Shipwrecks off the coast of Sullivan’s Island during the Civil War were largely the result of man-made intervention with the natural flow of soil and sand from north to south along the Atlantic coastline (littoral drift). After 1800 Sullivan’s Island began steadily eroding particularly on the harborside and along the beach in front of Fort Moultrie. The disappearance of the shoreline resulted in the formation of another shoal which extended southward to the easternmost projection of the entrance bar. This new shoal was named Drunken Dick Shoal (not sure who Drunken Dick was but he also has an island near Murrell’s Inlet named after him). In 1831 the southwest angle of the fort’s wall was undermined by seawater and collapsed. As a result, a Congressional appropriation was obtained and a breakwater was constructed along the beachfront to protect what remained of the fort and to slow or prevent further erosion shown below. The current breakwater is circled in red.

The breakwater slowed down the process of erosion, but did not altogether stop it, nor did it serve to reclaim any lost beach. Accordingly, the U.S. Corps of Engineers sought further congressional funds to protect the fort. In 1839, with new funds, the first control jetty was designed, constructed, and installed to divert the water flow away from the beach. The plan was to build several jetties over the formed shoal into the deep channel. It was easier said than done with the tools and machines available. Eventually “grillages” of palmetto logs were constructed, into which were inserted large granite boulders, dropped into them from barges after they were in place. After sinking the connected grillages, other stones were lowered into them to form the jetty. One of these was built in this period. It was called Bowman’s Jetty after the engineer in charge of the project and was completed in 1839. It ran at least 400 feet from the shore (one reference states 1500 feet), out into the channel to a depth of fifty feet below the surface at mean low water (MLW) and extended almost to the surface.

The salutary effects of the jetty were appreciated almost immediately. The ebbing water was forced to find its way out and around Bowman’s Jetty, and erosion of Sullivan’s Island stopped. Further, an eddy created on the backside of the jetty caused silt and sand to be deposited along the beach itself and by the fall of 1839 beachfront of more than 100 feet in depth had been added in front of Fort Moultrie saving it from further damage.

So why was the creation of Bowman’s Jetty a factor in the shipwrecks that occurred after its construction? The negative impact of the jetty to navigation was not felt until Maffitt’s Channel became the primary means of entry and exit for blockade runners to and from Charleston harbor during the war. Maffitt’s Channel runs alongside Sullivan’s Island and then turns inwards to the harbor near Fort Moultrie. It became the favored channel after the evacuation of Morris Island by Confederate forces permitted the Federals to maintain an inner picket that effectively closed the Main Ship Channel. One of the main attractions of Maffitt’s Channel was the shortest route into and out of Charleston Harbor (channels shown in map below, Maffitt’s Channel is the Beach Channel).

Additionally, a series of Confederate batteries on Sullivan’s Island lining the channel to Breach Inlet (discussed in the last post) provided protection for the blockade runners to slip in between the island and the blockaders. Despite the navigational and security incentives for using this route, navigating the channel was fraught with danger. Entering the outer blockade zone proved troublesome as evidenced by the numerous blockade runners running ashore or chased and sunk, as too did departing the harbor, particularly around Fort Moultrie at the southwest tip of Sullivan’s Island. An initial hint of the dangers of the jetty occurred during the Fort Sumter crisis in 1861, when the New York steamer Columbia grounded at Bowman’s Jetty during a high tide on January 25th. A Union engineer at Fort Sumter believed that Bowman’s Jetty had diminished the depth of water at its tip. This decrease in depth forced a vessel headed to Maffitt’s Channel, whether in or out of the harbor, to steer around the jetty some distance and then make a sharp turn to get back into the channel. This maneuver was also affected by the tides, with an ebb tide forcing a vessel onto the beach. The poor visibility from a haze and not taking into account the turn of the tide was most likely the reason Columbia grounded. The vessel did manage to get off on January 29th due to a very high tide (ORA, ser. 1, vol. 1:153-158). The same fate would happen to seven blockade runners, we will discuss each of them individually. Information below regarding the individual shipwrecks was mostly taken from the article- The Archeology of Civil War Naval Operations at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, 1861-1865 by James D. Spirek University of South Carolina. The map below shows offshore obstacles and fortifications around Charleston harbor.

A closer view of Sullivan’s Island and the area of some of the shipwrecks is shown below.

