A naval battle between two large ships: the "Monitor" and the "Merrimack".
In 1861, at the onset of the American Civil War, the Union forces stationed in Gosport, Virginia, prepare to leave. The Confederate forces are poised to take Gosport. Before departing Gosport, the Union forces destroy the port facilities, docks, warehouses and a few ships that cannot sail. One of these ships is U.S.S. Merrimack, a 40-gun steam frigate. However, the Union forces fail to destroy the dry dock. The Confederates use the dry dock to repair the Merrimack and cover it with iron plates in order to turn it into an Ironclad. The Confederates intend to use the ironclad ship, re-named C.S.S. Virginia, to attack the Union wooden warships blockading the Confederacy. Washington D.C. gets wind of these Confederate plans and decides to send two spies, one man and a Southern belle, to Virginia to steal the exact specs of the new Confederate ironclad ship. This information is vital for the Union in order to allow it to build a more powerful ironclad ship than the Confederate one. While the Union spies work in Virginia to steal this information the Union shipyards start the construction of an ironclad ship, the U.S.S. Monitor. In the meantime, the completed Confederate ironclad ship wreaks havoc among the Union warships blockading Virginia. After 3 months, the Union ironclad ship is ready and without further ado it makes its way to Virginia. Its first mission is to protect the few remaining Union warships still blockading Virginia. The Confederate ironclad has a tall profile but is armed with 10 cannons while the Union ironclad has a much lower profile but is armed with only 2 cannons mounted in a rotating turret. Both ships face a tough upcoming fight among the treacherous sand bars of the shallow waters of coastal Virginia. In the morning of March 9th, 1962, the two opposing ironclads finally meet in battle.—nufs68
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the U.S. Navy is forced to abandon the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia and destroy all ships and facilities that could be of use to the Confederacy. Leslie Harmon (Reed Diamond), who has been stationed at the yard for the past two years, is ordered to destroy the drydock; but fearing civilian casualties from the demolition, he deliberately puts out the burning powder trail. Upon occupying the yard, the Confederate Navy promptly puts the drydock to use, building an ironclad warship on the burnt hulk of the steam frigate Merrimack.
As Union Navy staff members respond with plans to build an ironclad of their own, Harmon is brought before the judgment of Commodore Joseph Smith (E.G. Marshall) and his son, Lt. Joseph Smith Jr. (Kevin O'Rourke). Though Harmon faces the death penalty for disobeying orders, the Smiths offer him a chance to redeem himself if he will go south posing as a Union defector and gather information on the reconstruction of the Merrimack. Betty Stuart (Virginia Madsen), a Southern belle who has been educated in Baltimore and indoctrinated against slavery, accompanies Harmon back to Norfolk, where she helps him to infiltrate the yard with her standing in Norfolk's social elite. Harmon also makes the acquaintance of Lieutenant Guilford (Philip Casnoff), an admiral's aide who doubles as a spy hunter.
Meanwhile, Betty rekindles a romance with Lt. Catesby Jones (Alex Hyde-White), a childhood lover who has been stationed in Alabama for the past several years. Having reported to Norfolk with artillery for the Merrimack, Jones presides over an armor test, but Harmon learns that the test is staged to send false information to the Union; the genuine test was conducted several days earlier. Betty convinces him to take the results of the real test north, but to her distress, she discovers that Jones has been assigned to the Merrimack as executive officer and she has inadvertently placed his life at risk.
John Ericsson (Fritz Weaver) presents his design for an ironclad warship, the Monitor, to the Union Navy, although his proposal is met with some skepticism. He insists that the Monitor be allowed to fire its guns with 30-pound powder charges, but naval staff officers, fearing catastrophic breech failure and explosion, refuse to permit more than 15 pounds. Unaware of this order, Betty is forced to reveal her duplicity to Jones at the commissioning ceremony for the Merrimack. Though shocked and angry that Betty has lied to him, Jones declines to turn her in before setting sail to destroy the Union blockade in Hampton Roads. Guilford arrests Betty for espionage, based on a letter from Joe Smith Jr. that was intercepted at the Mason-Dixon Line in the possession of her mother's maid, Opal (Beatrice Bush).
Joe has assumed command of the frigate Congress, one of the largest ships in the Hampton Roads blockade; in pitched gun action, the Merrimack sinks the sloop of war Cumberland and then the Congress, killing Joe on his quarterdeck. The Congress's executive officer elects to surrender, but rifle fire from Union troops on shore spurs the Merrimack's captain, Franklin Buchanan (Leon B. Stevens), to go topside to return fire. He suffers a leg wound and turns command over to Jones, ordering him to burn the Congress with hot shot. Having set the Congress ablaze, Jones attempts to take on the Minnesota, the next ship in line; but the Merrimack's deep draft prevents him from getting within effective range. He decides to anchor for the night and return to attack the Minnesota in the morning.
At the Norfolk prison where Betty has been incarcerated, she and Opal witness the hanging of a young Union soldier, a sobering reminder of the fate that awaits Betty if she does not cooperate with Guilford. As she mourns Joe that night, Guilford attempts to press her for information, but she gives him nothing of value. Meanwhile, the Monitor arrives in Hampton Roads and ties up alongside the Minnesota, where Leslie Harmon delivers orders - and himself, volunteering as a pilot - to the Monitor's captain, John Worden (Andy Park). Worden commissions Harmon as a midshipman for his coming mission to protect the Minnesota from destruction.
On the morning of March 9, 1862, Jones prepares to attack the Minnesota but is headed off by the Monitor. In the ensuing duel, neither ship is able to inflict serious damage on the other, despite the Merrimack's greater firepower and the Monitor's greater maneuverability. During the action, the Merrimack - hampered by the shallow water and damage sustained the previous day - grounds on a mud bank, but pulls free and rams the Monitor to no effect. When Worden attempts a retaliatory ram against the Merrimack's rudder, a lucky shot to the Monitor's pilot house blinds him. The Monitor withdraws to shallow water as Worden turns over command to his executive officer, Lt. Samuel Greene (George Kelly). Heeding the orders from on high, Greene returns to protect the Minnesota. Summing up the damage to the Merrimack, the falling tide and his own crew's exhaustion, Jones also withdraws from the battle, resulting in a stalemate.
Still expecting to be hanged for treason, Betty is pleasantly surprised when Guilford instead releases her from prison, citing an after-action report written by Jones that effectively saved her from execution. Jones meets Betty outside the prison and explains that the content of his report was fictional, but he purposely submitted it because he couldn't bear to see her die. However, he also explains that they have no future together because of her double agency. He tells Betty to return to the North and then departs, never to see her again.
A voiceover narration outlines the fates of the two ironclads: that the Merrimack was destroyed two months later when the Confederate Navy withdrew from Norfolk, and the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras at the end of the year.
