Lt. John Mercer Brooke

Join us at The Mariners’ for a newly-created series, USS Monitor Legacy Program, that highlights the history and lasting impact of USS Monitor through a variety of public events in partnership with the NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center, will present the multifaceted history of USS Monitor, and the program will be in person and livestreamed in the Explorers Theater at the Museum.

Attending in person? This event is included in $1 admission, and free for Mariners’ Museum Members. Seating is limited.

Watching remotely? This lecture is free to watch and you may register here. 

Advance registration is required whether you attend this event in person or online.

Altru webform & Web: 

Join us for a Monitor presentation with historian John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center, as he talks about an American  American inventor who developed new rifled guns used on the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.

Attendees are welcome to send comments or questions to John, and he will answer them following his talk.

About the presentation: John Mercer Brooke joined the US Navy as a midshipman in 1841. He graduated from the USNA in 1847. He worked at the US Naval Observatory with Mathew Fontaine Maury conducting several scientific experiments, including inventing a device for accurately mapping the deep seafloor. He joined the Confederate Navy in 1861 and played a critical role in transforming USS Merrimack into CSS Virginia. Brooke’s most valuable contribution was the design and production of the 7-inch and 6.4-inch Brooke rifles for the CS Navy. These guns were the finest naval rifled guns of the Civil War.