Greensboro on to unc were laura and i spent some time for year before i moved on to West Virginia university. Andcompleted her masters has had a very her first job was at stratford and hall, the birthplace of robert e lee. Recently, she is the deputy education director at the Hampton Roads naval museum. She works as an educator and does special event. She also worked at fort munro museum. Today, she will be speaking to shipwreck. Vil war in my seven years here, i dont think we have done any naval operations. She will be talking about shipwrecks of the uss cumberland before she comes on page. Note that laura and her husband have recently published a book. You can see a copy of it just in front of the podium. The title of the book is never. All me a hero me introduce laura lawfer. [applause] afternoon. How is everybody . Good. They went after lunch. I have to start out with a matter of disclosure. At the United States naval museum, everything here is my opinion. It is not endorsed by the u. S. Navy. I think you see why as we go to this talk through this talk today. Things we will focus on his Civil War Battlefields in a different way than you usually do. We are losing the fight to preserve some Civil War Battlefields. You might not know it where here in gettysburg over 6000 acres have been safe. On a front, Civil War Preservation is failing. Maybe next have been plundered, abused to see underwater wreckage as salvage. U. S. Problem shadows all naval wrecks around the world. , then ships and planes final resting place for many u. S. Sailors. Direct said unprotected sit unprotected the wrecks sit unprotected. They are victims of diverse and plunderers who seek to take pieces of the wrecks for themselves. Many said on the bottom of vast oceans. Need specialized diving equipment to get to them, but Civil War Navy wrecks are whereularly vulnerable they said in shallow waters. The story i would like to tell , the ussabout toots cumberland and florida. Ope by the end of us individual appreciate these two. The years, these ships were victim of an intentional plunder. Since the end of the civil war, the u. S. Navy has claimed and held ownership of both. Over the passage of time, we have lacked the resources to protect these aquatic graveyards. In the 20th century, virginia waterman looted and pillaged these shifts under the guise of claiming and fishing. Today, we are on the verge of losing the wrecks, i think on the face of the earth exists this naval action in the atlantic. Plunder of the wrecks was allowed by the organizations entrusted to their care, the u. S. Navy. Sad story,ll this let me introduce you to these ships. It is logical to begin with the uss cumberland. The fable ship sunk during the battle of Hampton Roads. Prior to destruction, cumberland was one of the finest vessels in the federal fleet. It served in the navy for about two decades. In the 1840s, cumberland took part in three mediterranean cruises. Sent56, the navy cumberland to the new York Navy Yard were workers converted it to a fluke of war. After the ships fitting, a cruise off the coast of africa, african slave trade. By the time the civil war began in 1861, cumberland boasted monster guns. They wait 12,000 pounds each. At the time, there are some of the largest pieces of naval artillery in the world. War,eginning of the civil the ship was towed to safety when the confederates took over the shipyard. It engage forces and captured a small number of ships in the harbor. Ononally, cumberland 1862 it met its match. Some of the css regimen. For many months, m f cumberland it n aware of they drilled in preparation for this inevitable encounter. All the training did nothing to help them. That fateful morning as cumberland opened fire with her forward guns come the confederate ironclad responded with a shot that first through the starboard side, killing or wounding nine marines run of the bat. The second shell took out in a shyer entire gun crew. They kept up firing at cumberland is the ship lay helplessly at anchor, unable to bring its virginia moved away from the bow. For several moments, the ironclad cannot execute it self. Sink, itland began to appeared they might think together. The union ship was doomed. All aboard new it. Uninjured gunners left their station. They realized they had an opportunity to retaliate. Despite their losses, the Union Sailors intensify their efforts. The dead were thrown to the port side and the wounded trade below. Remaining guns cruise fire three brightside, but none of them pierced the ironclads honor armor. Morris replied we will sink with our colors flying. The bowels submerge and give the order to abandon ship. Plunged about first into the bottom of the river carries 121 men with her. In the aftermath, cumberland famous. There, two months later, the virginian was intentionally destroyed by confederate forces. Throughout the war, u. S. Solars soldiers and sailors visited the carlin. U. S. Troops recognize the sacrifice of the cumberland crew and they paid homage to the dead, recognizing that section of the james river as hollowed ground. Two years and eight months later, another important worship joined at the bottom of the james river. First of the foreign built raters, css florida. Check it in the current in a liverpool shipyard. Using a british gun bill for the model of the whole time of vessel was designed for speed and maneuverability. 1862, sent to the hes where john mack christened the css florida. Rater, florida was incredibly successful. During one of its first cruise, it captured 25 merchant ships. The carter values on these ships 1. 