A cannonball found in North Myrtle Beach by a man with a metal detector likely came to shore during a recent beach nourishment project. Its story goes back to the days of Civil War blockade runners and the ships that chased them

Recovered shell (NMB); type of fuse on shell (Tyrus Tingle); pipe and bulldozer (Dylan Burnell, USACE, Charleston District)

When you’re dredging and then dumping two million cubic yards of sand – equal to 200,000 dump truck loads – onto a 26-mile stretch of shore, small objects are bound to make it through to the beach.

That appears to have been the case when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Charleston District conducted beach renourishment in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Days after that portion of the massive Grand Strand project was completed, a metal detector enthusiast found a 20-pound Civil War-era cannonball in the popular tourist destination. A Horry County Police Department bomb squad deemed the shell – which had a fuse and likely black powder inside -- to be dangerous and neutralized it.

Desirae Gostlin, a spokesperson for North Myrtle Beach police, told the Picket “dredging is our best guess” for the reason the ordnance ended up about a foot deep in front of a resort at 48^th Avenue S. and S. Ocean Boulevard.

General vicinity of shell discovery, overlaid on USACE dredging zone map

The Corps said it could not confirm the shell went through a submerged pipeline and to the beach, where other pipes dump sand and water onto the work area. Heavy equipment then shape and grade the sand.

“Discoveries of historic ordnance during beach renourishment in the Charleston District are rare, said public affairs specialist Dylan Burnell.

Artillery shells have turned up elsewhere in the Palmetto State. For example, a Parrott round was found in 2004 at a residential construction site in Murrells Inlet, below Myrtle Beach.

While news reports focused on the metal detectorist and the fate of the cannonball, I wanted to dig into (pardon the pun) the story of the shell, which clearly was in the area of Union naval operations during the Civil War.

Jim Legg, public archaeologist for the South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA), said the shell appears to be a 32-pounder that weighed between 21 and 25 pounds. The walls were thick and most likely had a U.S. Navy watercap time fuse with an adapter for a paper fuse.

Rick Simmons, author of “Defending South Carolina's Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River,” said there was no Confederate artillery in the vicinity of where the shell was presumably dredged up a few miles off North Myrtle Beach. Back then, the coastline was sparsely populated.

So it’s almost certain the ordnance is tied to Federal forces.

Their targets were the constant flow of blockade runners trying to bring desperately needed supplies to Southern ports, notably Wilmington, N.C.

The Official Records (OR) of the conflict include numerous accounts of ships capturing or sinking blockade runners such as the Argyle, James Bailey, Florida, Nicolai I, Vesta, Scotia and the Sue.

“The area from Wilmington to Charleston was quite active, and with no Confederate batteries for about 40 miles in the middle, the Union was always patrolling” near what is now called Myrtle Beach, Simmons wrote in an email.

“My guess is that it was artillery dropped from or fired by … a Union ship,” without the round exploding, he said.

Tourist can't take find back home with him

A metal detecting hobbyist from Dudley, Mass., told News 13 in Myrtle Beach he heard an unusual sound through his headset while walking near the North Beach and Beach Cove resorts on Feb. 7. A North Myrtle Beach police officer helped uncover the object and the county bomb squad was called in.

“HCPD Bomb Squad transported it to a secure, secondary location to safely neutralize it,” Horry County director of public information Thomas Bell told the Picket. “Best determination is that the cannonball dates back to 1850-1860. It was 20 lbs. with a black powder core, so it was determined to be potentially explosive.”

The finder told the local TV station he believes the shell belongs to him because he found it on public property and it has been rendered safe. (At left, authorities at the scene; photo NMB Police)

City and county officials disagreed. People cannot possess explosive devices in South Carolina without proper permits, said Gostlin.

“Although it would definitely be a cool relic to own, the cannonball was not taken home by anyone,” North Myrtle Beach Police said in a Facebook post. “Whether an item is historic or not, if it’s suspected to be explosive, it must be treated as live until professionals determine otherwise. Public safety always comes first.”

Bell said county police cannot release military munitions to the public, even upon demolition. The remains of the shell, he added, will be sent to Shaw Air Force Base.

State underwater archaeologist Jim Spirek said, unfortunately, bomb squads typically destroy ordnance if a fuse is found. “CW ordnance is quite harmless and when proper techniques are applied (they) can be ‘inerted’ safely and saved for study, display, etc.” He mentioned the conservation of scores of fused artillery shells found in the wreckage of the CSS Georgia in Savannah, Ga.

