CSS Appomattox Identified After 145 Years

Here's a little bit of re-discovered naval history.

KURE BEACH, N.C. – North Carolina officials say they have identified a Civil War shipwreck that burned at sea more than 145 years ago.

The Appomattox was part of a set of armed steamers that defended northeastern North Carolina waters. Its Confederate crew set the ship on fire in 1862 while fleeing Union forces.

With a bit more info from the Wiki. Couldn't find an image, or a listing in the US Naval Catalog as the Empire, which it was initially named. I guess it was a converted war ship. That might explain it, seeing service only under the Confederate flag.

CSS Appomattox was a small propellor-driven steamer used early in the war by the Confederate Navy to defend the sounds of northeastern North Carolina. After participating in the battle for Roanoke Island it was burned to prevent capture on February 10, 1862, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

The Appomattox was originally named the Empire. She was chartered by the Virginia State Navy under Captain Milligan, towing blockships into position to obstruct the channels of the Elizabeth River around Norfolk in May 1861. In that same month she twice sailed under a flag-of-truce with Captain Thomas T. Hunter of the Virginia Navy to arrange exchanges of wounded Union prisoners and passage north from Norfolk of certain families wishing to return to their Northern friends. In the latter part of June 1861 she again served as the bearer of a flag-of-truce off Fortress Monroe, this time for Brigadier General Huger, CSA.

Comments

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Dan, I'm near the UAU at Fort Fisher (Kure Beach) and I'll try to get a pic for you. This vessel was one of the "mosquito fleet" formed by using all manner of civilian vessels to create a navy. She wasn't much, mounting a single gun and used mostly for towing. The crew got into a fight near Cape Hatteras. Outgunned by the US Navy she was trying to make her way back inland (memory tells me to Dismal Swamp) run aground and burned. Her crew walked back to Norfolk.

[Davey Jone's Locker]

great, i cant wait for Gov. Perdue to raises taxes again to pay for it to be raised along with Black beard's ship, then get sued by the NAACP for state sponsored racism (given the fact it was a confederate ship fighting for slavery and all)

[WAHOO WILLIE]

@Davey, yep I am a bit surprised that UAU has time to look for anything since they are still so excited about QAR. If you're from NC you already know that Bev doesn't need a ship or anything but the d by her name as an excuse to raise taxes.....Gotta do something to get the money back her predecessor ripped off. Dont sweat the NAACP considering the only black officer on either side was a black naval captain.

http://ncsquadron.home.coastalnet.com/Appomattox.htm

[x11b1p]

i am all for the history thing and i think its great that we are recovering things that were a part of our history, however when i saw the 13 miilion allocated to raise Black Beard's ship when we had a billion dollar defct, i choked on my beer, and then to raise taxes to pay for that and some museums (i dont know if that stuff was left in the budget or not) was a what the hell moment. the mike easley thing is incredible, just when i thought that black, wright, phipps, bell, geddings, etc going to jail would have sent up a red flag that the days of yore are over when it comes to corruption, i see the easley stuff wich seems to be pretty blatant and in our faces, if the charges turn out to be true. easley isa smart guy and this does not make sense. at times i just want to scrap the whole system and start again in nc with people who never served in public office, have no bad habits, and implement a system of ethics. btw - what do you think about rand resigning? i heard the same car dealer being looked at in easley's case also has very close ties to rand - i dont know if its true or not, yet his departure is uncanny? sockpuppet off now

[Jason Madre]

The UAB didn't have time or the funding to search for the Appomattox. Its discovery was made by volunteer divers paying their own way. Because they were so swamped by the QAR, coupled with a budget shortfall, the UAB allowed the divers to excavate the wreck under permit for three years. Don't worry, there is no way it will ever be raised. It was in poor condition when it was bought by the Confederacy, it was burned when it was scuttled, and the Army Corps of Engineers apparently took thirty or so feet off the bow when they widened the channel. 145 years in the water hasn't hepled it any either. Don't ask me how I know that.

[x11b1p]

jason, how do you know this? you and wahoo willie blinded me with some serious naval salvaging and history knowledge. are you a historian or in the business?

[WAHOO WILLIE]

@Dan,

Sorry no picture and Jason was right, it was volunteer divers.

@x11bip...Dont know about Jason, but I'm a amateur historian (I hate the term "buff") and one of my fave subjects is naval ops in my own little corner of NC. Pasquatank is way far north for my studies. Strange the COE tore off a chunk of Appomatox...One of their dredging contractors dropped anchor on the CSS North Carolina down my way.

