Some More on the CSS Chattahoochee-- Part 3: In Fairly Good Shape

The wreck was relocated  using a proton precession magnetometer and wreck structure exposed on the bottom  surface was mapped.  A test excavation was carried out near the south end of the wreckage to facilitate assessing the nature and scope of the archaeological record and generate  data concerning the remaining wreck structure.

(Now, that was some last sentence.  Took me forever to type.)

Data recovered during the investigation contributed to a better understanding of the wreck and its scientific and educational value.

On the basis of this reconnaissance,  it is apparent that the remains of the CSS Chattahoochee contain a variety of artifacts associated with the use of the ship.  In addition, the remaining wreck structure survives in good condition below the turn of the bilge and could be raised, conserved, and displayed in conjunction with the stern of the warship presently on exhibit at the Confederate Naval Museum in Columbus.

--Old B-Runner

While on the Subject of Shipwrecks-- Part 3

 5.  SHIPWRECKS ARE SOMETIMES DRAPED WITH  "GHOST NETS"

Shipwrecks can snag nets of passing fishing boats.  Many times, these "ghost nets" help to discover long lost wrecks.

In 1994, for example, the fishing boat Mistake threw down a trawling net on the Gulf of Mexico and it  became ensnared on the Spanish warship El  Cazador.  It sank in 1783 full of silver coins and its final resting place remained a mystery until then when the crew of the Mystery began pulling up shiny bits of metal and rocks in the nets.

The recovered treasure included a large topaz stone and  approximately 37,500 pounds of silver

6.  SHIPWRECKS CAN BE DANGEROUS EVEN DECADES AFTER THEY SINK

Shipwrecks are abandoned vessels, and therefore  are considered very a problematic type of marine debris.  Even decades after a ship sinks, new dangers can arise as tanks holding supplies and fuel degrade.

When the tank barge Argo sank in Lake Erie in 1937, it was carrying about 100,000 gallons of crude oil and 100,000 gallons of benzol.  When the ship was discovered in 2015, it turned into a large  and complicated remediation project.

All divers to wreck sites should familiarize themselves with state and federal laws pertaining to shipwrecks before approaching a site.

--Old B-Runner

While on the Subject of Shipwrecks-- Part 2

4.  A SHIPWRECK CAN LINGER FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY

The iconic Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was built to withstand intense naval battles when it was launched in 1862.  But its design -- advanced for its time--  was still not enough to help the vessel withstand the tracherous winter storms off the coast of North Carolina on New Year's Eve that same year.

The resulting shipwreck has been intensely researched since it was rediscovered in 1973.  In 2002, the Monitor's turret was recovered in a joint U.S. Navy and NOAA mission, it still held the skeletal remains of two of the 16 men who lost their lives on the vessel 140 years earlier.

--Old B-Runner

While On the Subject of Shipwrecks-- Part 1

From the October 28, 2022,  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "Six surprising shipwreck facts."

Shipwrecks can have a big impact on ocean science.  Here are six ways:

1.  SHIPWRECKS CAN SERVE AS "UNDERWATER SKYSCRAPERS."

The area around them have much higher fish abundance.

2.  SHIPWRECKS OFTEN OCCUR IN LARGE LAKES

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Michigan protects 36 known shipwrecks and 59 suspected ones.  The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Huron is home to 100 known shipwrecks.

3.  THERE MAY BE AS MANY AS 10,000 SHIPWRECKS IN NORTH AMERICA

The NOAA's Office of Coast Survey (OCS) uses high-tech surveying methods to reveal shipwrecks.  There are now approximately 10,000 wrecked vessels  within our nation's waterways.

--Old B-Runner

Was the Wreck of Robert Small's Planter Found at Cape Romain?-- Part 2

Bruce Terrell, a maritime archaeologist and historian,  said scientists used old maps and newspaper accounts to identify the general area where the Planter was thought to have been wrecked by a storm in 1876, eleven years after the war ended.

Using a magnetometer, an instrument that can detect metal beneath the ground, they found a number of objects seeming to correspond to the wreck.  The report said more studies  will be needed before the wreck is positively identified.

The Planter, built in 1860, wrecked when the storm came up as it was trying to tow a grounded schooner  to sea at Cape Romain.  In the following days, many items on board were salvaged.