I asked Bell whether the county considered doing the same with this artillery round.

“HCPD places public safety as the highest priority when it comes to such incidents. Due to the nature of the cannonball, HCPD made the determination that disposal was the safest route,” he replied.

There weren't beachgoers back in the day

Now, back to informed speculation about the cannonball.

Spirek, who has conducted numerous studies of Civil War shipwrecks, echoed Simmons’ assertion there were no Yankee or Rebel batteries erected along this specific stretch of the South Carolina coastline.

“Perhaps a small sailing vessel was coming/in out when spotted by a Union warship on patrol that took a pot shot or two at the vessel, or even at a Confederate cavalry patrol. If dredged farther off the coast, then perhaps a shell from one of the running chases between Union blockaders and Confederate blockade runners,” the archaeologist wrote in an email.

Locations of two Rebel forts overlaid on current U.S. Geological Survey map; click to enlarge

Simmons, who has written numerous books and teaches writing and history at the Georgetown (S.C.) School of Arts and Sciences, described the wartime scenario in the region.

The Union navy shelled Fort Ward at Murrells Inlet relentlessly in late 1862 and early 1863. Above that, Fort Randall was positioned at Little River right near the North Carolina border. (Below, the Union's USS Monticello)

“In between you had a long 40-mile stretch of.....nothing. Technically, that whole area from above Georgetown to the North Carolina line is a big island, and if you think about it there are bridges that access the Grand Strand now in Georgetown, leading into Myrtle, and up at OD/North Myrtle. But at the time, it was difficult to get across as there were no real bridges.”

Only Murrells Inlet and Little River were ports, hence the two small, three-gun batteries at those locations.

“There were a few light artillery companies that floated around the district such as the Waccamaw Light Artillery and Santee Light Artillery and others, but while they did engage Union ships on occasion once they entered the rivers (such as the Black, Sampit, Pee Dee, Waccamaw), I don't recall ever seeing anything about them trying to engage Union ships along the coast,” Simmons wrote.

So that puts Federal gunfire on a blockade runner as the most likely scenario for the artifact.

Simmons first thought perhaps it was related to the long chase of the blockade runner Margaret and Jesse in 1863. The USS Nansemond and other vessels captured the vessel in the vicinity and likely opened fire. The author now says they may have nabbed the prize farther out to sea.

How the dredge may have sent round to shore

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced one day before the discovery of the artillery shell it had completed the North Myrtle Beach phase of the beach renourishment. Work on Myrtle Beach follows. (You can follow the project at this tracker)

“The $72 million project is fully funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is designed to reduce the risk to life and protect critical infrastructure behind the dunes along the Grand Strand,” the agency said.

I asked Burnell, the spokesperson for the Charleston District, to describe the process, given my curiosity about how the cannonball may have made its way ashore.

Basically, a dredge loosens sand and pumps it through a pipeline to the beach. The system transports dredged material (a mixture of sand and water) from the offshore borrow area to the shoreline.

“If an object is within the borrow area and small enough to pass through the system, it could be transported with the sand. However, we cannot confirm that this occurred in this instance,” Burnell said. (At left, another view of the shell; North Myrtle Beach Police)

At the end of the pipeline, a deflector directs the material into a temporary containment dike. Within the dike, the sand-water slurry spreads out, allowing the sand to settle while the excess water gradually drains back toward the ocean. 

After sufficient dewatering occurs, bulldozers and other heavy equipment shape and grade the sand in accordance with the project’s engineered template, restoring the beach to its designed elevation and profile.

Pipelines used to distribute sand on the shore at North Myrtle Beach (Dylan Burnell, USACE)

Burnell said the USACE wasn’t involved with the discovery of the cannonball or investigation.

Still, it has some advice.

“We appreciate the public’s vigilance and encourage anyone who encounters a suspicious object on the beach to avoid handling it and notify local authorities.”

Artillery shell after bomb squad set off small explosion to disarm (North Myrtle Beach Police)

Of hapless blockade runners and the 'Stone Fleet' that failed to stop them: Beach restoration project near Charleston will safeguard ill-fated historic shipwrecks

Recent beach work (City of Isle of Palms), wreck of Constance (SCIAA) and sinking of "Stone Fleet" (Courtesy MIT Museum)

The latest effort to fight beach erosion and restore dunes along a barrier island near Charleston, S.C., will work around the wrecks of three Confederate blockade runners and whaling ships the Union navy sank in an effort to prevent the merchant vessels from reaching the city.