5 million in this was civil war money so think of how huge it would be today. They counted for an additional 22 ship seizures. After an accident layover in france, they captured 13 more merchant ships in 1864. That year, the New York Times printed an editorial, accusing diligencend lack of in catching this radar. Without calling them out my name, he blamed the and wells. He believed that wells had not sent enough ships out catch raters like the florida. Inridas career ended october 1864 when it was rammed and hijacked by uss watches since they were in the Brazilian Court port. And of the cover of darkness he rammed and ship sunk. The union crew towed it back to the United States. They anchored it off of newport news, virginia for it there, the ship sank under mysterious circumstances on the morning of november 28, 1864. Although an investigation concluded that the loss of the vessel was mechanical failures, specifically blaming leakage, most likely the crew has had deliberately scuttled the ship. Floridas reduction from a news report had created a bit of a national the suit in the navy had been required to apologize publicly for the incident. Years later, the captain porterd he said admitted giving the order to sink the ship. In short, Hampton Roads became the final resting place for two. Amous warships one union, and once confederate. It is not take for questions to arise for their preservation. After the battle of Hampton Roads, federal Government Research ownership of the wreck was never in dispute during the war. The territorial clause of the u. S. Constitution made sure that all u. S. Naval wrecks around the thed remain property of navy. It did not matter if that was on the bottom of that mary alice trench or had run aground in cape may. If it once along to the navy, it the navy. Onged to immediately after the battle of Hampton Roads, and the navy expressed interest in bringing up cumberland and seeing if it could be reused. The secretary of the navy hired massachusetts solid diver Maureen Bates to conduct a preliminary survey of these racks and his report, which was the earliest account of conditions on the sunken warship was not optimistic at all. He wrote the cumberland lies and 56 need of water, deeply embedded in the mud, healed to an angle of 45 degrees. The water is very thick and with some difficulty, we could get it out. Everything appears in confusion down there. Damagencluded the sustained by the vessel was too extensive to justify the cost of raising it. However, the u. S. Navy continued to find ways to recover property like an imperiled that they reused. For the next decade, the government sold the rights of recovery to a succession of firms. This created issues in later years because in the 19th century, they sell salvage rights and in the 20th century, it comes up as a question from some divers im going to talk about in a little while. Although the u. S. Government dollars,thousands of nothing less than a congressional act can remove the ship from the ownership of the u. S. Government. Inquireriladelphia article from 1864 noted that the navy would retain all rights to the ship, including everything of military and historic value. The article reminded potential divers that nothing they found on the ship was theirs, stating that bidders will take into consideration that the government requires the frigate cumberland and whatever may be on board her, either public or private property, will be delivered to the navy yard in virginia. Aboutestrictions artifacts did not retreat did not deter daring divers. More than anything, they wanted to retrieve the paymasters safe which reportedly contained 40,000 in gold bc on it. It turned out to be something of a hoax. In 1875, a Detroit Company claimed to have found the paymasters safe and found no gold in it. Wrote memoirs talking about the salvage activities. He said no one ever knew what was done with the safe. It was never reported that any gold was taken from it. Nevertheless, divers continue to believe a mysterious yankee trevor treasure lay on the bottom of the river. Diving on the cumberland became something of a get rich quick scheme. 19thcentury diving was not easy. A host of dangers surrounded anyone who attempted the 60 foot dive. A german salvage diver had a plan to reach the suppose it putting dynamite under the stern of the rack and blowing a hole into the paymasters cabin. Today, we could only marvel at the daring the stupidity. He handled explosives and murky water without even a portable underwater lamp. He groped in utter darkness, risking the mechanical favor mechanical failures associated with his breathing apparatus. They reported the german diver was brought up unconscious several times. He observed that though he was a splendid looking fellow, the deep water dive injured his health and he reduced rapidly and did not live long. Meanwhile, as divers went to work, the u. S. Navy expressed the ccsterest in florida. As with cumberland, there was never any doubt as to who owned it. At the conclusion of the civil war, all confederate war materiel reverted to the u. S. Government, specifically the department of treasury. When the administration was freed, the organization took hold of the confederate artifacts, including shipwrecks. In modern times, the navy wishes to study any confederate vessel, the navy has to officially request that they turn over the ships to the navy one at a time. The navy began diving after the civil war ended to transfer control from the treasury to the navy. Event, although ownership inthe wreck was questionable 1864, by 1865, it was not. Reportsbly, official concerning the postwar salvage operations on florida both government and private are pretty much nonexistent. Showseorge wests account that it was stripped by hired divers after the war. Unfortunately, west, who witnessed much of the operation declined to elaborate on the nature of the activities except to say that florida must have been magnificently built for the drivers because the state rooms were handsomely decorated. They, if they could see decorations through the floating silt and aquatic life, the florida must have sunken excellent