New US Navy archival complex in DC will ensure artifacts from CSS Alabama, other Civil War ships will survive for a long time

1851 buildings at Washington Navy Yard; items from CSS Alabama (US Navy)

Construction of a modern archival complex at the Washington Navy Yard will enhance protection for conserved artifacts from several Civil War warships -- most notably the raider CSS Alabama.

U.S. Navy officials this week held a formal groundbreaking for the project. Current facilities built in 1851 were not designed to house artifacts and many lack environmental controls.

“For several years, the Library and Archives have fought to protect Navy’s intellectual property and heritage from the ravages of heat, humidity, water leaks, and cold. Records and photographs stored in these areas were subject to mold and damage, requiring Navy to pay for mold remediation for records and photos,” said Dr. Kristina Giannotta, assistant director of the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Histories and Archives Division, in a press release.

The new complex will house the Navy’s Operational Archives, Department of the Navy Library, Rare Book Room, Navy Art Collection, and the Underwater Archaeology Conservation Laboratory. The lab ensures overseas historic preservation of military ship and aircraft wreck sites. 

USS Kearsarge sinks CSS Alabama (Library of Congress)

It’s Civil War holdings include items from the USS Tulip (lost in boiler explosion in Potomac), USS Westfield (scuttled with explosives in Galveston Bay), CSS Alabama (sunk in battle off France), CSS Georgia (scuttled at Savannah, Ga.), USS Housatonic, sunk by the submarine Hunley off Charleston, S.C.; and USS Hatteras, sunk by the Alabama off Galveston.

CSS Alabama artifacts include cannon, a bronze bell, a leather shore, Brazilian coins, glass stemware and, yes, a flushing toilet.

The lab also has conserved Enfield rifle barrels from the USS Tulip. The Tulip artifact collection includes military uniform components, navigation equipment, ceramics, personal items, medical items, ship’s hardware, tools, ordnance and artillery

USS Tulip rifle barrel and ramrod (U.S. Navy)

Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Day, a public affairs officer for NHHC, told the Picket: “With regard to the move, all of the items have been professionally and archival packed, and are being stored in a climate controlled facility until the renovations are complete and can then be placed in the new complex.”

Day said items in the NHHC holdings include the Navy’s first signal book, John Paul Jones’ calling card, unpublished World War II administrative histories, deck logs and photos.

According to reports, the $41 million renovation will be complete by 2022.

The UA lab, of course, has items from other conflicts. Among them is a brass trumpet from the USS Houston, which was lost in the Battle of Sunda Strait during World War II, and artifacts from the USS Salute, a WWII-era minesweeper.

Adm. Mike Gilday (left) at groundbreaking (U.S. Navy(

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“This new project underscores the vital role the Naval History and Heritage Command serves in preserving our Navy’s institutional memory,” Gilday said in a statement. “With this archival complex we will continue to remember and present an accurate history of our Navy and tell the stories of those who have gone before us for generations to come.”

USS Monitor Center cleans the inside of one of two Dahlgren guns undergoing conservation; no cat remains found so far

Erik Farrell uses special drill on bore (Brock Switzer/The Mariners' Museum and Park)

USS Monitor conservators on Tuesday used a custom-built boring machine to remove encrusted marine line and sediment from inside the barrel of an XI-inch Dahlgren gun.

The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Va., provided social media updates about what has been found in all the gunk: “So far, lots of coal, some pieces of crab and some seashells.”

But, the museum hastened, no remains of Lt. Whiskers, a black cat said to be a mascot on the innovative Union ironclad.

Francis B. Butts, a Monitor sailor who survived its sinking during a storm on Dec. 31, 1862, gave this account: “A black cat was sitting on the breech of one of the guns, howling one of those hoarse and solemn tunes which no one can appreciate who is not filled with the superstitions which I had been taught by the sailors, who are always afraid to kill a cat. I would almost as soon have touched a ghost, but I caught her, and placing her in another gun, replaced the wad and tampion; but I could still hear that distressing yowl.”

Conservators are drilling the ironclad’s two Dahlgren guns, which were housed in the turret and made famous in the USS Monitor's clash with the CSS Virginia.

“We accomplished our goals for yesterday, it went very well and are now busy with preparations for the next one," Tina Gutshall, conservation administrator for USS Monitor, told the Picket in an email Wednesday.

The gun is lowered before drilling (Brock Switzer/The Mariners' Museum and Park)

The cleaning of the second gun is tentatively scheduled for March 3.

“Once the guns are bored, the next step is going to determine now that we've exposed that area, how much the marine salts are going to come out," Will Hoffman, the museum’s director of conservation, told TV station WVEC:  “So once we go put it back in the solution, we'll let the chemistry treat it."

The museum wants the artillery pieces eventually to go on display with thousands of other artifacts.

The Monitor’s turret was raised off Cape Hatteras, N.C., in 2002. Numerous artifacts have been found in the years since as it, too, is being stripped of harmful concretion with electrochemical treatments and hand-held tools.