The city of Isle of Palms and state archaeological and preservation offices are developing buffer zones around the sites in preparation for dredging this year, officials said. The goal is for dredgers to pick up sand a couple miles off the coast and bring it ashore for beach nourishment.

“This project will protect our history and our shoreline for the 4,000+ residents that call our Island home and the 20,000+ visitors that enjoy our beach every day in the summer,” the city said in a recent social media post.

Scores of blockade runners tried to reach Charleston during the Civil War, but many ran aground off the Isle of Palms and nearby Sullivan’s Island. Shoals and shallow water, along with fire from Federal ships and batteries, were a constant danger.

The three blockade runners in the project area – the Georgiana, Mary Bowers and the Constance – are near the remains of what were called “Stone Fleets.”

In late 1861 and early 1862, 29 whaling and merchant vessels brought from the Northeast were deposited in the channels leading into Charleston. The idea was to hinder blockade runners who ran the extra risk of slamming into ship timbers, sand bars or stones carried in the hulls. Ships often carried stones to give them stability, improved handling and a lower center of gravity.

SCIAA graphic shows blockade runners and "Stone Fleet" areas below, above city

“The Stone Fleet’s efficacy was almost immediately diminished by the force of the natural scouring of tides as the redirected tidal waters of the harbor made new channels,” according to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA). Most of the wrecks were dispersed by currents and shifting sand.

South Carolina underwater archaeologist Jim Spirek said while the $32 million project will encompass the three blockade runners, “the location of the current proposed borrow area is our attempt to deflect encroachment on the nearby Stone Fleet vessels.”

While the strategy was ultimately ineffective, Stone Fleet wrecks remain important cultural sites today, the city said. Ballast mounds are still visible by side-scan survey.

Beach nourishment areas in blue (City of Isle of Palms)

Dredging is anticipated to begin late spring or early summer. Sand will be placed along three placement areas, which include homes, beach access areas and the site of a playground.

The Picket has reached out to city officials for comment but has not heard back.

Wrecks 'disappeared' at nearby island

Over the years, Spirek and his colleagues have surveyed and/or dived on many blockade runner and “Stone Fleet” wrecks.

While the whereabouts of many are known, the state wanted to know more about four that are no longer visible off Sullivan’s Island. Spirek’s office last years used drones to conduct a survey of the “forgotten” wreck sites.

The remains of those vessels are are now buried deep below the beach and adjacent woodlot.

'Stone Fleet" ballast mound captured by sonagram (City of Isle of Palms)

The planned beach nourishment at the Isle of Palms has prompted Spirek to advise the State Historic Preservation Office on how to safeguard the sites.

In a case like this, “typically we propose a buffer zone around the sites to protect them from dredging and other ancillary activities, i.e., anchoring, cables,” the archaeologist said in an email to the Picket.

Bad luck be a baby for three runners

Spirek has written numerous articles about the history of these vessels and the bad luck they encountered.

That history begins with the Union blockade strategy

As the Union’s nautical noose tightened around Charleston, blockade runners daring to bring vital goods to the Confederacy typically took the shortest route into the harbor, sailing close to Fort Moultrie on the southwestern tip of Sullivan’s Island. They typically sailed through Maffitt’s (or Beach) Channel.

Many did not make it, or get back to sea safely.

The Georgiana, Mary Bowers and the Constance were among the victims. Interestingly, they lie together because two ran into the wrecks of the other, the state says. We’ll explain

Georgiana: The Scottish-built ship may have been intended for military service or privateering. After picking up goods in the Bahamas, it sailed to Charleston, arriving on March 18, 1863. Federal gunner’s spotted the Georgiana in Maffitt’s Channel and crippled it. The crew abandoned the ship, according to an American Battlefield Protection Program report by Spirek. Union ships pulverized the ship and set it afire. Over the following days, Union crews salvaged various items from the wreck including Enfield rifles, bayonets, battle axes, sabers and other sundry goods.

Captains of "Stone Fleet" vessels that left New Bedford, Mass. (New Bedford Free Public Library)

Mary Bowers: This runner that stopped in Bermuda tried to enter Charleston Harbor on Aug. 31, 1864, but it struck Georgiana. It quickly sank. “Union sailors found a 16-year old boy aboard who told them he knew of no cargo other than coal, and that the steamer was to leave laden with cotton bound for Halifax, Canada.”

