off Fort Fisher. In the ensuing chase, 

 another Federal blockader joined the 

 melee, and the Modem Greece turned to 

 shore and grounded herself. A hasty 

 salvage effort by Confederate forces 

 brought out liquor and clothing, and then 

 the guns of Fort Fisher opened up to scuttle 

 the ship before the enemy could arrive. 

 That was an easy enough task: The 

 blockade runner was carrying 1,000 tons 

 of gunpowder. 



One hundred years later, the Ash 

 Wednesday Storm of 1962 raked away the 

 deep layer of sand covering the Modern 

 Greece. Discovered by Navy divers on 

 vacation, the newly emerged shipwreck 

 was the subject of intensive salvage efforts 

 throughout the summers of 1962 and 1963. 

 Some 1 1 ,500 artifacts have been recov- 

 ered. Many have been sent to museums 

 and institutions, but thousands more lie in 

 state in the UAU's various storerooms, 

 sheds and desalination tanks. 



In one back room, behind the vats, 

 drums and various tubs that hold relics 

 from the recently salvaged ship thought to 

 be Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, 

 an astounding collection of Modern 

 Greece cargo lies shuttered away. Rows 

 of gunstocks recline on wooden pegs. 

 Corroded gun barrels are stacked in bins. 

 Piles of cannonballs rest on shelves. There 

 are chisels, axe heads, wrenches, pickaxes, 

 leather scabbards. 



Divers recovered 148 complete 

 bayonets, 107 Bowie knives and 732 

 pocketknives packed in cases. Scores are 

 displayed in the storeroom. "It's probably 

 the biggest Civil War Bowie collection 

 anywhere," says Wayne Lusardi, a UAU 

 archaeologist. He pulls one knife from a 

 pegboard display. The German silver 

 pommel boasts a half-horse, half-alligator 

 figure in low relief. The motif, Lusardi 

 says, is reminiscent of Jim Bowie and his 

 lauded fighting techniques. 



Next, Lusardi picks up four Enfield 

 rifles, corroded together, and explains how 

 immersion in saltwater affects such 

 artifacts. "As the iron is breaking down," 

 he says, "rust is literally building up around 

 the artifact, and it forms a concretion — 



a mixture of corrosion products like 

 hematites and magnetites, calcium 

 carbonate from sea creatures, and mixtures 

 of shells and sand." 



To the untrained eye, the mass of rust, 

 metal and assorted gunk seems a total loss. 

 But conservators use X-rays to see what 

 lies within the balls of rust, and pneumatic 

 air chisels and hand tools to remove the 

 layers of concretion. Next, artifacts go into 

 desalination tanks — basically rubber tubs 

 filled with water and soda ash — and then 

 into electrolysis. 



That process takes an enormous 

 amount of time, and no small pot of 

 money. "Unfortunately," explains Nathan 

 Henry, another UAU archaeologist, "it 

 takes a certain amount of resources to 

 conserve these things, and there's not a 

 good place to put them. These rifles don't 

 need to be in our back room; they need to 

 be out where the public can see them. But 

 too often, the stuff you pull from underwa- 

 ter isn't really museum quality. They can 

 be pretty rough." 



But they have an allure, a sense of 

 history, that polished carbines and 

 immaculate reproduction uniforms can 

 hardly match. 



I can't help but think of those artifacts 

 as Bahen and I putter past the Wilmington 

 waterfront. Only 39 miles of the lower 

 Cape Fear have passed beneath our boat, 

 and we are loathe to bring the day to an 

 end. It is quite a different emotion than the 

 one expressed by old blockade-runners as 

 they caught sight of Cape Fear's port city. 



"It will be difficult to erase from my 

 memory the excitement of the evening we 

 made our little craft fast alongside the quay 

 at Wilmington," wrote the captain of the 

 blockade runner Don of his first successful 

 run of the blockade. "The congratulations 

 we received, the champagne-cocktail we 

 imbibed, the eagerness with which we 

 gave and received news...." 



No cheering crowds greet us at the 

 boat ramp, but there are other profits from 

 our river run. Before the Dons docking 

 and since, the lower Cape Fear's riches 

 have drawn the adventurous and curious 

 alike. I suspect it will always be so. □ 



LEARN MORE ABOUT 

 Cape Fear History 



When summer ends and 

 snorkelers, sunbathers and various 

 other seasonal seafarers depart, a 

 quieter, more contemplative beauty 

 envelops the Cape Fear region. For 

 many, if s the perfect time to pay a visit 

 — especially for history buffs, because 

 the N.C. Maritime History Council will 

 host its annual conference Oct. 28-30 

 at the Cape Fear Museum in 

 Wilmington. 



The Cape Fear region will be the 

 focus of the conference. Topics include 

 Wilmington architecture, underwater 

 archaeology of the Cape Fear River, the 

 settlement of Charles Town and the 

 Barbados/Cape Fear connection, 

 archaeological and historical aspects of 

 Brunswick Town, and the Cape Fear 

 region during Civil War times. 



The conference opens with a 

 reception Thursday evening. Friday 

 includes an optional field trip, presenta- 

 tions and dinner. The conference ends 

 Saturday at noon. There will be a 

 registration fee. Council membership is 

 not required. 



For more information, contact 

 Richard Lawrence of the N.C. Depart- 

 ment of Cultural Resources, Underwater 

 Archaeology Unit, P.O. Box 58, Hwy. 

 421 South, Kure Beach, NC 28449, 

 910/458-9042. E-mail: rlawrence@ 

 ncsl.dcr.state.nc.us. 



A 1 992 Coastwatch special 

 edition, North Carolina's First Inhabit- 

 ants, details archaeologists' efforts to 

 unearth clues to Native American 

 history. One article describes the Cape 

 Fear-area Waccamaw tribe's efforts to 

 reclaim and recover its lost heritage. 



To order a reprint, ask for 

 publication UNC-SG-92-13 from North 

 Carolina Sea Grant, Box 8605, NC 

 State University, Raleigh, NC 27695- 

 8605. Please include a check or money 

 order for $2.50 to North Carolina 

 Sea Grant. For further assistance, call 

 919/515-2454. B -C.H.V. 



COASTWATCH 13 



