Sunken Confederate gunboat reveals its secrets to Texas A&M researchers
May 4, 2015 | In the PressFrom The Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/news/science-environment/article/Sunken-Confederate-gunboat-reveals-its-secrets-to-6240798.php)
Thousands of artifacts from a sunken Confederate gunboat in the Savannah, Ga., harbor are expected to pass through a conservation lab at Texas A&M University before eventually going on display.
The ironclad CSS Georgia, built in 1862, proved to be too heavy to be powered through the tidal waters of the Savannah River and spent its short life moored in the harbor, where it protected the city from the Union Navy, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Confederate troops sank the ship in 1864 as General William T. Sherman approached, and the ship has remained in the harbor for 150 years.
Now, the shipwreck is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but is in the way of a planned harbor expansion. So the site is being excavated by marine archaeologists, who are removing artifacts.
The divers, marine archaeologists from Panamerican Consultants Inc. in Tuscaloosa, Ala., have brought up more than 1,000 small artifacts since work began in January, said Jim Jobling, director of A&M's Conservation Research Laboratory in College Station.
"We're providing trained conservators to assess and record the artifacts as they're recovered," said Lobling, who is heading back to the site next week. "We're recording each artifact so we know the exact position of everything."
Many of the artifacts pertain to weaponry, such as ordnance shells and an 1861 bayonet handle made by P.S. Justice, Lobling said. There are also some leg irons, which were used to hold deserters who were caught and brought back to the ship, he said.
"Men didn't like a posting on the Georgia, because it was leaking and the mosquitoes were miserable," he said.
In June, work will begin on bringing up four large cannons, the ship's engine, propellers, condensers and other large artifacts, Lobling said.
The project's principal investigator, Stephen James, and James Duff, one of the divers, both studied nautical archaeology at A&M, Lobling said.
The research lab's role on the project is to clean and conserve the artifacts, which belong to the U.S. Navy. The Navy will eventually determine where they are displayed, he said.