The picture below was taken in 1865 from the shore near Fort Moultrie at Bowman’s Jetty. There are at least two ships in the picture. One is a side-wheel steamer with two engines while the second ship is also along the jetty further out to sea.

The Celt was a sidewheel paddle steamer and is probably the ship to the left of center. It wrecked on February 14, 1865, very close to shore. Other ships had wrecked further out on Bowman’s Jetty, see the map above. The Minho which wrecked on October 20, 1862, was a wooden iron-framed screw steamer. The Stono (wrecked June 5, 1863), was a paddle steamer, but it was burned. The Presto was iron and side wheeled. The Prince Albert was an iron hulled screw steamer. This suggests that the wrecked ship in the background is likely the Minho.

Appendix

Details of ships wrecked off Sullivan’s Island during the war from the Spivey reference. Abstracted here for my own information.

The Minho– wrecked October 20, 1862

The 253-ton wooden, iron-framed screw steamboat Minho was built in Paisley, Scotland in 1854. The vessel measured 175.3 feet in length, 22 feet in width, and had a draft of 13.5 feet and three masts (Wise 1988:313; ORN, ser. 1, vol. 1:413). The ship was purchased in April of 1862 by Fraiser, Trenholm and Company and made five successful trips through the blockade. She was then bought by the Navigation Company of Charleston, SC. In April 1862, the US consul in Liverpool reported the Minho cleared for Havana loaded with clothing, hardware, and heavy cases of unknown content, and described the steamer as built of iron, bark rigged, with one funnel (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 7:304). In late July 1862, the Minho departed Nassau with a load of arms, powder, and other cargo, safely arriving and offloading its cargo in Charleston, departing the harbor in late August (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 13:304). At 3 AM on 20 October 1862, heavy cannon fire commenced from the Union blockaders as the Minho attempted to slip once again into the harbor. Bound from Bermuda, the Minho successfully evaded the blockaders during a dark and hazy night by passing northward of Rattlesnake Shoal, however the blockade schooner USS George W. Blunt, stationed at the extremity of Dewees Inlet shoal, fired at the passing vessel. Shortly afterwards the USS Flambeau joined in the pursuit and threw nine shells at the passing vessel, without stopping its progress, and continued the chase until receiving fire from the Confederate land batteries at Breach Inlet. In the morning the Union navy found the vessel aground at Bowman’s Jetty at Fort Moultrie (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 13:395-397). The rocks punched several holes in the Minho’s hull letting in water. At low water, the leaks stopped and during the rising tide several Confederate harbor steamers attempted to tug the vessel from the rocks to no avail. Noted as having several water-tight compartments, it was hoped the steamer and cargo could be saved. A sloop with part of the cargo had reached the city by afternoon (The Charleston Mercury- October 21, 1862). The next day the vessel was still on the rocks and hope soon faded that it could be saved along with the cargo as the hull was full of water and goods and broken packages were wet. The Minho had previously run the blockade twice into the harbor with valuable goods and departed with cotton (The Charleston Mercury- October 22, 1863). On the morning of November 5, 1863, an auction was held to sell the goods recovered from the wrecked ship consisting of a variety of goods including coffee, sugar, clay and wooden pipes, gin, brandy, various hardware, and medicines and drugs (Charleston Mercury- November 5, 1862). That same day the hull of the vessel lying on the Sullivan’s Island breakwater was sold for $6,000.00 (Charleston Daily Courier- November 5, 1863). The ship’s remains were rediscovered in 1987.

