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| Recovery last fall of CSS Georgia casemate section (USACE) |
Possibly as early as this October, divers will begin retrieving
objects left behind by the crew of the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia, which
was set afire and scuttled to keep it out of the hands of Union troops closing
in on Savannah.
The dive teams will be looking for buttons, accoutrements
and other personal belongings that have managed to stay intact for 150 years
since the sinking of the CSS Georgia on Dec. 21, 1864.
U.S. Navy divers could start removing larger pieces of the
locally-built ironclad – including two casemates, a boiler, cannons and propeller -- as
early as February 2015, said Russell Wicke, a spokesman for the Savannah district of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
The Corps has recently firmed up its timetable for the
removal of the CSS Georgia, the first major project in the long-anticipated deepening
of the Savannah River to allow larger vessels to use the port. Its wreckage is close
to downtown Savannah, just off Old Fort Jackson.
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| Only known photo of CSS Georgia (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) |
President Barack Obama early last week signed the legislation
for the $706 million multiyear deepening of the shipping channel from 42 feet
to 47 feet at mean low tide.
The CSS Georgia, resting on a slope about 40 feet deep below
the surface of the Savannah River, must be removed so that an additional 5 feet
of river bottom can be dredged. With the
expansion of the Panama Canal, even larger ships will be able to travel to U.S.
cities. That requires deeper channels.
“The Georgia has been down there since 1864 and it can tell
us a lot of what occurred in the local area and how it was built, because no
blueprints survived,” said Wicke.
Corps officials say they are awaiting final approval from
the Office of Management and Budget in order to negotiate contracts for the
massive dredging project. "We have no indication that this approval will be long delayed," said Wicke.
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| One of the previously recovered guns (Courtesy of Old Fort Jackson) |
The CSS Georgia was a “one-off local design” rather than one
provided by the Confederate navy department, said Bob Holcombe, retired curator
and historian at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga. “The
dimension of the vessels are not known with any degree of certainty.”
“We know so little about the vessel itself so there will be
a lot of answers to how it was built,” Holcombe told the Picket last year. “Even in chunks, and no lower hull,
there should be answers.”
Lacking much power, the CSS Georgia was destined to become a
stationary floating battery on the river, part of the city’s defense system.
U.S. Navy divers, working with archaeologists for the Corps,
which is overseeing the deepening project, retrieved a 64-square-foot section
of the ironclad last November. It
was sent off for analysis of the railroad iron’s strength and integrity.
“The best sense I have is that the integrity of the casemate
isn’t as strong as what they expected it to be,” said Wicke, meaning it may be
difficult to bring them up in one piece. Further analysis will continue ahead
of the recovery, he said.
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| A rendering of the CSS Georgia (USACE) |
Debris includes four of the CSS Georgia’s original 10
cannons, parts of the propeller and propulsion system, a boiler and the two casemates.
The wooden hull is believed to have largely disintegrated over the years.
The signature pieces are the casemates -- the compartments where artillery pieces were housed.
Experts say they are the only ones surviving from a Confederate
ironclad. One is huge: 68 feet by 24 feet.
Wicke said contract and U.S. Navy divers will be involved in
the $10 million removal process, which is expected to last three to six months.
Conservation of the recovered items could take three years before they are
ready for a museum setting.
Divers, using lights on their helmets in the low visibility,
will be able to spend up to one hour on the river bottom on either side of the
tide, depending on the velocity of the current.
With the chance that surviving cannonballs may be live, even
after all these years, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialists will be
on hand.
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| A red buoy marks the wreckage site of the CSS Georgia |
“There
are several types of ordnance that have been recovered and can be expected to
be recovered from the site,” said Wicke. “Based on the most recent
investigations, it appears that most of the ordnance, nearly 90
pieces, was recovered in the 1980s. Some ordnance was discovered in
October 2013, but it appears that most of it has already been recovered.”
To
date, 6.4-inch cone-shaped Brooke shells and 9-inch round Dahlgren shells have
been brought up.
The CSS Georgia was part of the so-called Savannah Squadron,
which included the ironclads Atlanta, Savannah and Milledgeville.
Hours before the massive army of Major Gen. William T.
Sherman took Savannah by land, the CSS Georgia’s crew lit a charge, creating an
explosion and fire that sent the ironclad down nearly 40 feet deep, just a
couple hundred yards from Fort Jackson, which itself is only a few miles east
of River Street.
Confederates, before they fled, also burned the eastern
wharves district, putting an end to the shipbuilder's machine business and foundry.
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| Divers use helmets fitted with lights to see through murky waters (USACE) |
Beyond the salvage of a few items, the CSS Georgia was
largely forgotten until 1968, when a dredge struck the vessel. A similar
incident occurred in 1983, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed a buoy
above the wreckage and set about protecting the site and warning huge
commercial vessels using the main shipping channel to steer clear.
Today,
much larger vessels cruise the river surface. The
new “super ships” resulting from the Panama Canal expansion will be 1,000 feet
long or larger.
They
would dwarf the CSS Georgia, which is estimated to have been between 150 and
250 feet long and 45-60 feet wide.
The
current shipping channel from Savannah’s port to the Atlantic Ocean past Tybee
Island is 32 miles. The deepening project will increase the length to 40
miles, with nearly half of that in the Atlantic, said Wicke.
With the deepening, post-Panamax larger ships won’t have to wait on the tidal windows to
approach and leave the port.
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| Barge used during a recovery dive in 2013 (USACE) |
The
Corps is working to mitigate side effects from the project, including
anticipated lower dissolved oxygen levels that could affect fish and other
wildlife in the river, said Wicke. An oxygen injection system is planned along
the river. “Ocean water will go further upstream. We have mitigation
efforts.”
While
there has been concerns raised about the possible environmental impact of the deepening
project, Wicke said the plans won approval from four federal agencies and the concerns
are unfounded.
He said the project will result in a large economic benefit
for Georgia and South Carolina, with $5.5 realized for every dollar spent. Lower costs and increased fuel efficiencies will result
for shippers who make fewer trips because they have larger
vessels, he said.
The Savannah Corps office is working on CSS Georgia public
outreach plans, with possible Boy Scout workshops, a mobile booth about the
project, lectures with subject matter experts and public viewing from Old Fort
Jackson when larger pieces are brought to the surface.
Officials plan to launch a special website and go heavy on
social media, said Wicke.
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