"We're not sure how much was left of the Planter because contemporary accounts indicate it was pretty well stripped down -- all the way to cushions and blankets and doors," Terrell said.  "It looks like the engines and paddlewheels were taken out."

The items buried in the sand could be boilers  because they would have corroded by the salt water and not much good after the Planter sank, Terrell added.

--Old B-Runner

Was Wreck of Robert Smalls' Planter Found Near Cape Romain?-- Part 1

From the November 28, 2015, Fox News "Wreck of Civil War ship commandeered by slave believed found off SC coast" AP.

Researchers say they think they have found  the wreck of the iconic Civil War vessel Planter.  This was the Confederate ammunition ship commandeered by the slave Robert Smalls, who steamed it out of Charleston Harbor and turned it over to the Union Navy.

Archaeologists woyj the National Marine Sanctuary Program said Tuesday that they have found what is believed to be the wreck of thye sidewheel steamer buried under 15 feet of sand just offshore of Cape Romain, northeast of Charleston.

They released a report of their findings on the anniversary of the day in 1862 (May 13) when Smalls took the vessel.

Smalls would return to Charleston a year later to pilot a Union ironclad in an attack on Fort Sumter.  After the war, he served in the South Carolina General Assembly, the U.S. Congress and as a federal customs inspector.

--Old B-Runner

See the Remains of the Monitor-- Part 2: Just the Facts

THE USS MONITOR:  

DESIGNED:  By Theodore  Timby and John Ericcson

BUILT:   Early 1862

FIRST:     The Union's first ironclad warship

The USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship built for the Union Navy.  She fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads.   The CSS Virginia engaged the Monitor after she had already destroyed the sail frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress the day before.  She had also run aground the steam frigate USS Minnesota.

FOUGHT:  The CSS Virginia

CSS VIRGINIA FATE:    Scuttled and blown up by her crew to prevent capture.

USS MONITOR FATE:  Foundered in rough seas.

BATTLE:  Battle of Hampton Roads'

--Old B-Runner

The Two CSS Virginias? And, I'm Not Talking About the CSS Virginia II

I was at a site about the wreck of the famed CSS Virginia, the ironclad that fought the also famed USS Monitor.

The Virginia was scuttled and blown up to prevent falling into Union  hands after the fall of Norfolk.

One comment:

"The site has been so heavily 'salvaged' over the years that a well-known Virginia joke is that if all known  'relics' of the Virginia were put back together, you would have at least two ironclads, maybe more."

Pretty Good One.  --Old B-Virginia X 2

Valor in the Atlantic 2022: Return to the USS Monitor Will Stream Live

I wrote about this expedition in my last two posts.

From the NOAA  National Marine Sanctuaries by Mark Losavio.

You are all invited to join in an exciting  journey  returning to the resting place of the USS Monitor, America's first  national marine sanctuary, as we celebrate the upcoming  50th Anniversary on the National Marine Sanctuary System.  

The Civil War vessel, which sank 160 years ago, will be visited  by an underwater robot and systematically surveyed for the first time since the Monitor's turret  was recovered in 2002.

The expedition will take place May 15-25.

And, you can watch it live.

You can go to You Tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs76bohRmsc

--Old B-Runner

160 Years After Sinking, NOAA Scientists Plan to Survey USS Monitor

From the May 13, 2022, Maritime Executive.

U.S. researchers and scientists will soon embark on a 10-day expedition to explore and investigate the  shipwreck of the USS Monitor which sank 160 years ago off the North Carolina coast.  They will be leaving May 15.  This will be the first visit to the wreck since the ship's turret was recovered in 2002.

The remains of the ship are located sixteen miles off Cape Hatteras and the area surrounding the vessel has been designated a national marine sanctuary.

This survey will also commemorate the 50th anniversary  of the creation of the sanctuary.  Earlier this year, the 160th anniversary the ship's launching and of the sea battle between the Monitor and the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads which changed naval warfare forever.

Over the course of the two-week mission, researchers will also visit  several natural reefs and  historical shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina.

--Old B-Runner

Wreck of the CSS Louisiana

Of course, whenever I read about a ship sinking I begin to wonder if the shipwreck has been found and where.   As a matter of fact, while I was still in school, I had  underwater archeology as one of my possible careers.