The Stono (formerly the USS Isaac Smith)- wrecked June 5, 1863

The 453-ton single-screw wooden steamboat Isaac Smith was 171.6 feet in length, 31.4 feet in beam, and had a draft of 9 feet. The vessel was equipped with an unusual athwartship (at a right angle to the fore and aft line of the ship) walking beam. Built in 1851 as a Hudson River passenger steamer, it was purchased by the US Navy in September and commissioned as the USS Isaac Smith on October 17, 1861 (DANES; Parker 1883:306; New York Times- October 18, 1861). During its refit in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the steamboat had its upper deck removed and forward and aft ends enclosed in timbers to form a protective bulwark (New York Times June 12, 1902). The armament consisted of one 30-pounder Parrott rifle and eight 8-inch Dahlgren smoothbores. The gunboat was ordered to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and participated in the Port Royal Expedition in November 1861. It also participated in various Navy and combined actions along the Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina coast. On August 7, 1862, the gunboat was ordered north for repairs. By October 12th it was back in Port Royal and stationed off Charleston, primarily at the Stono and North Edisto Inlets (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 13:242, 250, 387, 419; New York Times- August 13, 1862). On January 30, 1863, the Isaac Smith was sent to make a reconnaissance up the Stono River, which it had frequently done for several weeks. Without observing any Confederate forces, the gunboat anchored in the river between Johns and James Islands. A masked battery with heavy guns on each island commenced firing at the vessel at a distance of about 75-100 yards. The gunboat attempted to proceed downriver but was disabled with a shot to its steam drum. Arthur Ford, an artilleryman at one of the Confederate batteries reported “her stern was directly about 100 yards in front of the gun I served. It put one 8-inch shrapnel shell into her stern port, and I learned afterwards that the shell knocked a gun off its trunnions and killed or wounded eight men” (Ford 1905:15). The crew of the gunboat defended themselves for approximately 15 minutes under a tremendous crossfire. Richard Stout, landsman, was awarded the Medal of Honor for carrying out his duties despite losing his arm in the ambush (USN 1950:50). Following the disabling shot to the steam drum, the gunboat dropped anchor and surrendered unconditionally to the Confederate forces. The gunboat lost 25 men killed and wounded, with 11 officers and 108 men captured. While the prisoners were landing, the USS Commodore McDonough steamed upriver to assist and found the Union gunboat aground with steam clouds issuing from the steamer, a white flag flying, and two boat loads of officers and crew going ashore. The Union gunboat fired at the batteries which returned fire until darkness compelled the McDonough to retire downstream. The Commodore McDonough returned the next day and found the grounded gunboat in the same place, with some men aboard, and fired some shells at the vessel. Three days later, with much effort, including lightening the vessel by taking off the guns due to the shallowness of Wappoo Cut, the Confederates managed to tow the gunboat to the Commercial Wharf in Charleston (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 13:556-560, vol. 14:219; ORA, ser. 1, vol. 14 (part 1):201-202; The New York Times- February 10, 1863; Charleston Mercury- January 31, 1863; Charleston Daily Courier February 2, 1863). The captured Union gunboat was turned over to the Confederate navy, renamed Stono, and used for various naval purposes in the harbor, especially relating to the torpedo service in April (Parker 1883:313-315). Shortly afterwards, plans were made to outfit the vessel as a blockade runner and send a cargo of cotton on navy account (ORN, ser. 1, vol.14:694, 716, 494). On the night of June 5th the Stono steamed outward bound with 600 bales of cotton. The vessel was spotted by the Union blockader USS Wissahickon at 9:20 PM, which slipped anchor and began firing at the blockade runner and gave chase. The blockade runner changed course back into the harbor giving the Union sailors the impression that the vessel had been badly damaged. Returning to the harbor, the ship accidentally struck Bowman’s Jetty and ran onto the rocks. The bulk of the cargo was offloaded and everything of value stripped from the wreck. Two Confederate deserters later reported the unknown steamer as the former Isaac Smith which had sunk (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 14:240-241;ORN, ser. 1, vol. 13:252; The Charleston Mercury- June 8, 1863).

The Presto– February 2, 1864

The iron sidewheel 552-ton Presto, originally Fergus, was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1863. The vessel measured 210 feet in length, 23 feet in beam, and had a draft of 9.5 feet (Wise 1988:317). When named Fergus, the US Consul in London noted the vessel was built unusually strong for a merchant vessel and perhaps intended as a privateer (NARA RG 45, Navy Subject File 1775-1910, Box 361). At daylight on February 2, 1864, Union blockaders discovered that the blockade runner Presto had run ashore just to the east of Fort Moultrie while attempting to enter the harbor. Admiral Dahlgren noticed the stranded vessel and ordered the advance monitor to open fire at a range of 2,500 yards on the steamer. The other monitors advanced and began a general fire on the steamer. Union land batteries also opened fire and by morning large holes in the hull and wheel boxes appeared. Confederate batteries answered in return. By 1 PM the mainmast was cut away and the vessel was in flames. Several shells passed through below the waterline and most likely damaged machinery and cargo. The wreck was bombarded for a couple of more days causing it to burn to the waterline. The Passaic had picket duty the night of the 3rd and stationed a picket boat near the stricken vessel to detect any enemy movement on her. From February 2-4 Union land batteries fired 769 projectiles from 30-pounders to 300-pounder Parrotts at the wreck. During this time Confederate batteries on Sullivan’s and James Islands returned a steady barrage at the Union batteries. By the end of the Union cannonade the hull was shattered and had the appearance of breaking apart. A Boston Herald article reported a shell from a 200-pounder Parrott from Fort Wagner nearly cut the vessel in two. Union forces later gathered intelligence that the steamer was the Presto from Nassau.

