2 million artifacts later, Jim Jobling, conservator of CSS Georgia and other Civil War vessels, retires from Texas A&M lab

Jim Jobling, in 2017 at CSS Georgia recovery site, with 3D propeller model (Picket photo)

Jim Jobling, who was on deck when amazing artifacts from the CSS Georgia were brought to the surface in Savannah, Ga., and later tended to them during conservation, has retired from the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University.

The South Africa native was a familiar figure during the 2015 and 2017 recovery of the scuttled Confederate floating battery from the Savannah River. Beneath a hard hat, he was usually dressed in a blue shirt and white pants, helping to bring items onto the barge, where he and others cleaned and sorted them for transport from Savannah, Ga., to College Station.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District was in charge of removing the wreckage of the ironclad as part of a harbor deepening project. Among the contractors was Texas A&M, renowned for its nautical archaeology program.

Jobling retired on Jan. 7 after 37 years with the university. He served as lab manager.

I have done numerous posts on the CSS Georgia, and visited the recovery operations twice. Jobling, the chief conservator, was always very accessible and helpful. He and the TAMU team sent more than 18,000 artifacts to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command after they were conserved.

Of the CSS Georgia, Jobling said: “It was a good project, with a lot of good people putting in many hours of hard work -- over and above the call of duty.”

During Jobling's tenure, the CRL took on 203 individual projects, conserving over 2 million artifacts, officials said. "His background is pretty incredible; between his years as a soldier in South Africa to working as a technical diver in Antarctica, he's pretty much seen it all, and as such, he was always clear-eyed and steady-handed at the lab," lab director Chris Dostal told the Picket.

The archaeologist learned to scuba dive as a young man and explored shipwrecks in his native country before moving to the US. At Texas A&M he was involved in both land and nautical projects, among them the La Belle in Matagorda Bay, Texas, CSS Alabama (1864), Heroine (1838), USS Westfield (1863), and treatment of cannons from the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, and Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Fla.

The Conservation Research Lab recently posted a Facebook tribute to “the one and only” Jobling.

“Jim has been many things to everyone who works at or visits the lab. He's an endless font of information -- and stories -- with a true love of history. He's a jokester. He's a problem solver - usually solving problems by cobbling together some clever device. He's there to remind us of what's important when we're feeling down or frustrated, usually with a few ‘Jim-isms’ thrown in (‘What you need to do and that is...’). He's a friend."

Gordon Watts, an underwater archaeologist who has worked on numerous shipwrecks or debris sites, including the CSS Georgia, worked with Jobling in Savannah and said he thinks the archaeologist will keep in touch with the lab in some capacity.

“He and Dr. (Donny) Hamilton made the conservation program at TAMU the best in the US,” Watts told the Picket in an email. “No one better.”

Dostal said Jobling was a great networker and was one call away from reaching someone who could help solve a problem or answer a question.

"I have no idea how many of our former students he has helped over the years, but there are quite a few of us that are forever grateful for his mentorship and friendship. It's a hard-earned and well-deserved retirement, but he is always going to be a major part of the lab, and we already miss him."

Jobling apparently hasn't slowed down since retirement. He is assisting in the study of Revolutionary War-era cannon recently raised from the Savannah River.