Crate of Blockade-Runner Rifles Found-- Part 3

The crate was originally curated by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina which then donated the crate to Georgia.  In 2007, Delta Air Lines x-rayed the crate but didn't find anything because of the concretion that had formed around the rifles while under water.

Hand tools were used to separate the rifles which were secreted together since most of the wooden crate was gone., but the tin and lead lining remained.  One end of the crate was damaged, evidently from when the Stono sank.  They were placed in alternating butt to muzzle position.
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A pattern 53 Enfield rifle in rough condition can go for a few hundred dollars and rarer ones for around $10,000.

It is likened to the cargo of the blockade-runner Modern Greece which ran aground off the Fort Fisher.

--Old B-Runner

Crate of Blockade-Runner Rifles Found at Charleston-- Part 1

From the December 18, 2013, Civil War Picket Blog "rare crate of Civil War rifles yields picture of daring Civil War blockade runner" by Phil Gast.

A carefully-constructed box of British-made Enfield rifles which were sunk along with the CSS Stono (former USS Isaac P. Smith) in Charleston Harbor on June 5, 1863.  The time capsule consists of Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle muskets.

There are twenty of them (the Enfields were the second-most widely used rifles during the war, second only to the Springfields).  There are only three-known intact cases of the single-shot weapon known to exist.

The iron rifle bands, locks and bayonets are heavily deteriorated from the over 150-years submerging in salt water..  But the walnut stocks are in "tremendous shape."  Brass components like the butt plates, trigger guards and nose caps are in good shape.

--Old B-Runner