Although it sank more than 150 years ago, the USS Monitor has an everlasting place in history.

As one of the first of the so-called "ironclads," the Monitor, along with its Confederate Army foe, the CSS Merrimack, fought to a draw at the Battle of Hampton Roads, VA, on March 9, 1862. From that day forward, all other wooden navies in the world were obsolete.

Later in 1862, the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC, where the rusting hull rested until it was recovered by divers in 2002. Artifacts from the craft, including its revolving, cylindrical, 20-ft, two-gun turret, were taken to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA.

Without question, relics from the Monitor are important to history, and the key to future study is preservation. That's where Automated Precision Inc. of Rockville, MD, comes in. Their 3D scanning hardware, not to mention the expertise of their engineers and support of software partners, enable artifacts such as the Monitor's turret to be recorded in the kind of minute detail that would not have been possible even in the recent past.

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