Mike, Pete and All Interested,
I asked Mr. Henry about the C.S. salvage, his reply was:
"The Confederate goal was just to get as much stuff off the wreck as they could. Since it was stranded under the guns of Fort Fisher they were able to do this although they obviously didn't get everything. The big coup was the salvage of four 12-pdr. Whitworth Rifles. Two initially stayed at Fort Fisher. One was captured on the beach along with a Blakely rifled field piece while protecting another stranded blockade runner and they went to the navy prize yard, I think in 1864. Until then they served the Confederacy very well.
It seems like two of the 12-pdr. Whitworth rifles were used by DH Hill during the 1863 siege of Washington, NC which was at that point held by Union forces. I would have expected them to be using shells during the bombardment.
Anyway, I always assumed that much of the 12-pounder ammunition used was salvaged from the Modern Greece. Only 75 solid shot and 10 of the shell/case shot were recovered from the wreck in 1963. Ten of those solid shot are in the box that is in wet storage--it is obvious they are shot because the noses of the projectiles are exposed by the broken lid.
I just pulled the nose-ejecting case shot from our display. I hope to get it x-rayed up at our Queen Anne's Revenge lab at the beginning of next year.
Nathan Henry
Assistant State Archaeologist and Conservator Underwater Archaeology Branch NC Office of State Archaeology
1528 Fort Fisher Blvd. South
Kure Beach, NC 28449
Phone: 910 458 9042"
Regards,
John
Note: The Whitworth and Blakely projectiles were never adopted by the British Ordnance Department of the Crown and could not have been declared obsolete by it. They were the property of Whitworth and Blakely and when our ACW ended so ended the need for them.