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| Michael Jordan films dive preparation |
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| Cannon comes up in 1984 (John Roberson) |
Over a span of nearly 50 years -- ending in 2017 -- dive
flags would occasionally go up on a stretch of river where generations before a
hulking Confederate ironclad vessel guarded Savannah, Ga, during the Civil War.
Divers, working in visibility that one likened to
chocolate pudding, slipped beneath the surface of the Savannah River and down
to the disarticulated remains of the vessel that was scuttled by its
Confederate crew in December 1864 when the Yankees arrived at the seaport’s
front door.
At first, the divers came to survey and better understand
the CSS Georgia, which served as what’s called a floating battery. Later
expeditions focused on removal of artifacts so that the channel could be
cleared and deepened for ever-larger commercial vessels that regularly ply past
tourists on River Street.
“Red diver, into the water when ready,” are the first
words uttered in a new documentary about the recovery and history of the CSS
Georgia, which earned the derisive nickname “Mud Tub” when its supporters
learned it was too underpowered to leave the city and attack Federal ships that
had bottled up Savannah’s river entrance.
But the city may have gotten something better. The CSS
Georgia became a strong element of its extensive water defenses.
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| Animation of what CSS Georgia may have looked like (USACE/Michael Jordan) |
“Sometimes being a failure is the best way to succeed,”
filmmaker Michael Jordan says of the ironclad’s emerging role. “As a floating
fort, it was impregnable and kept the federal Navy at bay for a couple years.”
Working on a contract from the Savannah office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of the harbor deepening and the
removal of the CSS Georgia, Jordan has produced the hourlong production
"From Ironclad to Artifact: The Journey of the CSS Georgia.”
Wreckage has so much to tell
The documentary premieres on February 10 at the Trustees
Theater in Savannah, part of the annual Gray’s Reef Film Festival, which
benefits a foundation dedicated to preserving the marine sanctuary off the
Atlantic coast.
As the title states, the CSS Georgia’s story has indeed been
a journey, with triumphs and disappointments along the way. Amazing artifacts
and ship components have been pulled up and crews got to see cannon and other
items out of the water for the first time in 150 years. But the hull was gone,
much of the wood is worm-eaten, some parts are gone and researchers have been
unable to find blueprints that give clues to its size and construction. Still,
they hope to eventually answer some of the mysteries associated with the
ironclad, including its size.
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| Jordan with one of the recovered guns in 2015 |
Jordan recently told the Picket that while the CSS
Georgia never engaged in battle or a duel with a marauding US Navy ship, it has
served a larger purpose for later generations. Rather than being destroyed or
put out of commission, it became a time capsule – however damaged by dredges –
of a period when resource-pressed Southern communities rushed to build ironclads.
The CSS Georgia was unusual in that its armor consisted
of lengths of railroad iron backed by layers of timber, forming a formidable
protective shell.
The documentary is rich in history about the vessel,
which was built locally after the Ladies’
Gunboat Association raised money across the state. It segues to early
attempts at salvaging the iron and other valuable metals and then to efforts
over the past half century to bring up large artifacts, including cannon, the protective armor casemate, a propeller, machinery and much more.
The biggest discoveries and
recoveries were in 2015 and 2017, when Navy and contract divers, along with a
grapple and clamshell device, scooped up thousands of those artifacts and two
large chunks of casemate.
Bringing back the '80s
While the public is likely most familiar with the last
two recoveries, I was most intrigued by the documentary’s interviews with and
photographs of divers, archaeologists and others toiling during the 1970s and
1980s, when funding did not allow for a full-scale recovery.
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| (USACE, Michael Jordan) |
Jordan spoke with Louis “Lou” Tew, (above) a retired Navy officer
who dived on the wreckage in 1969. Later surveys found pronounced deterioration
of parts of the ironclad, some due to dredging.
The documentary includes archival images, animation of
the boat, filming of recoveries, interviews and small re-enactments of events
critical to the CSS Georgia’s history.
Archaeologists and divers worked not far from Old Fort
Jackson, another part of the city defenses. The CSS Georgia was anchored and
faced downstream, only a couple hundred yards from the fortress.
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| The late John Roberson of Coastal Heritage Society |
Two of the ironclad’s cannons brought up in 1984 are on
display outside the walls of the brick fort. One was placed in the moat for a
time until it could be moved for conservation. Visitors to the fort heard live
audio of the 1984 recovery.
