In search of USS Cumberland and CSS Florida pt 2

After doing the research, with the help of his team, Cussler "calculated possible sites by overlaying a transparency from an old 1870 chart on top of the most modern chart. By comparing the landmarks from West's account [George West, a contemporary who'd seen salvage men working on the Florida] I could see that Pier 6 now corresponded with the Virginia Port Authority's Pier C (where the Florida subk), while the Norne Brothers Shipyard pier now stood over what had once been Piers 1 and 2 (where the Cumberland had sunk.)

ussler applied to the Virginia Marine Researve Commission for a permit to investigate underwater historic property.

Cussler had hired the use of the Sakonit, a yacht that was a hundred feet long, built in the 1920s, on whose decks had walked Presidents Coolidge and Hoover. It was owned by Danny Wilson, who lived aboard it with his family.

This first expedition accomplished little. Although Cussler had an experienced crew of underwater archeologists and divers with him (they'd volunteered):

On reflection I can see that our philosophies clashed. Broadwater and his crew were dead serious and expected a full-scale effort, but I was there strictly to investigate site conditions, study landmarks, and make a little whoopie on the side. A more extensive search would come later.

This first expedition was in 1981, and as may be expected, accomplished little. Cussler returned in July 1982.

In July 1982, Cussler and his team returned. Four of the archeologists from the Commonwealth of Virginia, who dove with him in 1981, had resigned and formed their own company, Underwater Archaeological Joint Ventures. They signed on with Cussler.

This time, Cussler applied to the Army Corps of Engineers to excavate the wreck sites - where he thought the Cumberland and Florida might be.

The team soon found that the site off Pier C was indeed the Cumberland (or so Cussler believed) and the other the Florida.

With the wreck sites now proven to be the two famous Civil War ships, at least to me if not to certified, card-carrying archaeologists, who insist on finding an engravec plaque giving the name, serial number, blood type and DNA, we dropped the curtain on our field activitities and concentrated on the preservation of the artifacts.

The artifacts were conserved and placed in the Mariners Museum.

Then, according to Cussler:

They were on display for nearly six months, when sone Navy admiral and the curator of the Navy Norfolk Museum walked in, asked to see [curator John] Sands, and contemptuously demanded he turn over, as they charitably put it, "our artifacts."

It seems the Judge Advocate of the Navy had a dream. He envisioned that my two years of research, the small fortune I spent on the project, and the indefatigable efforts of the UAJV guys were for the Navy's sole benefit. He sanctimoniously claimed the Department of the Navy owned both ships and all bits and pieces thereof.

The artifacts are now displayed in the navy's Norfolk Museum.

Wikipedia has this to say abut the Cumberland:

In 1981, the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) contracted with Underwater Archaeological Joint Ventures (UAJV), a private firm based in Yorktown, VA. UAJV team members consulted local watermen whose oyster dredges had picked up artifacts for years) to help locate the ships. This information and a remote sensing survey, led archaeologists to two significant wrecks. The recovery of numerous artifacts confirmed that these shipwrecks were most likely Cumberland and CSS Florida. Artifacts recovered included fasteners, fittings, apothecary vessels, a ship's bell (from Cumberland), canon fuses and other ordnance items. The artifacts proved the NUMA/UAJV team had indeed found Cumberland and Florida. Most of the artifacts from this NUMA/UAJV excavation are on exhibit at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk, VA (Newport News Daily Press, 8 March 1987).

Cumberland today
Cumberland is currently a ship wreck under the protection of several Federal laws including the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2005, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, and the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution (which gives the U.S. Government exclusive rights to its own property). Federal courts have upheld these laws and the U.S. Government's exclusive rights to its own ships.

Since her sinking, the ship has been the subject of many expeditions. Some of these expeditions have been in violation of Federal law and artifacts were seized by Federal agents. Many artifacts from these expeditions (both legal and illegal) are at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.

Wreck is facing west to east, with the bow of the vessel slightly above the floor of Hampton Roads.

and the Florida:

Today, many of the artifacts from CSS Florida are at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.

(Note that anyone can edit the Wikipedia. Apparently a Cussler fan wrote the Cumberland entry, but a general person wrote the Florida entry.)

In doing searches of newspapers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there are several entries for Clive Cussler using his newly-earned fortunate to indulge in marine archaeologly - I'll share some of these articles in my next post.

In search of USS Cumberland and CSS Florida

The CSS Florida is another Confederate ironclad that Clive Cussler searched for. He chronicled that search in The Sea Hunters (1996).

A year and seven months after the Cumberland sank, just off the town of Newport News, Virginia; the CSS Florida was scuttled. Most historians, including Cussler, believe it was done on the orders of Admiral David Dixon. Here's a bit from Wikipedia:

At Newport News, Virginia [after having been captured in Brazil and brought back to the U S, in violation of Brazil's neutrality laws] on November 28, 1864, Florida reached the end of her strange career when she sank under dubious circumstances after a collision with the USAT Alliance, a troop ferry. The sinking was most likely done at Admiral David Dixon Porter's encouragement, if not his orders. The Florida could therefore not be delivered to Brazil in satisfaction of the final court order, and could not rejoin the ranks of the Confederate Navy.

