Divers, historians, archaeologist present findings from Mars Bluff site

Archaeologist Chris Amer, diver Bob Butler and historian Ted Gragg fielded questions from the audience about the history associated with the Mars Bluff Naval Yard on the Marion County side of the Great Pee Dee River.

A group of a few more than 50 area residents gathered in Marion’s Opera House on June 16 to hear from the state’s underwater archeologist and the divers. Archaeologists and divers from the University of South Carolina and Eastern Carolina University (Greenville, N.C.) concluded their research at the site on June 18. Butler and Gragg were instrumental in locating two of three cannons from the gunboat C.S.S. Pee Dee and other artifacts from the Civil War era.

Amer and Jonathan Leader, the state archaeologist, will return in October to locate the final Brooke rifled cannon, a USC press release said and to continue the land search for evidence of the navy yard. Raising of the cannons has been pushed back to early spring 2010.

The project of the S.C. Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA) at the University of South Carolina is funded in part by a $200,000 grant from the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation in Florence.

Chris Amer is joined by Bob Butler, center, and Ted Graff, right, as they field questions about the collection of memorabilia from the dives made on the Great Pee Dee River near the site of the Confederate era Mars Bluff Navy Yard.

Below, in this photo of a slide in Chris Amer’s presentation, is the design of a flat bottom vessel similar to the CSS Pee Dee gun boat built in 1864-85 at the Marion County site and Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren standing by a Dahlgren gun on deck of U.S.S. Pawnee in Charleston, between 1860 and 1865. Dahlgren designed the smooth bore gun.