Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: first encounter -- "The Monitor is no more" -- Following new orders -- Facing the Cape -- Both ironclads in trouble -- Distress aboard Monitor -- "The Monitor is no more" -- Discovery -- Early attempts to locate Monitor -- Discovery and positive identification of Monitor -- The formal announcement and follow-up plans -- The R/V Alcoa seaprobe mapping cruise, April 1974 -- Story of an ironclad -- The slow evolution of naval technology -- Arms versus armor -- American ironclads capture the world's attention -- The ultimate test: the battle of Hampton Roads -- A sanctuary for America -- Protecting Monitor -- Investigating Monitor -- NOAA/Harbor Branch Foundation submersible expeditions -- NOAA reassesses its management strategy -- Institutional and private research expeditions, 1974-1979 -- Private dive expeditions, 1990-1997 -- Next steps -- Charting a new course for the Monitor -- Escalating management issues -- Reassessment of Monitor management strategy -- Congressional mandate for a Monitor preservation plan -- Development of the comprehensive, long-range plan -- Summary of the final comprehensive, long-range plan -- Final recommendations -- Initial planning and implementation -- Implementing the recovery plan -- Help from a new source -- Propeller recovery expedition, 1998 -- Data collection expedition, 1999 -- Engineering the recovery of Monitor's machinery -- Hull stabilization and deployment of engine recovery structure, 2000 -- Steam engine recovery, 2001 -- Monitor completes its final voyage -- Gun turret recovery, 2002 -- 2002 Monitor expedition -- In Monitor's turret -- Entering a tomb -- Monitor completes its final voyage -- The turret's final journey -- Back in the turret -- Revelations from the turret -- The sanctuary's future -- Epilogue: telling Monitor's story.