The wreckage of the CSS Louisiana  is on the bottom of the Mississippi River.  In November 1981,  it was magnetically located by NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency).  This was founded in 1978 by  Dr. Clove Cussler.

The expedition of that date was out looking for the ram Manassas, CSS Louisiana, CSS Governor Moore and USS Varuna.

They found the remains of the Manassas  after two days.  Then, they found the Moore and Varuna up the river where they grounded a few hundred yards apart on the east bank.

The Louisiana  lies deep under the shoreline mud a hundred yards in front of the southeastern embankment of Fort St. Philip.  You can easily walk the area during periods of low water.

--Old B-Runner

USS Montgomery-- Part 2: Capturing Blockade Runners, the Tacony and Fort Fisher

Remaining in the Gulf of Mexico during 1861, the Montgomery captured or destroyed a half dozen blockade runners, mainly sailing vessels.  

Following her return to the Atlantic in 1863, she took part in the search for the Confederate raider Tacony in June.  Later assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in June helped destroy the blockade runners Bendigo and Dare.

The next month, she captured the steamer Pet and in October took the Bat..  She also participated in the two attacks on Fort Fisher, North Carolina during December 1864 and January 1865  This finally eliminated the nearby city of Wilmington as a blockade running port.

For the remainder of the war, the Montgomery served along the Carolina coast and participated in the operations on the Cape Fear River which led to the capture of Wilmington in February 1865.

Decommissioned in June 1865 and sold in August, the Montgomery retained her name when she reentered commercial service in 1866.  She was active for nearly eleven more years, until she was sunk due to a collision with the schooner Seminole on January 7,  1877, off Cape May, New Jersey.

--Old B-Runner

USS Montgomery: A Civilian Ship Purchased by the U.S. Navy

From Atlantic Divers  "Max's Wreck -- Montgomery"

WRECK OF USS MONTGOMERY FOUND

This steamer was discovered by Atlantic Divers in 1989 on the dive boat  Down Deep.    The wreck was named after  Captain Bob Meimbresse's dog that was on board that day.  It has recently been identified as the USS Montgomery.

In 2008,  Gene Peterson and Harold Moyers on the dive boat Big Mac recovered a bilge pump which positively identified the site.

****************************

The USS Montgomery was a 797-iron (burden) wooden screw steamship, built in New York City in 1858.  She was chartered by the U.S. Navy in May 1861 and placed in commission as the USS Montgomery.  The Navy purchased her in August of that year.

During June-November 1861, she served in the Gulf of Mexico enforcing the blockade of western Florida.  Later that year, she was shifted to the  northern Gulf coast.  On 4 December 1861, in Mississippi Sound,  she engaged the Confederate steamers Florida (not the commerce raider) and Pamlico.

--Old B-Runner

Recovery of Monitor's Turret-- Part 4: Conservation Continues

In 2003, NOAA divers and volunteers returned to the Monitor with the goal of obtaining overall video of  the site to create a permanent record of the current conditions of the wreck after the turret recovery.  

Jeff Johnston of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (MNMS) also wanted a definitive image of the vessel's pilot house. During the dives, the Monitor's iron pilothouse was located near the bow of the vessel and documented for the first time by videographer Rick Allen, of Nautilus Productions, in its inverted  position.

Conservation of the propeller was completed nearly three years after its recovery, and it is in display in the Monitor Center  at the Mariners' Museum.  As of 2013,  conservation of the engine, its components, the turret and the guns continues.

The two Dahlgren cannons were removed from the turret in September 2004 and placed in their own conservation tanks.

--Old B-Runner

Recovery of the Monitor's Turret-- Part 2: Forty-One Days of Real Hard Work

The divers prepared the turret roof (which was at the bottom now because it had overturned when the ship sank) by excavating under the turret and placed steel beams and angle irons to reinforce it for its move t a lifting platform for the second stage of recovery.

A large eight-legged lifting frame, nicknamed "The Spider," was carefully maneuvered over the turret to move it onto the platform and the entire contraption and turret would be lifted by a crane aboard the Wotan vessel.

The divers discovered one skeleton in the turret on 26 July before the lift and spent a week carefully chipping about half of it free of the concreted debris; the other half was inaccessible because it was underneath the rear of one of the cannons.