Constance: The side-wheeler sailed from Nova Scotia, struck the Mary Bowers on Oct. 6, 1864, and quickly sank. One sailor drowned. The next morning, USS Wamsutta reported a strange wreck lying near the wrecks of Georgiana and Mary Bowers. Casting anchor, the blockader investigated the wrecked vessel, which had two smokestacks and masts, sidewheels, lying in three fathoms of water.

State officials believe the three wrecks were near the area of the "Second Stone Fleet.”

Examples of "First Stone Fleet" ballast left on ocean floor (SCIAA)

“While the Second Stone Fleet effectiveness as a deterrent to using the Maffitt’s/Beach Channel to enter Charleston Harbor may have been marginal, the presence of the sunken vessels along with the floating vessels, made any voyage through the blockade at Charleston Harbor potentially disastrous,” a report asserts.

All three wrecks were located in the late 1960s and 1970. Numerous items were removed in licensed, private salvage operations. Sports divers later recovered artifacts from the Mary Bowers and Georgiana.

Postscript: Melville's ode to the doomed ships

Right before I published this post, I came across a December 1861 poem about the doomed “Stone Fleet” vessels by acclaimed author Herman Melville. Some of the old ships were sent to the Savannah River in Georgia to blockade enemy ships.

Melville paid tribute to them in “An Old Sailor’s Lament.”

  I have a feeling for those ships,
    Each worn and ancient one,
    With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam:
    Ay, it was unkindly done.
        But so they serve the Obsolete--
        Even so, Stone Fleet!

    You'll say I'm doting; do you think
    I scudded round the Horn in one--
    The Tenedos, a glorious
    Good old craft as ever run--
        Sunk (how all unmeet!)
        With the Old Stone Fleet.

    An India ship of fame was she,
    Spices and shawls and fans she bore;
    A whaler when the wrinkles came--
    Turned off! till, spent and poor,
        Her bones were sold (escheat)!
        Ah! Stone Fleet.

    Four were erst patrician keels
    (Names attest what families be),
    The Kensington, and Richmond too,
    Leonidas, and Lee:
        But now they have their seat
        With the Old Stone Fleet.

    To scuttle them--a pirate deed--
    Sack them, and dismast;
    They sunk so slow, they died so hard,
    But gurgling dropped at last.
        Their ghosts in gales repeat
        Woe's us, Stone Fleet!

    And all for naught. The waters pass--
    Currents will have their way;
    Nature is nobody's ally; 'tis well;
    The harbor is bettered--will stay.
        A failure, and complete,
        Was your Old Stone Fleet.

CSS Georgia: Recovery dives may begin in October; precautions made for live ammo

Recovery last fall of CSS Georgia casemate section (USACE)

Possibly as early as this October, divers will begin retrieving objects left behind by the crew of the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia, which was set afire and scuttled to keep it out of the hands of Union troops closing in on Savannah.

The dive teams will be looking for buttons, accoutrements and other personal belongings that have managed to stay intact for 150 years since the sinking of the CSS Georgia on Dec. 21, 1864.

U.S. Navy divers could start removing larger pieces of the locally-built ironclad – including two casemates, a boiler, cannons and propeller -- as early as February 2015, said Russell Wicke, a spokesman for the Savannah district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps has recently firmed up its timetable for the removal of the CSS Georgia, the first major project in the long-anticipated deepening of the Savannah River to allow larger vessels to use the port. Its wreckage is close to downtown Savannah, just off Old Fort Jackson.

Only known photo of CSS Georgia (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

President Barack Obama early last week signed the legislation for the $706 million multiyear deepening of the shipping channel from 42 feet to 47 feet at mean low tide.

The CSS Georgia, resting on a slope about 40 feet deep below the surface of the Savannah River, must be removed so that an additional 5 feet of river bottom can be dredged. With the expansion of the Panama Canal, even larger ships will be able to travel to U.S. cities. That requires deeper channels.

“The Georgia has been down there since 1864 and it can tell us a lot of what occurred in the local area and how it was built, because no blueprints survived,” said Wicke.

Corps officials say they are awaiting final approval from the Office of Management and Budget in order to negotiate contracts for the massive dredging project. "We have no indication that this approval will be long delayed," said Wicke.

One of the previously recovered guns (Courtesy of Old Fort Jackson)

The CSS Georgia was a “one-off local design” rather than one provided by the Confederate navy department, said Bob Holcombe, retired curator and historian at the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Ga. “The dimension of the vessels are not known with any degree of certainty.”