The Flora– wrecked October 22, 1863

The Flora was an iron-hulled, side-wheel steamboat that grounded off Fort Moultrie on October 22, 1864 (Wise 1988:300). The last voyage of the Flora was a difficult one. Upon departing Nassau the steamer was compelled to land at Elbow Key in the Bahamas, and then while leaving there fell in with a Union blockader. During the subsequent chase the steamer threw overboard all its cargo and managed to escape during the night. Arriving off Charleston Harbor at Dewees Inlet, the steamer fell in again with blockaders and despite being cut-off managed to reach Maffitt’s Channel whereupon it fell in with the Union picket boats. Passing the inner picket boats the vessel grounded in shallow water on the south side of Maffitt’s Channel. Stuck fast and impossible to refloat, the steamer was spotted in the daylight and the Union batteries on Morris Island began shelling the vessel. The crew escaped safely by boats to Sullivan’s Island (Charleston Mercury- October 24, 1864). For a couple of days the monitors and Morris Island batteries continued their destruction of the wreck of Flora, and the Sullivan’s Island batteries returned fire primarily directed at the monitors (Charleston Mercury October 25-27, 1864). Army reports stated the Morris Island batteries discovered the large side-wheel iron steamer with two smokestacks opposite Battery Rutledge on Sullivan’s Island in the morning. The advance picket monitor, Patapsco, fired first, and then Fort Putnam opened up with two 30-pounder Parrotts which struck the hull of the blockade runner. Battery Chatfield shot at the stranded steamer with a 300-pounder Parrott tearing off the wheelhouse and breaking away a large section of the amidships upper works. Fort Strong joined in with three 100-pounder Parrots striking the hull and decks many times. Two monitors also kept up a fire on the wreck. Shallow water and rough seas at the wreck site thwarted Union efforts to set the steamboat afire. The batteries at Morris Island expended approximately 144 shells of which a total of 98 struck the vessel rendering it a total wreck (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:29-30,32; ORA, ser. 1, vol. 35 (part 1):108). The Union forces later learned from an intercepted telegram that the name of the blockade runner run aground by the picket launches off Fort Moultrie was the Flora, loaded with an assortment of cargo (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:29-30). The manifest of the blockade runner revealed the cargo included nine boxes of flannel, eighty cases of shoes, 250 pounds of lead, and forty barrels of saltpeter (NARA RG 109, M909). A report from Major General Foster mentioning the destruction of the steamer said the navy calls the vessel Flamingo, while the Southern papers call it Flora, or Florinne (ORA, ser. 1, vol. 35 (part 1):27). The incorrect name persisted as Northern newspapers reported that a large blockade runner, Flamingo, was driven ashore on October 23, 1864 by Union batteries (The New York Herald- November 2, 1864). The Flamingo name persisted, as the 1865 nautical chart shows one of the wrecked blockade runners off Fort Moultrie with that name rather than Flora. The actual blockade runner Flamingo survived the war (Wise 1988:299).

The Celt– wrecked February 14, 1865

The wooden side-wheel steamboat Celt was built in Charleston in 1862 at South Bay Street. The vessel was of light draft and built with white oak and pine and intended for use for either heavy freight transportation or as a gunboat. The vessel measured 160 feet in length, 25 feet in breadth, and a depth of hold of 9 feet. The Celt was built to replace the Planter which had been abducted by its slave crew who had escaped to the blockaders (Charleston Courier- May 16, 1862). The vessel was operated by the Quartermaster Bureau for use in the harbor. On February 14, 1865 the steamboat grounded on Bowman’s Jetty when attempting to leave the harbor (Wise 1988:292). Around 2 AM on February 15, 1865, an advance Union picket launch hailed a boat with seven men in it off Sullivan’s Island. They identified themselves as crew of the blockade runner Celt, which had run ashore the previous night while attempting to exit the harbor. These men were found to be deserters and the rest of the crew had gone ashore (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:246). The Celt had run ashore at Fort Moultrie several days before the evacuation of the harbor by Confederate forces. Inspection by the Union navy after the Confederate evacuation found a valuable load of cotton aboard, of which 190 bales were subsequently recovered and sent north, with the remainder to follow. A survey of the remains of the blockade runner found the back or keel of the hull broken and full of water, decks ripped apart, and the boilers below water along with the machinery, and deemed it worthless to recover (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:256). Her wreck was captured by the monitor USS Catskill.