Here's the story of the Florida prior to the sinking, as told by Cussler:

On March 22, 1862, the Oreto puts out to sea from Liverpool. Allegedly built for the Italian navy, it was instead sailed to Nassau in the Bahamas, where it was given to the commans of the Confederate blockade runner, John Maffitt.

August 16, 1862
Now mounting 6-inch guns, two 7-inch Blakely rifled guns and a twelve-pound howitzer, the ship is re-christened the CSS Florida.

September 4, 1862
After a 3-day cruise across the Gulf of Mexico from Havana, the yellow-fever afflicted crew manage to run the blockade into Fort Morgan, Florida.

January 16, 1863 Maffitt and the Florida steam out of Mobile ay and begin their raiding career.

After two successful voyages, the Florida was in port in Bahia, Brazil to take on supplies and coal. Despite the fact that it was a neutral port, Commander Napoleon Collins of the USS Wachusett sailed in and captured her, and towed her back to Virginia.

So angry were the Brazilians at this violation ofd neutrality that an international incident was in the offing. Rather than be forced to release the Florida, the decision was made by Thomas Seward (according to Cussler) to scuttle her.

At the same time that Cussler looked for the Cumberland, he also looked for the CSS Florida.

Researchers Bob Fleming and Dr. Chester Bradley (an authority on the sinking of Cumberland, Florida and Congress) helped with the document search.

To be continued

In Search of the USS Cumberland

The Merrimack being converted into the Virginia, a life-sized model at the Monitor Center at the Mariners Museum.

In Clive Cussler's book, The Sea Hunters, he made his search for both the USS Cumberland and the CSS Florida at the same time, because they had sunk within a mile of each other in Hampton Roads.

In April 1980, Cussler decided to make his search. There was no point in searching for the Congress, she had been raised in September 1865, towed to the Norfolk Navy Yard, and from there, sold and broken up.

Cussler worked with researchers Bob Fleming and Dr Chester Bradley, who was an authority on the sinking of the Cumberland, Florida and Congress. "Salvage accounts, eyewitness reports, correspomdence and newspaper articles were assembled and studied."

John Sands, then curator of the Newport News Mariners' Museum, provided Cussler's team with copies of watercolors and sketches by contemoprary artists showing Cumberland's masts protruding from the river between two piers, about 300 yards from shore.

Cussler had his ballpark. He applied to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for a permit to investigate underwater historic property. John Broadwater, head of the Underwater Archaeology Section, provided a team of state archeologists to participate in the dive. A British Advanced Underwater Team assisted also.

Their workboat was the Sakonit, her skipper, Danny Wilson.

This first expedition ended shortly. The recruited divers had expected a full-scale expedition, which Cussler had never intented. He was just "scouting" areas to be searched at a later time.

Cussler and his regular team (Walt Schob and Bill Shea) returned to the area in July 1982.

Four of the archeologists from the Commonwealth of Virginia, James Knickerbocker, Sam Margolin, Dick Swete and Mike Warner, had recently resigned and formed their own organization: Underwater Archaeological Joint Ventures. (UAJV).

Once again permits were obtained. The two ships were found.

But Cussler and his team did not rejoice for long.

They had brought up artifacts from both sites, which they worked to preserve. Then, the Navy and the Norfolk Navy Museum demanded that the artifacts be turned over to them. Cussler wanted to fight them in court, but ultimately did not do so.

According to Cussler, the artifacts are now at the Naval Museum, where it is claimed that a Navy Seal team recovered them.


The life-size replica of the EXTERIOR of the Monitor. You can't go inside it!

USS Cumberland

The USS Cumberland was the first ship sunk by the CSS Virginia (Merrimack), in Hampton Roads, Virginia off the coast of Newport News. Just a year or so later, the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas was scuttled and burned and came to rest about a mile away.

Clive Cussler tells the story of the sinking of both ships in his book, The Sea Hunters. The Cumberland, with a crew of 326 men, was in the sheltered harbor of Hampton Roads, just off the southern coast of Newport News, on March 8, 1862. The wooden ships in the harbor were aware that the Confederates had been working on an ironclad at the Norfolk Shipyard (just as the Confederates knew that the Union was working on an ironclad of their own).

The Virginia was under the command of Franklin Buchanan, a Union officer who had resigned his commission when he expected that his state, Maryland, would secede. When it did not, he tried to get his commission back, but was rebuffed, and so went over to the Confederate side anyway. On that day, the Virginia had the freedom of the water. With its engines, it could literally run rings around the stationary wooden ships, many of which ran aground in an effort to escape. She attacked the Cumberland first, firing with cannon and then ramming her (losing its ram in the process). 120 men died in the subsequent carnage.

After burning the Congress, the Virginia drew off, intending to finish off the rest of the ships the next day. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) the USS Monitor arrived that very night, and was waiting for the Virginia the next day. The two ships fought to a standstill.

Two weeks after the battle, a salvage diver dived on the Cumberland, finding her lying in 66 feet of water at a 45 degree angle. He determined that she was too badly damaged to be raised. After the 1870s, the ship was forgotten.