Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1987 - 84

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fitted with openings to lower compartments.
Archaeologists examined over 120feet
of the inshore hull line from its downriver
terminus to where it disappeared beneath
sedimentary overburden and could no
longer be detected. A number of features
observed during the measuring and recording process proved to be consistent
with the Florida's general structural characteristics: relatively small frames, sixand-a-half by seven inches, indicative of
the light construction typically associated
with cruisers as opposed to large warships
or merchantmen; engine apparatus, consisting of a copper-alloy intake valve running through the hull 15 feet directly to
the starboard side of two large, adjacent
cylinders which appeared to be boilers;
and an athwartships width of 23 feet, as
measured across the exposed decking near
the stern end, that compared favorably
with the 27 foot beam, or widest breadth,
of the Florida's main deck.
Artifacts collected from the surface of
the site conformed, in terms of age, type
and function, to what one would expect to
find aboard a Confederatecommerceraider
in general and aboard the Florida in particular. Significant among the armamentrelated objects were two ammunition
boxes, one containing 119 lead balls comprising five calibers of round shot and
the other holding over 400 fifty-six (.56)
caliber Enfield bullets (most of which
still retained a wooden plug recessed into
the back end); a brass 1848model Brunswick bayonet handle; and a small cannon
fuse. Arms and munitions of British manufacture such as the Enfield bullets and
the bayonet handle were used by both
sides during the Civil War, but more commonly by the Confederacy which had a
greater dependency on the importation of
foreignwar materiel. More specifically,the
cannon fuse was of a type inserted in shells
used in Blakely rifles like those that con84 ARCHAEOLOGY

stituted the Florida's main battery.
the river bottom- coincided with George
The assemblage also included various West's testimony that sometime after the
types of fasteners and fittings, liquor and documented salvage activities an enorapothecary bottles, and drinking as well mous quantity of dredge spoil was dumped
as serving vessels. Of particular interest over the wreck, prompting the chronicler
were a pewter pitcher with a silver handle to conclude that "no doubt now the boat is
and top, a brass porthole with a glass entirely covered over."
The longitudinal axis of the wreck was
found to lie approximately perpendicular to the shoreline- in accord with contemporary accounts of the Cumberland's
A plate
position as she engaged the Virginiawith a considerable downriver list estifragment with
the maker's
mated at about forty degrees, similar to
mark was disLoring Bates' 1862 assessment.
covered on the
On-site investigations also produced
Pier C Site.
a small array of artifacts that contributed significantly to the dating and
identification of the wreck. The assemwindow, a wooden box with a faintly dis- blage, most of it armament-related, incernible printed or burnished label, and a cluded two oddly shaped brass objects
small apothecary bottle whose yellow that functioned as touch hole covers for
cannons. One of the covers bore the imliquid contents had remained undisturbed
for nearly a century and a quarter. Two pressed markings "U.S.N.Y. 1856 Ord.
wooden pulley blocks may suggest a more Dept. J.A.D. No. 32," signifying its derspecific association with the Florida. If ivation from the ordnance department
they were used in connection with sail of a federal navy yard; the year in which
the Cumberland was extensively refitrigging, as was most often the case, then
in just such a facility; and the inited
combined
with
the
evidence
of
this,
engine
machinery, would establish the vessel as a tials of John A. Dahlgren, commander
sail/steamer such as we know the Florida of the federal Ordnance Department
to have been. A less speculative link be- from 1855 to 1861. The "32" may corretween the wreck site and the commerce spond to the battery of 32-pounders on
raider, however, was provided by the re- the Cumberland's spar and gun decks
covery of a small white ceramic pharma- when she was brought to the New York
ceutical jar bearing the seal of the Paris Navy Yard for renovation in 1856.
Two unique artifacts which evoke a
School of Pharmacy as well as the drugof the drama and pathos associated
sense
in
name
and
his
business
address
gist's
Brest, reminiscent of the commerce raid- with the warship's last stand are a small
er's protracted sojourn in that French port. wooden frame, custom fitted around a broWith the scheduled end of the survey ken piece of mirror glass- fashioned, no
doubt by a common seaman for his perapproaching, the UAJV team curtailed
sonal use- and a magnificent ship's bell,
its investigation of the Home Brothers
Site and returned to the Pier C wreck. Un- one-and-a-halffeet high and cast in bronze.
fortunately, an accelerated loss of site- The imaginative viewer can envision it
marking buoys and unexpectedly difficult tolling the warship's death knell as she
conditions on the wreck itself thwarted
succumbed to the Virginia's deadly asefforts to conduct a thoroughly compre- sault and descended to her watery grave.
hensive examination of the site. Unlike
Despite the difficulties encountered in
the Home Brothers wreck, which settled the preliminary survey, both UAJV and
in the river bed on a more or less even keel NUMA investigators felt confident that
with relatively little sediment over most the collected data concerning the condiof its surface, much of the Pier C Site lay tion, location, and physical properties of
deeply buried. Many of the areas which the wrecks constituted persuasive evidence
were accessible appeared to be in a state of to indicate that the Home Brothers and
Pier C Sites do, in fact, represent the reinextricable disarray.
But just as the essentially undisturbed mains of the C.S.S. Florida and the U.S.S.
condition of the Home Brothers Site were Cumberland.
When field activities ceased, NUMA,
consistent with the Florida's peaceful dewhich had already offered to donate all
mise, the same conditions that frustrated
archaeologists in their attempts to map materials recovered during the project to
and record the Pier C Site also supported the state, additionally contributed the necits identification with the remains of the essary funds for conservation of the asCumberland. The damage sustained by the semblage. Many of the artifacts have since
Union warship during her violent encoun- been displayed at the Mariners Museum in
ter with the Virginia, subsequently com- Newport News and at the Hampton Roads
pounded by the destructive efforts of the Naval Museum in Norfolk. Both the Home
salvors, could easily account for the chaotic Brothers and Pier C Sites have been nomisituation observed on the Pier C wreck. nated for inclusion in the National Register
Furthermore, the abnormally heavy and of Historic Places- an important first step
unusual sedimentary deposits covering toward safeguarding these unique monumuch of the site- more granular than the ments to a pivotal and momentous period
fine silt and soft mud ordinarily found on in American naval and nautical history.

Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1987

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - September/October 1987