U.S. Navy Cmdr. Philip G. Beierl inspects an artifact on the sunken U.S. Civil War ship USS Monitor 240 feet below the ocean's surface on June 23, 1999. Beierl is diving from the USS Grasp (ARS 51) in waters sixteen miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C. The battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, on March 9, 1862, at Hampton Roads, Va., was the first battle fought by iron armored vessels during the civil war. Beierl is the commanding officer of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two.