Thursday, October 22, 2015

CSS Georgia Still Yielding Surprises

From the Sept. 29, 2015, Savannah Morning News by Mary Carr Mayle.

Phase 2--  large artifact recovery has wrapped up and now archaeologists at the CSS Georgia wreck site begin the tedious 12-hour days sifting through globs of mud brought up from the bottom of the Savannah River.

Tedious though it may be, this new Phase 3 has yielded some interesting finds.  Chief among them was the finding of the 9,000 pound Dahlgren cannon on September 15.

Jim Jobling, project manager of the Texas A&M University Conservation Research Laboratory, had been telling others that there should be another Dahlgren gun in the river.  (They knew about one and had brought it up.)

He said there was a big discrepancy in two known manifests of items aboard the Georgia.  The original one listed two Dahlgrens, and a later one dated October 1864 listed just one.  That date was just a few months before the ship was scuttled.  Most people went with the second manifest.  (Of course, it is possible that the second Dahlgren had been removed between the two manifests.)

However, different types of shells were found at the site indicating the possibility of a second Dahlgren being there.

They have also found other items, including an anvil, leather shoes, wrenches and ceramic bottles.

--Old B-Runner

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