This project is focusing on getting rid of concretion inside the Dahlgrens.

(Brock Switzer/The Mariners' Museum and Park)

“Originally, that hollow cavity was filled with loose sand, sediment, coal and other debris from the sea floor,” conservator Erik Farrell told the Picket. Most of that was previously removed.

The barrels have had between 1" and 3" thickness of concretion covering them all the way down the bore and forward to the muzzle -- hence the need to clean the inside of the 11-foot-long guns.

(Brock Switzer/The Mariners' Museum and Park)

• See what was found in the second Dahlgren barrel

The Picket tours the USS Monitor Center's conservation lab, where thousands of artifacts and science meet

Sheaves used in rigging blocks on USS Monitor

Thousands of artifacts are in plastic containers

Turret inside giant conservation tank (All photos by the Picket)

The anniversary “Battle of Hampton Roads Weekend” event beginning Friday at the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Va., will include behind-the-scenes tours of the laboratory that is conserving giant and tiny artifacts from the USS Monitor.

I got a look inside the USS Monitor Center’s Batten Conservation Complex during a visit last week. While I don’t know precisely what the $10 tours of the center and lab this weekend will include, I wanted to share some photos from my walk-through with conservation administrator Tina Gutshall. I also spoke with project manager Will Hoffman.

The ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia are famous for their March 9, 1862, clash that changed naval warfare. While the Confederate vessel was scuttled and largely lost, conservators and historians for nearly two decades have studied remnants of the Monitor that were recovered off Cape Hatteras, N.C., where it was lost in a storm.

Signature pieces receiving conservation treatment in tanks at the lab are the ship’s huge turret, the engine and condenser, and two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. Thousands of smaller items are being conserved in plastic containers filled with water or chemicals.

Hundreds of treated artifacts are displayed in the museum, including the propeller and anchor.

Organic materials are kept in a special cooler

Hoffman and Gutshall on walkway above tanks

Gutshall told me the goal is to have the conservation completed by 2029-30. But that’s somewhat of a best estimate.

“It has always been fluid because you do what is best for the object,” Gutshall said.

The chief challenge for Hoffman and his team is finding and utilizing  – or in some cases, tweaking -- the appropriate technology to treat a particular item. Cast iron and wrought iron have different properties, so while dry ice cleaning might work for one object, it may not for another. Hundreds of artifacts have been treated with dry ice, which has the effectiveness of sand blasting.

“We have to figure out every step of it,” Hoffman told me. “We have to understand how (an item) was made, how it was used and how it deteriorated.”

The conservation process largely concentrates on removing sea salts that permeated the iron for about 140 years. Over 15 years, conservators have made significant process on the turret, but fine corrosion is embedded in folds of the curved iron plates.

One of the 11-inch Dahlgrens

The Monitor's engine receives treatment

John Ericsson, who built the USS Monitor, utilized an innovative engine that is made of many materials.

“We have the earliest and most complete steam engine room in the world,” said Hoffman, referring to the engine, condenser, bulkhead, propeller and its shaft, two Worthington pumps and the reversing gear.

Conservators also are concentrating on gun carriages for the Dahlgrens that fired from the turret. One has been disassembled; the other is still in a tank. They are made of iron, copper alloy and wood. The preferred treatment for a composite artifact is to take it apart so that each piece can be treated.

Reproduction of a Worthington pump

One of the new cabinets installed in laboratory.

Some of the gaskets used on Monitor (All photos by the Picket)

Gutshall also helps students and researchers with questions about the USS Monitor, including its design and construction.

Hoffman admired the craftsmanship that went into the ironclad, which was built in less than four months.

“It was a guy’s livelihood. It was made to the nines,” he said. “The machining and milling is perfect.”

Iron bolts from disassembled gun carriage.

Room where photos of artifacts are taken.

Raising the CSS Georgia (update): Artifacts recovery by the numbers

9,000-pound Dahlgren recovered i n 2015 (USACE)

As first reported by the Associated Press, CSS Georgia conservators are treating fewer than half of the 29,716 artifacts recovered from the scuttled Confederate ironclad’s watery grave in Savannah, Ga.

Russell Wicke, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district’ office, told the Picket that 165 tons (13,019 artifacts) went to a Texas A&M University laboratory for conservation, while 134 tons (16,697 items) were reburied in the river.

Why more artifacts reburied, while weighing less? That’s because the more mundane bolts, washers, nails and smaller items were not considered “unique,” according to the AP report. They were documented and placed in underwater storage containers.

Among the larger items being conserved are several heavy artillery pieces and sections of the armor casemate.

The Army Corps of Engineers has supervised the $14 million removal of the one-off CSS Georgia as part of a major harbor deepening project in Savannah. Research will continue for years on the vessel and its huge load of artifacts.

Wicke told the Picket his office is working with Texas A&M on obtaining a list of all artifacts and a progress report on conservation.