Truth and Consequences

Today is a day of history and foreshadowing, of looking back and of looking forward and in both instances perhaps not seeing what was, is or will be. Such is the tragedy so often of our species, we see the danger without ever grasping its depth. And depth is a deliberate choice of modifiers in this case

On this date, before any of us were born, an indecisive sea battle was fought that shapes, to this day, the world in which we live.  It was 150 years ago today, in a clash of ironclad vessels, The Merrimac, a ship of war from the Navy of the Confederate States of America engaged in a ferocious fire fight of over four hours with a vessel described as ‘cheesebox on a raft,’ the Monitor of the United States Navy.

Man had, since close to the dawn of time, sailed the oceans of the world in wooden ships-plain and grand, slow and fast, puny and powerful. Much of the commerce conducted along the shipping channels of the Atlantic between the old and new worlds was done in all manner of frigates and clipper ships, beautiful and majestic and, in time of war, armed and dangerous.

The day before, The Merrimac (the Confederates called her “Virginia”but history has allowed her to keep her maiden name) in succession engaged The Cumberland which it sank by ramming, then dispatched The Congress whose barrage of cannonballs bounced off its deckplates before being driven into the shore and catching on fire and, finally, forcing The Minnesota to ground itself to avoid being attacked and sunk.  Hundreds of Union sailors died. 

As I said, a century and a half ago today there wasn’t much to see in the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia (I was down there not that long ago and it still holds true). Play by play was a refinement and innovation of the late 20^th Century. By all accounts the two ironclads traded shots for hours with some damage but no extensive destruction as most of the crew struggled to keep their respective vessels afloat. The Merrimac concerned about approaching low tide and her rapidly diminishing ammunition stocks chose a tactical withdrawal and the Monitor, its Captain blinded by an onboard explosion, decided half a loaf was better than none.

By the time both vessels had made safe harbor, though no one of either crew could have yet known, war on the high seas would forever be different. There are six navies in the world with nuclear powered submarines-the most complicated and complex platform, perhaps second only to the International Space Station, ever conceived and constructed by a mostly hairless bipedal species with opposable thumbs. The same thumb that so tightly  clutched a rock it chose to use first as a weapon instead of construction material. Every choice has a consequence, even the choices you choose not to make.  
-bill kenny