Below is a report that appears in the Official Records of the Navy.

Report of Lieutenant-Commander Barrett, U. S. Navy, commanding U. S. S. Catskill.​

U. S. IRONCLAD CATSKILL, 
Charleston Harbor, S. C., February 20, 1865. ​

ADMIRAL: 
I have the honor to report that on the morning of the 18th instant I ordered an officer to board and hoist our colors on the blockade runner Celt, which had run ashore near the breakwater off Sullivan’s Island two or three days before the evacuation of this place. The runner has a valuable cargo of cotton, but the vessel is in too bad condition to be serviceable, [and] I am of the opinion that she can not be floated off without danger of sinking, and advise that the cotton may be removed. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
EDWARD BARRETT, Lieutenant-Commander. ​

Rear-Admiral J. A. Dahlgren, Commanding. 
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.​

The Prince Albert– wrecked August 8 or 9, 1864

The iron-hulled 132-gross register ton screw steamer Prince Albert was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1849. The steamer measured 138.1 feet in length, 16.7 feet in width, and had a 7 foot draft (Wise 1988:317). The US consul in London visited the steamer in October 1863 and noted it had large Hodge boilers standing about 3 feet above the deck, an 80-horsepower engine, and was intended for trade with Southern ports from Nassau or Bermuda (NARA RG 45, Navy Subject File 1775-1919, Box 361). During the night of August 8, 1864, the Prince Albert from Nassau ran ashore near Bowman’s Jetty. It may have struck the wreck of the Minho. Apparently the steamer had passed undetected through the picket tugs and boats, and especially galling to Admiral Dahlgren, was that the blockade runner went unnoticed by the advance picket tug Dandelion, whose captain had anchored his vessel contrary to orders and remained at the anchorage rather than remaining mobile. Monitor Catskill discovered the steamer off Fort Moultrie on the morning of August 9, 1864. The monitor and land batteries at Cumming’s Point opened fire on the stranded steamer. After a few effective shots they succeeded in destroying the steamboat, including bursting the boilers, and setting it on fire. Only a small quantity of cargo was believed to be offloaded, primarily medicines and other small articles, although the New York Herald reported a large part of the cargo of the heavily laden vessel was salvaged by the Confederates. An Army report stated that between the evening and morning of August 8-9 a severe artillery duel between Fort Strong on Morris Island and Sullivan’s Island had taken place and speculated the blockade runner had perhaps either been struck by a shell or run aground to avoid the shelling (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 15:624; ORA, ser. 1, vol. 35 (part 1):22;ORA, ser. 1, vol. 35 (part 2):72; Charleston Mercury- August 10, 1864; New York Herald- August 19, 1864).

The Beatrice– wrecked November 28-29, 1864

The 274-ton iron screw steamer Beatrice was built in Scotland in 1863. The steamer measured 167.5 feet in length, 24.1 feet in width, and had 12 foot draft (Wise 1988:290). On the morning of November 28, 1864, heavy cannon fire resounded throughout the harbor as Union batteries pounded a beached blockade runner. Bound from Nassau, the steamer Beatrice had grounded on Drunken Dick Shoal during a fog earlier that morning. The steamer on attempting to enter the harbor was surrounded by Union picket barges which kept up a constant fire of grape and musketry on the vessel. The captain and eight of the crew escaped from the wrecked steamer to Battery Rutledge just as Union sailors boarded the vessel. Thirty of the crew were unaccounted for and thought captured. By the early afternoon the steamer was completely riddled with shot and burned. Later the mailbag floated ashore and was sent to the city (Charleston Mercury- November 29 1864). From the Union perspective between 11 and 12 PM in the evening of November 27, 1864, the blockade runner Beatrice from Nassau was spotted and given chase. Outside blockaders sighted, signaled, and fired upon the steamboat striking it twice as the vessel steered towards the harbor. Two picket boats repeatedly discharged their howitzers and then tried to board the steamer but were prevented because they grounded several times in the shallow water. Crews from the scout boats boarded the vessel and were later assisted by two picket launches. Immediately after boarding, the blockade runner grounded on Drunken Dick Shoal. The vessel’s captain and eight others escaped to shore in a boat, while thirty others were captured. The Union sailors salvaged several nautical instruments and two boats. The stranded vessel was set afire and abandoned and was declared a total wreck (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:112-114).