[Jason Madre]

I am one of the four divers that made up the volunteer dive team. We began our search for the Appomattox about ten years ago. The section of the river we thought it was in held several other boats that shared similar dimensions. Since we were under permit from the state and being careful not to disturb the sites any more than was necessary to identify the wrecks, we had to take careful measurements of their dimensions as identifiers. We knew the boat was 85'x20.5' but, based on conflicting reports of its propulsion (Sidewheel, Twin Screw, and Single Screw) we didn't know if the eighty-five-foot, seventeen-foot-wide boats we were finding were it, and the width of the paddle wheels were missing. After spending several summers on several different possible wrecks, we had just about given up. A volunteer had scanned the area with side-scan sonar, but the six foot deep mud obscured most of the wrecks.
In August of 2007 we gave up on theorizing where the boat should be and began simply probing the mud with long sections of PVC pipe. A long way from where we thought it should be, we hit wreckage. My dad, and leader of the team, dove into the black water and immediately stuck his hand into a propeller shaft tunnel, not an actual shaft like the press release says. The engines and equipment were salvaged a week after it was scuttled. Within thirty minutes of diving we found a friction primer. That artifact alone proved with a high degree of certainty we were finally on the right wreck. Thirty minutes after that I pulled a crusty spoon handle from some ballast stones in the hold. On the surface I initially read the script as “J S Kurtt.”
Knowing the crew of the Appomattox had been on loan from the yet unfinished ironclad Virginia (Merrimac) I called my wife to tell her about the friction primer and the exciting news it had brought as well as the name on the spoon. She searched the online rolls of the Virginia looking for the last name of Kurtt. I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t find it, The Appomattox had been a civilian tug for over a decade and a Confederate gunboat for less than a year. I wasn’t sure about the name Kurtt, so I asked her to check all names that ended with a double ‘t’. “Garrett?” she called out reading the list. “No” I answered. “How about Barrett?” “No” “Is it Skerritt?” she asked. Squinting in the sunlight I rotated the spoon at different angles. Suddenly it was obvious the ‘S’ and the ‘K’ were connected. “His first name doesn’t begin with a ‘J’ by any chance?” I asked her nervously. “It’s James” She responded. At that moment, the reality of actually finding the Appomattox set in. Although he is reluctant to admit it now, even my dad got a little misty-eyed. We spent the next three summers diving under permit on the wreck. The artifacts are being preserved by the UAB and will soon be on display at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, NC. If any of you have any specific questions about the wreck I will be happy to answer them. After ten years of secrecy, it’s nice to finally be able to talk about it.

P.S. The Army Corps of Engineers cleared the channel in the 1880's, long before anyone cared for archeology.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Nice read Jason and I'm glad you guys found this vessel. I'm assuming that if the machinery was salvaged, the gun was too. Any idea where it was removed to?

[Jason Madre]

We are not sure exactly what happened to the main gun, a smoothbore 32 pounder. We know Lt. Simms returned with a lighter (barge?) a week after the scuttling to remove what he could. While he was there he rented a second lighter and towed them both back to Norfolk. With this infomation, we can assume he was able to remove most of the machinery from the wreck. Since the main gun would have been in the fire of the scuttling, they likely would not have trusted it as a gun, but it would have had some value as scrap. They were building an ironclad, after all. Unfortunately, the destruction to the bow has kept us from being able to determine any details about the gun's mounting and a few dozen dives looking in ten-foot-deep mud for the gun has proven unfruitful.

[Jason Madre]

The NC Dept. of Cultural Resources, Underwater Archeology Branch has posted a picture of the spoon along with the entire press release. Check it out at:

http://news.ncdcr.gov/2009/11/09/spoon-confirms-discovered-shipwreck-of-css-appomattox/

[Jim Smith]

Being a long time active member of the Rocky Mountain Shipwrights, a model building club in Denver Colorado, and one who has built a number of Civil War ships, both Union and Confederate, I would be most interested in getting as much info as possible on the CSS Appomattox so a model could be added to my collection. If you could help Jason, I'd be most appreciative.
Jim Smith

[Jason Madre]

Jim-
We do not have any definitive photographic proof of what the Appomattox looks like, but we do have some pretty good ideas. First off, you may be disappointed in the Appomattox. It was a canal tug and its construction reflects this utilitarian purpose. We do have a photograph of a tug that is likely of similar appearance. Most of the tugs built in the 1850’s resembled each other.
Here is a picture of a boat that seems to match the Appomattox in length and approximate width (85’x20.5’).

http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=045328a4eecd2d89bcfd7207a7b1fe91

Just try to imagine a 6000 lb smoothbore cannon mounted on likely a makeshift carriage on its bow, and a brass howitzer on a field carriage perched on its stern.

The Appomattox also drew seven feet of water and had a single screw. If I can find it, I have a silhouette of another similar tug which shows its rudder/screw arrangement.

Do you sell your models? The Museum of the Albemarle, the location where the Appomattox’s artifacts will be displayed, has requested a model for their display. If you are interested, I can put you in contact with them.

[Jason Madre]

Dang, the link didn't work. Let's try these:

Good view of some sterns of tugs:

http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/Enlargement.aspx?id=IH079018&ext=1

And good side view:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h55000/h55199.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-c/canoncus.htm&usg=__FYV5ZzZXUBsYXUytp-d_WLRASv0=&h=630&w=690&sz=106&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=J5KiKeDPddIRtM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=139&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtug%2Bon%2Bjames%2Briver%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1

[Jason Madre]

Another:
http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/Enlargement.aspx?id=IH079112&ext=1