On July 15, 1926, 86 year old John J. Curley died in his daughter's house at 9 South Burden Avenue in South Troy. It was noted in the local newspapers. "Jack" Curley was the last "survivor" of the nine men involved in making the protective plates for the U.S.S. Monitor at Troy's Albany Iron Works in 1861. Thanks to Schenectady's Ed Curley, Jack Curley will get some more well deserved publicity. Timely too, since the City has allowed the iron works building to be scraped - at the same time our government is spending $7 million to bring up the Monitor's turret and another $30 million for building a Monitor Museum.

Irony is such a fitting word for the next set of facts. There were nine men involved in making the plates for the Monitor. Each of the nine's first name was "John," although they referred to themselves as "Jack."

Troy's John Griswold (then Congressman) and John F. Winslow, owner of the Albany Iron Works, financed the deal, along with John Ericsson who designed the Monitor. Winslow donated the use of the foundry to roll the plates. John Stringham was the foundry's boss roller; John Curley was his helper. John McSurley was the heater; John McDermott was his helper. John Moran was the catcher; John Farrell was the screw tender.

As it turns out, Curley's involvement was not his choosing originally. Curely, an ironworker for the Rensselaer Iron Works, not far from the rolling mill, volunteered for service when the war broke out. Enlisting in Company F of the Second Regiment as a fifer, he was stopped by Boss roller John Stringham who told him he wanted Curley as his assistant in a very special project.

Stringham, Curely, McSurley, McDermott, Moran and Farrell worked day and night in unbearable heat and conditions to make the plates, and with meticulous care, since they had to be perfect in thickness and size. The plates were even shipped to Brooklyn still hot to be placed on the sides of the Monitor. They had a deadline of 100 days completion. The plates were made from the best grade Bessemer Steel and each plate was 3 feet wide and 4 to 5 feet long, with a thickness of five eighths of an inch. Each plate weighed 200 pounds.

During one of the rolls, Curely slipped and fell and broke some bones in his elbow on his right arm. Even with a broken arm, he never stopped working the iron. He noticed the pain days later and suffered for the rest of his life.

Those six men worked nine to ten hours a day before taking a rest and it took 30 days to roll the necessary number of plates. Curely, the youngest man on the job, McSurely, Moran and Boss Stringham handled the pouring of the steel from the furnace working with big round balls of hot metal. These balls would run through the rolls back and forth until they were five eights of an inch thick, and Curley and crew swept them clean getting out scales and impurities with a brush and pail of water. They couldn't afford to make one imperfection and often had to bend over the hot radiating steel. Each plate was as smooth as oilcloth when they were done.

In 1925, the actual rolls that made the plates were standing in the north end of the works. One plate was returned after the battle. It was cracked from a hit from the Virigina (Merrimac) Another clean leftover plate was saved. Both can now be seen in the Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway's Burden Museum at the end of Polk Street.

After learning of the defeat of the Virginia, the iron workers went on a "wet" celebration all night long. Curely remarked that they "felt as if we in Troy had won the battle."

It can be truly said that this decisive battle was indeed a Troy fight. Too bad, there was no fight to save the foundry now being dismantled because of the tunnel vision of the city's planning commission.

One final point. There was a tenth and eleventh "John" involved in the Monitor. Troy's General John Wool was commanding Fort Monroe at Hampton Roads. Finally, the captain of the Monitor itself, John L. Worden, gallantly directed the battle between his little 'cheesebox on a raft' and the Virginia (Merrimac) on that fateful and historic day on March 9, 1862.