Two other ships ran aground on Drunken Dick Shoal the Raccoon and the Flamingo.

The Raccoon (mislabeled as the Georgiana)- wrecked July 20, 1863

Excerpted from the July 22, 1863 Charleston Mercury- The 159-register ton sidewheel paddle steamer Raccoon, Captain Harris, from Nassau, was burned off our bar yesterday morning. The Raccoon was owned by Messrs. John Fraser & Co., and was lying off the bar for the past four days with a cargo of lead. On Sunday night she steamed in, but upon approaching the bar she was headed off by the screw sloop-of-war USS Canandaigua, which fired on her. The Raccoon changed her course southward, but soon ran afoul of the Canandaigua, passing near enough to throw a biscuit on board. The engineer was then ordered to put on all steam, the fires were stirred up, and a streak of flame issued from the smoke stack, making the Raccoon a visible target for the whole fleet. The Ironsides imagined they had an easy prey, and fired their broadsides deliberately, but the Raccoon was still uninjured, and sped on her way. She distanced from the enemy; but unfortunately ran aground on Drunken Dick Shoal off the shore near the Moultrie house (on the map above the ship is shown further off Sullivan’s Island in the North Channel), where she was still within range of the guns of the fleet. The small boats were instantly lowered, and the passengers with their luggage sent ashore. Finding that the vessel could not be got off immediately, Captain Harris next sent the crew ashore, and then fired and abandoned her on July 20th. She became a total loss.

The Flamingo– wrecked 1865

The Flamingo was a three-stacked, sloop-rigged steamer which was delivered to the Confederacy’s order in the United Kingdom-very likely on the Clyde-sometime in 1864; they were negotiated by Commander James D. Bulloch, in close correspondence with Navy Secretary Mallory. The Flamingo was one of the largest type of blockade runners ordered by the Confederate Navy in foreign shipyards. Sailing from Glasgow under Captain T. Atkinson in July, she put in at Queenstown in nearby Northern Ireland and at Ponta Delgada in the Azores before beginning her runs into Wilmington, N.C., with high priority cargoes. The Flamingo was at Bermuda in September, along with her sister ship, Ptarmigan, while their crews battled yellow fever. While two of her last runs in 1865 were into the Gulf, the Flamingo must have attempted one more into Charleston, for a contemporary Coast Survey chart shows the wreck of the Flamingo off Battery Rutledge on the north side of Charleston harbor, which is the area of Drunken Dick Shoal.

Salvage efforts after the Civil War off Sullivan’s Island.