“We know so little about the vessel itself so there will be a lot of answers to how it was built,” Holcombe told the Picket last year. “Even in chunks, and no lower hull, there should be answers.”

Lacking much power, the CSS Georgia was destined to become a stationary floating battery on the river, part of the city’s defense system.

U.S. Navy divers, working with archaeologists for the Corps, which is overseeing the deepening project, retrieved a 64-square-foot section of the ironclad last November. It was sent off for analysis of the railroad iron’s strength and integrity.

“The best sense I have is that the integrity of the casemate isn’t as strong as what they expected it to be,” said Wicke, meaning it may be difficult to bring them up in one piece. Further analysis will continue ahead of the recovery, he said.

A rendering of the CSS Georgia (USACE)

Debris includes four of the CSS Georgia’s original 10 cannons, parts of the propeller and propulsion system, a boiler and the two casemates. The wooden hull is believed to have largely disintegrated over the years.

The signature pieces are the casemates -- the compartments where artillery pieces were housed. 

Experts say they are the only ones surviving from a Confederate ironclad. One is huge: 68 feet by 24 feet.

Wicke said contract and U.S. Navy divers will be involved in the $10 million removal process, which is expected to last three to six months. Conservation of the recovered items could take three years before they are ready for a museum setting.

Divers, using lights on their helmets in the low visibility, will be able to spend up to one hour on the river bottom on either side of the tide, depending on the velocity of the current.

With the chance that surviving cannonballs may be live, even after all these years, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialists will be on hand.

A red buoy marks the wreckage site of the CSS Georgia

“There are several types of ordnance that have been recovered and can be expected to be recovered from the site,” said Wicke. “Based on the most recent investigations, it appears that most of the ordnance, nearly 90 pieces, was recovered in the 1980s. Some ordnance was discovered in October 2013, but it appears that most of it has already been recovered.”

To date, 6.4-inch cone-shaped Brooke shells and 9-inch round Dahlgren shells have been brought up.

The CSS Georgia was part of the so-called Savannah Squadron, which included the ironclads Atlanta, Savannah and Milledgeville.

Hours before the massive army of Major Gen. William T. Sherman took Savannah by land, the CSS Georgia’s crew lit a charge, creating an explosion and fire that sent the ironclad down nearly 40 feet deep, just a couple hundred yards from Fort Jackson, which itself is only a few miles east of River Street.

Confederates, before they fled, also burned the eastern wharves district, putting an end to the shipbuilder's machine business and foundry.

Divers use helmets fitted with lights to see through murky waters (USACE)

Beyond the salvage of a few items, the CSS Georgia was largely forgotten until 1968, when a dredge struck the vessel. A similar incident occurred in 1983, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed a buoy above the wreckage and set about protecting the site and warning huge commercial vessels using the main shipping channel to steer clear.

Today, much larger vessels cruise the river surface. The new “super ships” resulting from the Panama Canal expansion will be 1,000 feet long or larger. 

They would dwarf the CSS Georgia, which is estimated to have been between 150 and 250 feet long and 45-60 feet wide.

The current shipping channel from Savannah’s port to the Atlantic Ocean past Tybee Island is 32 miles. The deepening project will increase the length to 40 miles, with nearly half of that in the Atlantic, said Wicke.

With the deepening, post-Panamax larger ships won’t have to wait on the tidal windows to approach and leave the port.

Barge used during a recovery dive in 2013 (USACE)

The Corps is working to mitigate side effects from the project, including anticipated lower dissolved oxygen levels that could affect fish and other wildlife in the river, said Wicke. An oxygen injection system is planned along the river. “Ocean water will go further upstream. We have mitigation efforts.”

While there has been concerns raised about the possible environmental impact of the deepening project, Wicke said the plans won approval from four federal agencies and the concerns are unfounded.

He said the project will result in a large economic benefit for Georgia and South Carolina, with $5.5 realized for every dollar spent. Lower costs and increased fuel efficiencies will result for shippers who make fewer trips because they have larger vessels, he said.

The Savannah Corps office is working on CSS Georgia public outreach plans, with possible Boy Scout workshops, a mobile booth about the project, lectures with subject matter experts and public viewing from Old Fort Jackson when larger pieces are brought to the surface.

Officials plan to launch a special website and go heavy on social media, said Wicke.