Jordan, a former TV news anchor in Savannah and a
filmmaker and author, spent 55 days in the field for the $18,500 project. His
travels included the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga., and
Texas A&M University, where thousands of artifacts are being treated at its
Conservation Research Laboratory. Jordan has a passion for the CSS Georgia,
writing a master’s paper about it and producing a small film about a decade
ago.
His production will serve as one of the Corps’ components
in its educational outreach about the CSS Georgia.
'It was like Christmas'
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| 1979 dive (Jonas Jordan/USACE) |
Jordan spent a lot of time on the recovery site in summer
2015, when a US Navy dive team was called in to raise large ship components,
scores of artillery rounds and several cannon, two of which were large 9-inch
Dahlgren guns.
“I didn’t come home for a month,” said Jordan, who has
lived for several years in Knoxville, Tenn. “I was out there every day for days
while the Navy divers did the cannonballs and the cannons.”
He said he was fascinated by the Navy divers at work,
using muscle, advanced technology and salty language to get the job done.
Archaeology students used firehoses to blast piles of river much to look for
artifacts, including buckles and other personal belongings. “They were giddy.”
“It was like Christmas for me,” Jordan said of shooting
the work that summer.
The CSS Georgia never yielded its treasures easily, as
the Navy divers learned ahead of time.
Dredging hits and scars, along with salvage attempts not
long after the Civil War, made the wreck site a jumble of rotting wood, chunks
of casemate and loose rail and machinery.
Divers could only work a couple of hours a day during
“slack time” when the strong current wasn’t too strong to work. And the visibility
drops off pretty quickly as one heads to the Savannah River bottom 40 or 50
feet below the surface. One diver told Jordan that they could hear and feel the
effect of container ships churning only a 100 or so yards away.
Jordan has pored through Texas A&M, Army Corps and
National Archives records to learn more about the CSS Georgia, which was
largely forgotten until a dredge hit the vessel in 1968.
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| Railroad armor on casemate (Picket photo) |
Archaeologist Gordon Watts, who has dived and studied the
wreck site for decades, told the Picket last year at least seven patterns of
interlocking railroad iron were used to make the casemate in 1862.
Where did the ship builders get the railroad iron?
“They were likely to be confiscated,”
Watts said – specifically from Northern-owned companies, including a line from
Brunswick, Ga., to Jacksonville, Fla. The nephew of US Navy Secretary Gideon
Welles came to Savannah after the war to try to recover iron and other
material, he said.
Jordan said he delved deeply in the Joseph
Welles story, learning details of his winning a federal contract to get the CSS
Georgia and CSS Savannah remains out of the shipping channel in the late 1860s.
Welles’ crews pulled up iron, but he and Savannah
officials quarreled over how good a job he did. “They complained this Yankee
carpetbagger is taking this without moving all the obstructions, which they
ironically put in their themselves,” Jordan said.
While research is continuing and there is no
yet-discovered written record, it’s very possible Welles dumped much of the CSS
Georgia’s remnants back into the river during the dispute, Jordan and others
have said.
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| Big catch, a 32-pounder, during the 1980s (Jonas Jordan/USACE) |
Where will boat's story be told?
Of course, the human side of the ironclad’s story is
important, too. Duty was difficult and tedious; divers recovered several leg
irons used on sailors who got into trouble. The CSS Georgia leaked from above
and below. And at least one engine operated all the time to pump out that
water, with one scientist saying it could have been 120 degrees inside. It was
no pleasure cruise.
Jordan said he hopes viewers of the documentary will “be
impressed by what the Corps has done here.” The channel deepening prompted the
long-term project and saved a large part of the CSS Georgia. The Corps, he
said, worked carefully and with top technology to execute a thorough recovery.
For now, conservation of the artifacts continues at Texas
A&M. The casemate and many other pieces of the vessel were reburied in a
channel for safekeeping, marking the end of the CSS Georgia’s journey, the documentary shows.
The boat belongs to the US Navy, which has reached out to
museums in the South about possible exhibition – if the venues can provide proper
climate controls. Talks are ongoing and no deals have been announced.
Jordan said his interest in telling the CSS Georgia’s
story, whether in print or video productions, will continue.
“It is such a big story. I couldn’t squeeze it all into a
film.”
The Gray’s Reef Film Festival is set for Feb. 9-11 in Savannah. A suggested
donation to benefit the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is $8
a day for adults and $5 a day for children, students and members of the
military. Showings are at Trustees Theater and the Tybee Post Theater. Jordan’s
is set for 7 p.m. February 10 at Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton Str. See this
website for more information and tickets.
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