Diving on Sunken Blockade-Runners
UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY OFF THE COAST OF FORT FISHER
by SAMUEL P. TOWNSEND
Assistant Administrator for Programs
Division of Historic Sites and Museums
A chain of events involving Mother Nature,
some adventuresome navy divers, the governor
of North Carolina, and the chief of naval
operations caused the largest and most sig¬
nificant shipwreck diving activity in this part
of the country to be conceived. From this a
whole new program for North Carolina —
“underwater archaeology” — is emerging.
A destructive coastal storm in March,
1962, played havoc with the North Carolina
coastline — but at Fort Fisher, something
good came as a result of the swirling tides.
Three hundred yards off the shore of this
historic fortification, the sandy ocean floor
shifted and uncovered the hull of the Modern
Greece, a Civil War gunrunner which sank
June 27, 1862, while attempting to run the
Federal blockade with war supplies for the
Confederacy.
As the storm died, navy divers on leave
plunged into the thirty-foot deep waters to
examine the vessel. When they splashed on
the beach with several barnacle-encrusted
Civil War rifles and bayonets, news traveled
swiftly to the State Department of Archives
and History and the governor.
Realizing the significance of the discovery,
the governor requested help from the chief
of naval operations in getting navy divers to
work in an official capacity with the state
history' agency. The navy responded by dis¬
patching diving craft, equipment, and divers
for most of the sprine and summer of 1962
and again in the summer of 1963.
Diver with artifact from the MODERN GREECE.
Several thousand artifacts were recovered
from the Modern Greece including Enfield
rifles and bayonets, bowie knives, minie'balls,
bullet molds, pigs (bars) of lead and tin,
Whitworth projectiles, hatchets, hammers,
chisels, pocket knives, wrenches, various
surgical instruments, and deck equipment
such as winches and anchors. Nine other
blockade-runners were examined and ma¬
terials were recovered from seven of them.
Also, three cannons, weighin'» three tons each,
were recovered from the U.S.S. Peterhoff,
a Federal warship.
Since these initial operations, a group of
sport divers, the North Carolina Skin Diving
Council, has volunteered its services to re-
MODERN GREECE aground at Fort Fisher in 1862.
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