships, the shore, and from Spain. The dialogue is very believable, historically accurate, and very much in character. It is apparent that the producers of this show did their homework! Let’s listen to the announcer now…”CBS take you back to 1492. All things are as they were then, except for one thing: when CBS is there, You Are There! You Are There is based on authentic historical fact and quotations, and now, on to our story.” ...... The significance of the encounter between the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack (renamed the Virginia following the Confederacy's decision to secede) was the fact that it represented the first clash of ironclad naval vessels in history.  Previously, warships were constructed of wood.  With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the transformation in manufacturing techniques, designs for metal ships emerged, with the Monitor and Merrimack being among the first such ships built.  The Merrimack had been successfully inflicting considerable damage on northern shipping, prompting the dispatch of the Monitor to confront it.  That encounter occurred on March 8-9, 1862 off the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.  The arrival off Hampton Roads of Monitor succeeded in relieving the wooden-hulled northern ships, especially the USS Minnesota, and the battle that ensued between the two ironclads ended in a draw, neither succeeding in inflicting much damage on the other.  The encounter would be the only such clash between the two opposing vessels, but the uniqueness of the confrontation precipitated a rush among navies in Europe to emphasize iron over wood in the construction of their warships.