Wrecks: Civil War-era

Category: Wrecks: Civil War-era --- See latest Civil War news here

Civil War blockade runner Scottish Chief found on bottom of Hillsborough River tampabay.com :: 2009-09-16
Burned and sunk, the steamship Scottish Chief lay at the bottom of the Hillsborough River for 146 years, a legend for its ability to keep Tampa supplied amidst the city's isolation during the Civil War. Underwater archaeologist John William Morris said a research team has spotted the ship, a vessel not seen since the night in 1863 when Union troops raided the shipyard burning two blockade runners. Even with new sonar technology it took some time to confirm that the vague trace in the sand was that of the lost blockade runner. The find comes one year after the discovery of the Kate Dale in the river, which had been reduced to wooden ship's ribs. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Archaeologists locate Confederate cannons from a sunken Confederate gunboat in the Pee Dee River sciencedaily.com :: 2009-06-10
Archaeologists have located 2 large cannons - each weighing upwards of 5 tons - from sunken Confederate gunboat C.S.S. Pee Dee in the Pee Dee River and have pinpointed where the Mars Bluff Naval Yard once stood on the east side of the river in Marion County, S.C. Underwater archaeologist Christopher Amer says the findings and the artifacts recovered will help tell the story of the people who worked at the Mars Bluff Naval Yard and how they built the Confederate warships. The Mars Bluff Naval Yard was one of many Confederate naval yards that were located inland in Southern states so gunboats and support vessels could be built and protected from Union forces. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Wreck could be merchant ship Caroline that sank off Galveston during Civil War chron.com :: 2009-03-18
The ghostly image of an object found on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico just off Galveston Island is little more than a shadow. But experts think the sonar scan could be that of a well-known but never before discovered ship that sank as it tried to break through the federal blockade of Galveston during the American Civil War. The Carolina, AKA the Caroline, was a merchant ship that left Galveston in July 1864 with a load of cotton. Federal gunships followed the ship until its crew ran it aground in shallow water between Galveston and San Luis Pass, then set it burning rather than let the enemy seize it. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Hurricane reveals mystery Civil War ship - Photos orangebeach.ws :: 2008-09-19
The last time this mystery ship was visible was after a hurricane hit the Alabama Gulf Coast on September 16, 2004. At that time a much smaller part of the ship was visible. The 150 foot long, 30 foot wide wooden ship seems to have been powered by steam. One of the items within the perimeter of the ship's hull appears to be an old water pump. A long pipe runs down the center of the ship, with smaller pipes found nearby. While no one knows for sure what ship this is, historians theorize that the ship was a blockade-runner from the civil war. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Divers offer glimpse of Confederate blockade runner Kate Dale myfoxtampabay :: 2008-05-28
Florida Aquarium dive teams have confirmed that a long-submerged wreck in the Hillsborough River is that of the Kate Dale, the first Confederate blockade runner ever found in Florida. In 1863, there were 3 blockade runners in Florida. All 3 were destroyed, two of them by fire. For almost two years, these crews have been exploring this underwater wreckage in the Hillsborough River. They had a suspicion it was the Kate Dale, and findings they finally discovered confirm it is. The wreckage will remain in the river, but the Florida Aquarium is planning about creating a replica. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Sailor's remains from CSS Alabama U.S. Civil War ship buried iht :: 2007-07-29
A Civil War-era sailor's skeletal remains recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the English Channel were buried in a ceremony in Alabama. The unidentified sailor's remains were found encrusted on the underside of a cannon that was raised from the wreck of the CSS Alabama. The Confederate warship was sunk in the channel off the coast of France on June 19, 1864, by the Union warship USS Kearsarge. More than 400 artifacts have been recovered from the site by divers. The CSS Alabama had a crew of 120, most of whom were rescued by boaters in the area, but about a dozen crew members drowned, said president of the CSS Alabama Association Robert Edington. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Divers Explore Civil War Ship's Watery Grave - USS Narcissus tbo :: 2007-06-10
There is little sign of the horror U.S. Navy crewmembers experienced on Jan. 3, 1866, when the Union Civil War tugboat the USS Narcissus ran into a shoal during a storm and exploded. The remains of the 115-ton tug are nestled above and beneath the ever-churning sands northwest of Egmont Key. The vessel's steam engine boiler - which burst like a bomb when the cold Gulf waters hit it - is 3 miles from shore. The tugboat graveyard now has frequent visitors wearing dive tanks. Divers from The Florida Aquarium have been studying it since last summer when the downtown Tampa aquarium received grant money from the state's Bureau of Historic Preservation. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Shipwreck may be Civil War Confederate schooner dunedispatch :: 2006-11-02
Determining what kind of ship was washed out of the south Baldwin County sand might take time, but some historians said that the vessel's remains could be that of a Civil War blockade runner. The ship is about 150 feet long and 36 feet wide at its widest point, based on what could be seen, said Jack Friend. The wood of the ship is charred near the beach level. The Confederate schooner Monticello was driven onto what was then a deserted beach six to eight miles from Fort Morgan and burned in 1862 by the Union Navy, laying siege to the Confederate port of Mobile, according to military reports. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

