name after her capture by secessionists while she was being rebuilt as an ironclad. When her conversion was almost complete, her name was officially changed to . Despite the official name change, Union accounts persisted in calling Merrimack by her original name, while Confederate sources used either Virginia or Merrimac(k). The alliteration of Monitor and Merrimack has persuaded most popular accounts to adopt the familiar name, even when it is acknowledged to be technically incorrect. A CSS Merrimac did actually exist. She was a paddle wheel steamer named for the victor (as most Southerners saw it) at Hampton Roads. She was used for running the blockade until she was captured and taken into Federal service, still named Merrimac. Her name was a spelling variant of the river, namesake of USS Merrimack. Both spellings are still in use around the Hampton Roads area. A small community in Montgomery County, Virginia, near the location where the iron for the Confederate ironclad was forged is now known as Merrimac. Some of the iron mined there and used in the plating on the Confederate ironclad is displayed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. The anchor of Virginia sits on the lawn in front of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond. Commemorating the battle: Monitor After resting undetected on the ocean floor for 111 years, the wreck of Monitor was located by a team of scientists in 1973. The remains of the ship were found upside down off Cape Hatteras, on a relatively flat, sandy bottom at a depth of about . In 1987, the site was declared a National Marine Sanctuary, the first shipwreck to receive this distinction. Because of Monitors advanced state of deterioration, timely recovery of remaining significant artifacts and ship components became critical. Numerous fragile artifacts, including the innovative turret and its two Dahlgren guns, an anchor, steam engine, and propeller, have been recovered. They were transported back to Hampton Roads to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, where they were treated in special tanks to stabilize the metal. It is reported that it will take about ten years for the metal to completely stabilize. The new USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum officially opened on March 9, 2007, and a full-scale copy of USS Monitor, the original recovered turret, and artifacts and related items are now on display. Commemorating the Battle of Hampton Roads The Battle