With Tropical Storm  Cristobal closing in on the recovery team and time and money running out, the team made the decision to raise the turret on 5 August 2002.  After 41 days of work, the turret  broke the surface of the Atlantic Ocean at 5:30 pm to the cheers of everyone  aboard the Wotan and other nearby recovery ships.

--Old B-MonitorTurret

Recovery of the USS Monitor's Turret-- Part 1

I wrote about the GE Monitor top refrigerator in the last post (so-named because of its resemblance to the turret of the USS Monitor) and the death of  Phillip Carson Lee, who participated in the raising of the real turret in the post before that.

From Wikipedia  "Recovery."

The 2002 dive season was dedicated to the difficult task of trying to raise the 120 long-ton turret of the USS Monitor since the recovery of the whole ship was impossible because of deterioration.    This was the part Phillip Carson Lee participated in.  

Around 160 divers were assembled to remove  parts of the hull, including the armor belt, that lay on top of the turret.  (The turret had fallen off upside down as the ship sank and the hull had landed on top of it.)  They used chisels, exothermic cutting torches and 20,000 psi hydroblasters.  They removed as much  of the debris from inside the turret as possible to reduce the weight to be lifted.

This debris was mostly in the form of concreted coal as one of the ship's coal bunkers had ruptured and dumped much of its contents into the turret.

--Old B-Runner

August 5, This Date in Civil War Naval History: Farragut and the USS Monitor

From the August 5, 2021, Chicago Tribune.

These two things were of significant importance to the Civil War Navis.

**  1864:  

Admiral David Farragut is said to have given his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes!  Full speed ahead!" as he led the Union fleet against Confederate forces in Alabama's Mobile Bay.

Of course, I have been writing about two other naval officers who were at this battle:  Charles V. Gridley and J.R.M. Mullany, although neither would have heard the admiral's utterance as they were at the end of the line on the USS Oneida.

**  2002:  

The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised form the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

--Old B-Runner

New Hampshire Elks Honor Navy Medal of Honor Recipients-- Part 4: John Jones

JOHN JONES

(1841-1907)

Union Navy Civil War

Interred at Saint Mary's Cemetery

John Jones served on the USS Rhode Island, which engaged  in saving the lives of the officers and crew of the sinking USS Monitor.

Participating in this hazardous  rescue effort in a major storm, Jones after recuing several men, became separated in a heavy gale with other members of the cutter that had set out from the Rhode Island, and spent many hours in a small boat at the mercy of the weather and high seas until finally  picked up by a schooner  50 miles east of Cape Hatteras.

--Old B-Runner

USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 6: Discovery of the Wreck

A commercial fisherman found the wreck of the Walker in the 1970s, located  10 nautical miles off the coast of New Jersey in 85 feet of water.  Divers have visited the wreck on a regular bases since then.  But, it  remained unidentified until 2013 when NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced  that a positive identification had been made.

On June 21, 2013, the NOAA research ship NOASS  Thomas Jefferson, operating in the area to conduct hydrographic surveys for navigation after Hurricane Sandy, held a wreath -tossing ceremony in the general area of the wreck of the Robert J. Walker to honor its dead on the 153rd anniversary of its sinking.  It was the first commemorative ceremony ever held for them.

The Jefferson then collected survey data using multibeam sonar and sidescan sonar later on that day that established with 80% certainty the identity and location of the wreck.

A NOAA dive team, also in the area for post-Hurricane Sandy operations,  confirmed the wreck's identity on 23 June 2013.  The NOAA used  several key clues to confirm  the identity of the ship, including the size and layout of the iron hull, unique engines, and rectangular portholes.

The NOAA has no plans to raise the wreck, make it a sanctuary, or limit diving on it, but does plan to work with the New Jersey diving community to increase understanding of the wreck.

--Old B-Runner

USCSS Robert J. Walker-- Part 5: Loss

That loss of 20 men was the greatest disaster ever suffered by any of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric  Administration (NOAA).

The commercial schooner R.G. Porter came to the Walker's assistance, recovered her survivors, searched for missing men and  brought the survivors to May's Landing, New Jersey.  Later that day, the Fanny, the schooner that caused the accident, arrived at  Cape May, New Jersey with damage consistent with a collision.

With the Civil War approaching, no inquiry was made into the loss of the Walker.  The Coast Survey did not pursue the Fanny's  presumed culpability in the incident.  No official ceremony was held to honor the lost men.

--Old B-Runner