C of E Will Raise Civil War Wreck

[Mountain Man]

Before government engineers can deepen one of the nation's busiest seaports to accommodate future trade, they first need to remove a $14 million obstacle from the past -- a Confederate warship rotting on the Savannah River bottom for nearly 150 years.
Confederate troops scuttled the ironclad CSS Georgia to prevent its capture by Gen. William T. Sherman when his Union troops took Savannah in December 1864. It's been on the river bottom ever since.
Now, the Civil War shipwreck sits in the way of a government agency's $653 million plan to deepen the waterway that links the nation's fourth-busiest container port to the Atlantic Ocean. The ship's remains are considered so historically significant that dredging the river is prohibited within 50 feet of the wreckage.
So the Army Corps of Engineers plans to raise and preserve what's left of the CSS Georgia. The agency's final report on the project last month estimated the cost to taxpayers at $14 million. The work could start next year on what's sure to be a painstaking effort.
And leaving the shipwreck in place is not an option: Officials say the harbor must be deepened to accommodate supersize cargo ships coming through an expanded Panama Canal in 2014 -- ships that will bring valuable revenue to the state and would otherwise go to other ports.
Underwater surveys show two large chunks of the ship's iron-armored siding have survived, the largest being 68 feet long and 24 feet tall. Raising them intact will be a priority. Researchers also spotted three cannons on the riverbed, an intact propeller and other pieces of the warship's steam engines. And there's smaller debris scattered across the site that could yield unexpected treasures, requiring careful sifting beneath 40 feet of water.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/05...ent-653m-plan/

[McMax]

40 feet. They could put a coffer dam around the site and get it up that way. That would keep costs down.

[Widow Maker]

One thing to remember is that this not a pristine wreck site. It has been dredged around before and after the civil war there were salvage operations and blasting done at teh site. Several of the cannons from the ship are already on display at the nearby Ft Jackson national park. A lot of people visit Ft McAllister and Ft Pulaski in the Savannah area but the Small Ft Jackson site is often overlooked. It is not very dramatic but it is just a couple of minutes from Savannah's River Street and downtown historic district.