Part of a Civil War Confederate ironclad ship has been recovered from the bottom of the Savannah River, authorities said.
Crews with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy divers surfaced the top portion of the CSS Georgia on Tuesday after weeks of preparation.
“Tuesday’s retrieval will play a major role in creating a research design to effectively remove the CSS Georgia before expanding the shipping channel along this stretch of the Savannah River,” said Corps of Engineers archaeologist Julie Morgan. “It took a dedicated team working in some very tough conditions to bring this piece to the surface.”
The 64-square-foot casemate – the part of the ship that would be seen above the water – was recovered as a test leading up to the proposed Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, that awaits funding from Congress.
“Plans call for widening of the channel at that spot, and we’re removing (the ship) so the project won’t damage the ship,” Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Billy Birdwell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In 1864, as the Civil War came to a close and Gen. William T. Sherman’s Union forces approached Savannah, Confederate soldiers scuttled the Georgia, sinking it to the bottom of the river.
“They did it to keep it from falling into Union hands, and to help block the shipping channel so Union ships couldn’t go up the river,” Birdwell said.
Ironclads were revolutionary during the Civil War, bringing a then-near-impervious metal shell to the only part of the warship above the water’s surface – the cannon battery.
Crews dredging the river bed in 1869 struck a portion of the ironclad, Morgan said. Eventually, a 1980s recovery attempt was able to remove several cannons and cannonballs, she said.
Over time, the casemate came apart.
It will be taken to Texas A&M University, and Morgan said the recovery of the small section of the casemate will allow archaeologists to assess the condition of the remainder of the ship.
In low tide, the ship is covered by as much as 42 feet of water, authorities said.
Bringing up the piece of the ship required dangerous work for the Navy and contract divers, Birdwell said.
A crane on a barge in the river did most of the heavy lifting, but divers connected to oxygen lines had to go into the river to attach straps to the crane, authorities.
“Visibility down there is almost zero, and (divers) worked a couple of feet from the shipping channels,” Birdwell said, noting that they also had to work in at times, very powerful currents.
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