Treasures of cargo and story found in shipwreck heraldtribune :: 2006-10-18
Priit J. Vesilind weaves together a history of Civil War-era shipping and a treasure hunt in "Lost Gold of the Republic: The Remarkable Quest for the Greatest Shipwreck Treasure of the Civil War Era." Greg Stemm and John Morris had spent 12 years researching the resting place of a steamship that had sunk off the coast of Georgia, loaded with $400,000 in gold and silver coins. Deep-water shipwreck recovery is a high-dollar, high-risk line of work, and one subject to a variety of complications. Is it salvage or archaeology? Should artifacts from shipwrecks be sold or regarded as objects for academic study? [Relics and Memorabilia - American Civil War]

Rare civil war era gold and silver coins from a sunken treasure contracostatimes :: 2006-10-15
Article no longer available from the original source.
In 1865, a steamship carrying 59 passengers and a rumored $400,000 in gold and silver coins sank in the Atlantic Ocean. The wreckage of the SS Republic lay undisturbed in waters off the Georgia until 2003, when an treasure-hunting firm sent a robot 1,700 feet down and began pulling it up, coin by coin. Over time, the appraisals began to come out, and coin collectors across the nation salivated. More than $100,000 in rare Civil War-era coins was recovered, worth about $75 million. Some of this treasure will be on display, drawing coin collectors who spend time fantasizing about buried treasure but don't often get to see it. [Treasure Hunt: Lost Civil War Gold]

Mystery shipwreck -- Possible Civil War era schooner cdnn :: 2006-07-19
State underwater archaeologists diving in the Currituck Sound discovered the remains of several boats, two which sank more than a century ago. The 25-foot sailboat was discovered in about 6 feet of water and dates back to the 1800s, possibly before the Civil War. However, the Underwater Archaeology Branch responsible for tracking the state's shipwrecks, has no records of a ship sinking in the vicinity of Monkey Island. "The local story was it was a schooner that was sunk during the Civil War to try to block the channel." [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

URI vessel to explore Civil War shipwreck cdnn :: 2006-07-14
A team of 18 scientists, archeologists and historians will board the research vessel Endeavor and travel to waters 17 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the site of a 144-year-old shipwreck. Beneath 230 feet of water lies the Monitor, an ironclad Civil War ship that sank in a storm on the last day of 1862. Scientists have known about the wreck for more than three decades and have recovered several artifacts, including the ship's engine, propeller, turret and guns. Until now, however, they have been unable to take clear pictures and create a detailed map of the wreckage site. [Wrecks: Civil War-era]

American Civil War submarine found timesonline :: 2005-06-06
A british explorer has found an early submarine that he believes was the inspiration for Nautilus, Captain Nemo’s vessel in Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Colonel John Blashford-Snell discovered the half-submerged, cast-iron wreck off the coast of Panama while searching for ancient ruins. She was built in 1864 by a visionary craftsman, Julius Kroehl, for the Union forces during the American Civil War. But the boat, called Explorer, was never used in the conflict and was subsequently taken to Panama where she was used to harvest pearls. [Naval war and blockade - American Civil War]

American Civil War in the News is a edited review of American Civil War related news and articles, providing collection of hand-picked 1861-1865 era history.