Thursday, November 14, 2013

Army Corps, U.S. Navy retrieve piece of Civil War ironclad from Savannah River


Archeologists working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, aided by divers and salvage operations teams from the U.S. Navy, retrieved a 64-square-foot section of a Civil War ironclad warship from the bottom of the Savannah River here, the evening of Nov. 12.
The divers worked in strong currents with near-zero visibility during the past week to assess the possibility of lifting a small piece of the Confederate ship's casemate for archeological testing.
A crane lifted it onto a barge anchored near historic Old Fort Jackson on the eastern edge of Savannah. Experts estimate the piece weighs more than 5,000 pounds.
The Confederate navy scuttled the CSS Georgia in 1864, as Union troops approached Savannah. The iron-covered ship remained on the river bottom until 1969.

Read the rest of this story on the site below.

Written by Billy Birdwell.

Retrieved 14 Nov 2013.

http://www.army.mil/article/114925/Army_Corps__U_S__Navy_retrieve_piece_of_Civil_War_ironclad_from_Savannah_River/

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