The context for a song about this battle is hinted in the song: The Monitor became the Union's first ironclad warship at a shipyard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where band members were living ("Once a great ironworks stood at the end of my street"). Incidentally, "The Same Fire" was written about that same building burning down, and was released a month after this song during the year of monthly EPs.
For all the song's splendid historical detail about the ships and the battle, it's being used as a metaphor in line with some of the earlier comments about how we undertake these difficult transitions in our lives and how that actually affects our day to day workings vs. internal life.
Also, Bishop Allen can time travel (clearly) and were playing on the deck of one of the ships (though they won't reveal which) during the battle.
The context for a song about this battle is hinted in the song: The Monitor became the Union's first ironclad warship at a shipyard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where band members were living ("Once a great ironworks stood at the end of my street"). Incidentally, "The Same Fire" was written about that same building burning down, and was released a month after this song during the year of monthly EPs.
For all the song's splendid historical detail about the ships and the battle, it's being used as a metaphor in line with some of the earlier comments about how we undertake these difficult transitions in our lives and how that actually affects our day to day workings vs. internal life.
Also, Bishop Allen can time travel (clearly) and were playing on the deck of one of the ships (though they won't reveal which) during the battle.