After the evacuation of Charleston, a Union navy commander reported salvaging everything of value off Beatrice and an unnamed wreck lying nearby, most likely Flora (both on Drunken Dick Shoal). He also examined the wrecks of the Minho and Prince Albert and found them badly sanded and nothing was recovered. Additional efforts to salvage the blockade runners were determined a waste of time and effort by the navy. The navy subsequently entered into a year-long contract with Mr. Gray to salvage these and other Confederate properties in and around the harbor (ORN, ser. 1, vol. 16:354-355). In 1871, a proposal was made to remove the Stono and other blockade-runners wrecked on Bowman’s Jetty (USACE 1871:582). A contract was entered into with Mr. Joel Griffin, September 30, 1872, for removal of 125 linear feet of Bowman’s Jetty and the wrecks to a low-water depth of 20 feet. The stone removed from the jetty was piled up on the inshore end of the jetty, and some was deposited in deepwater west of the channel end of the jetty (USACE 1871:727; US Secretary of War 1874:4). A diver was sent down to investigate the wrecks and found that Minho, Stono, and Prince Albert, and another unnamed wreck were deeply embedded in sand with portions of the wrecks exposed due to the scour of the tide (USACE 1873a:730-1). In 1873, salvagers, primarily Benjamin Maillefert, removed from the east side of the jetty, and lying close to it, the wrecks of Stono, Prince Albert, and another wreck, mistakenly called Juno, which had sunk in the Atlantic Ocean (USACE 1874a:5). In 1878, the outer end of Bowman’s Jetty was lowered two feet for a distance of 30 feet (City of Charleston 1883:493-497). When working to remove wrecks and stones from the jetties, they found the work difficult with heavy seas, strong currents, and winds (US Secretary of War 1874:4). In the mid 1980s to early 1990s, Howard Tower, a Florida salvager, and associates obtained several salvage licenses issued by SCIAA to work on the wrecks of the blockade runners off Fort Moultrie and Bowman’s Jetty. The group proposed defining the remains of the shipwrecks, recovering artifacts, and conducting historical research. The license stipulated a 50/50 division of the artifacts between the state and salvagers. The salvagers referred to the site as ” …a nautical junk pile of Civil War vessels…” They found Stono and Minho lying roughly parallel to each other, with wreckage of the supposed Prince Albert scattered amongst the Minho. These two wrecks consisted of several sections of iron hull and associated beams rising from one to three feet off the bottom. They did not find much evidence of Prince Albert, but did locate several lead pigs marked “Greenside Mill” numbered and dated 1863. Subsequent research by the salvagers determined these lead pigs were purchased in 1864 and most likely were part of Prince Albert’s cargo. Tower believed that most of this blockade runner’s hull was salvaged. The wrecks lay on a slope ranging in depth from 6.0-9.1 meters (20-30 feet) of water. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck Charleston Harbor and on-site inspections afterwards found a substantial amount of sand overburden covering previously exposed sections of the wreck. Subsequent post-Hugo excavations by the salvagers found historic artifacts intermixed with more modern debris. A visual search undertaken by the salvager for Flora and Celt from Bowman’s Jetty to Fort Moultrie yielded no results (Salvage License no. 32 file, on file at MRD/SCIAA). The focus of the salvagers was primarily devoted to the Minho and Stono wreck sites. Investigations at the Minho site revealed broken pieces of iron hull of varying sizes mixed in with Stono and jetty rocks. The longitudinal axis of the wreck lay on a northwest to southeast line. In 1987, they located a 9.1 meter (30 feet) section of Minho’s stern, with portions of the hull rising nine feet off the bottom. At this location of the wreck, the salvagers recovered several small arms and accessories, two cases of Enfield rifles, bullets, and 11,000 percussion caps from a crumpled case, and other items. Examination of one of the cases of Enfield rifles determined they were constructed of wooden tongue-and-groove boards to form the outer container, with a lead sheathing encasing twenty rifles which apparently were packed in grease. The brass components, butt plates and trigger guards, were in good condition, but the wood and iron components were deteriorated, except those elements still in the hardened grease. Most of the wreck was covered in sand (Salvage license on file MRD/SCIAA). Remains of Stono’s hull, the only wooden wreck among the other iron-hulled blockade runners, ran east to west over a distance of approximately 120 feet. The east end was buried under a sand mound. Extant hull structure survived up to the turn of the bilge in places with a maximum breadth of 25 feet. A 40 foot section of the hull extended west from the sand mound with portions of the hull rising a foot or two off the bottom. At the west end a conglomerate of a boiler and other pieces of smaller machinery marked the visible terminus of the wreck. Outer hull planking consisted of an inner course of strakes and an outer layer of sacrificial wood a couple inches thick sheathed in copper. Sandwiched between the wood was a layer of animal hair and tar. Copper spikes and drift pins littered the site. A huge, crumpled lead sheet weighing approximately 200-300 pounds was found that may have been the interior lining of the powder room. A number of artifacts were retrieved over the course of the salvage project including small machinery parts, fasteners, coal, and lead sounding weight, among other miscellaneous items. The group offered for sale a number of these and other artifacts including copper and lead sheathing, copper spikes, and sheathing nails. Two anchors lying approximately 70 feet from the Stono were removed from the site. The anchors, believed to be associated with the Stono, were recovered and turned over to Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mt. Pleasant (Salvage License no. 32 file, on file at MRD/SCIAA).

Sources

The Archeology of Civil War Naval Operations at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, 1861-1865 by James D. Spirek

Diver Identification and Assessment of Anomolies in the Lower Harbor of the Charleston Harbor Post 45 Study Area, Charleston County, SC Link

Opening the Bar: First Dredging at Charleston, 1853-1859 by John B. Bonds The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Jul., 1997, Vol. 98, No. 3 (Jul., 1997), pages 230-250