Underwater archeologists work to solve mysteries

The high water of the Great Pee Dee River is murky and its current is moving at a good clip, but those obstacles are not keeping a group of seasoned and budding archeologists from finding treasures dating to the American Civil War.

In the mid-1860s, Secretary of the Southern Navy Stephen Mallory ordered that ships be built inland, hence the site on a steep bank of the river in Marion County, the George Washington Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the East Carolina University Maritime Studies program, Larry Babits, animatedly explains. Another reason for choosing this particular inland site, Christopher Amer, the state’s underwater archeologist said, is its rich oak, ash and pine stands. Lumber for the ships and turpentine were essential to the yard’s needs, he explains.

He and Babits are leading a group of journalists around a make shift exhibit of items recovered by underwater archeologists. He is pleased with the rare and important discoveries, he says, showing off iron shells that weigh 60 or more pounds and explaining ratchets and the significance of inscribed names, such as "Brooke." The items recovered belong to the state, he says, and its people, the ordnance bellows to the U.S. Navy.

According to Amer, and to an article in a July 1997 issue of the Star & Enterprise, members of the CSS Pee Dee Research and Recovery team, Bob Butler and Tedd Gragg among the members of that group, contacted his office. And the most recent search to recover the navy yard, the CSS Pee Dee, its cannons and other items was born.

In 1925 and in 1954, the river was low enough to show what is believed by many to be the famed gunboat. The 170-foot wooden vessel, built in the ship yard, was blown up and burned, by some accounts, and sunk, to avoid capture by the advancing Union Army. In 1925, propellors from the vessel were torn from its stern. They are in the Florence County Musem. “We don’t know what damage was done to the boat,” Babits says, “or how they removed the propellors.”

“Using the philosophy that you don’t bring up anything you cannot conserve,” he adds, means the boat will likely not be brought to the surface.

For him, tracking how certain munitions came be in the navy yard and subsequently in the river is another mystery to solve. The state has long known the site of the Mars Bluff Navy Yard and historians have read accounts of the 14 buildings that supported the work there. What is less known, but highly suspected, is the location of the sinking of the boat.

The land where the yard sat was abandoned, has been looted, scavenged and more recently, changed ownership. These owners, Rufus Perdue and Glenn Dutton are divers, Civil War enthusiasts and historians. They have opened the site to the current recovery efforts.

Participating in the recovery are folks from the University of South Carolina, Maritime Research Division of the archeology and anthropology institute, Christopher Amer, Jim Spirek, Joe Beatty, Carl Naylor and Lora Holland. From the East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C., graduate Maritime Studies program, are Larry Babits, Lynn Harris and 13 field study students who hail from around the country.
Citizens still holding photographs, memories or family history regarding the site are invited to get in touch with those working on the site, Florence County Historical Commission member Marshall Yarborough says.

Students have been marking items in the river’s bottom, often in conditions with about four inches visibility, Babits said. The teams are recording what they find, where they find it and other information, Harris said, and the information is cleaned, documented, tagged and bagged for later research.

Discovered, to date, are two previously located cannons and several 6.4 inch and 7 inch artillery shells. What’s missing, though, is the largest cannon, a 15,000 pound one with a smooth bore, Amer and Babits say. The two cannons in the river each weigh about 9,000 pounds, Babits says.

According to historical documents from the Union lieutenant assigned to check the site and the Confederate lieutenant overseeing the site, there was the CSS Pee Dee, at least one torpedo boat under construction and three steam engines in the yard, Babits says. He also says the most important thing for residents to know is that the yard was filled with “locals working in it …” and the effort “was funded in large measure by local citizens … What’s in the river … is very little undertstood. What we’re finding has been hindered by the river and by people who meant well.”

We have an awesome responsibility to get the history right, Babits says, adding that the boat that has been mired in the mud of the River for more than 100 years will need to be authenticated as the CSS Pee Dee. The boat will likely not be raised, he says, adding, no one has $4 million or $5 million to spend on it.

The raising of the cannons is expected to take place this fall.

The ECU grad program students make drawings of all their underwater finds. This is Jessica Sneeks' rendering of the Brooke ratchet.
Thirteen students are participating in the field school in Marion County.

Lynn Harris, a graduate of the East Carolina University Maritime Studies program and now a professor with the program, is shown with a clip board containing water proof paper. Divers are able to make notes while in the near 15' feet deep water of the Pee Dee River.

Students will present their findings, reclaimed from the Great Pee Dee River, during a public presentation on Friday from10 a.m.-2 p.m. near the dive site.