condition. Documentary evidence shows all major salvage evidence concluded after the war. From there, the memory failed except for brief times that revived interest in the 1920s and 30s, both the Union Worship and confederate raider remained out of sight and for the most part, out of mind. The only major recovery occurred in the 1920s when the government recovered the anchor chain, sending it to the museum of the confederacy in richmond. For the next 60 years, no documented activity to lice. That is not to say no one dove on the shipwrecks or pondered them for artifacts. In fact, many watermen did just that. The 20th century became something of a heyday for the plunderers. Many owned the technology that they needed to dive in these waters. It is important to remember that historic reservation in the United States really did not take hold until the 1960s and shipwrecks were not at the top of the list for preservationists. Time, many important artifacts may have been lost during the decades because of ignorance and outright vandalism. Theinstance, the ram from css virginia which was lost in 1862 has never been found. Currently, it does not show up on any sonar ratings or any of the areas around the ship. The question remains did and enterprising watermen find that significant artifact and bring the ram up . The answer may never be known. Official interest in the wreck did not occur again until the 1980s. So many years had passed that the had to be relocated. Still, the navy expressed no interest in underwriting a campaign assuming that the would only in book only embolden plunderers. Popular novelists Clive Cussler at theas the Chairman NationalMarine Agency devoted to the preservation of maritime heritage. He decided to pursue his longstanding interest in the two ships. He believed both ships told an important story about the Civil War Navy and he believed both ships had a number of artifacts on them that should be brought up and preserved. He hired a washingtonbased researcher and local historian who calculated the probable locations of the sunken vessel. He entered into a cooperative agreement with the statebased Archaeological Agency which offered to supply divers to search for the two local wreck sites. The one thing custer failed to do was make any contact with the owners of the two the u. S. Navy. Setdecision that ultimately up a bitter rivalry between his group and the navy. The network he worked with established survey area in the lower james river which according to the research offered the greatest potential for retaining the remains of the sunken ships. Using the technology to detect different anomalies in the water, they initially could not find the wreck. Another year went by. He went back and contacted with the archaeological underwater joint ventures at this time. The joint Ventures Firm reached out to local watermen and they contacted local watermen who to obtain theried location of the ship or any location about the recovery of artifacts in that area. Eventually, they found a man named wilbur riley, a veteran clamor to knew the location of a rack right off of newport news. He admitted he had retrieved a number of objects already. Similar reports regarding similar shipwrecks and even sunken treasure in virginia waters in the past had usually proved to be without foundation. But this time, he described how he first discovered the wreck after four or five years of lost pair ofthen clam pumps in the james river and tried to retrieve them. He discovered a sword hill and handle decorated with a design emblematic of the navy during the civil war. He also pulled from the site a large copper cylinder that bore a striking resemblance to a section of bilge pump types depicted in the plans from the uss cumberland. Furthermore, he thought the wreck was about 65 feet below the surface, which is about what was expected of the uss cumberland. Locationacts and warranted a firsthand investigation. He offered to help find the ship. Several days later, he shortened his workday and transported a dive team to the site. Without the benefit of foresight, he put the boat right over the spot where his visual calculation indicated the wreck was lying. Given how difficult the how difficult it was, it suggested he had probably taken it from the said heres able to find it so quickly. In any event, the diver appreciated the watermens accuracy. As they extended their search line to begin a systematic sweep of the riverbed, they encountered an area of wreckage dominated by massive wooden eerily out ofding the mud in the murky blue. They collected artifacts to help identify the ship. One was a white iron stone plate , fabric a fragment with a manufacturers name and mark on it. A productlished it as of the staffordshire pottery of england. They also found a well preserved hair of brass gunners calibers to measure projectiles. Finally, divers found a solid cylinder composed of a single block of wood. A ball was to ensure needed in the bottom of the canon war in order to prevent an explosion when the tube was fired. It was a most intriguing figure to these divers, the nine inch figure corresponded to the smoothbore cannon from the uss cumberland. Though by no means definitive, this wasnce suggested the final resting place of cumberland. With cumberlands location known, the dive team went looking for css florida. While off shore, the divers found an underwater anomaly and dropped the buoy. A pair of divers descended and found concentrated debris showing there was a ship there and they got a few artifacts a liquor bottle dating to the correct time, a leather bayonet a copper alloy hoop of unknown function but which was probably one of the brass ornaments in the stateroom. As the salvage divers noted in 1865, reaching the wreck of cumberland in florida was not an easy task. Conditions post obstacle. Swift current and Poor Visibility hindered all aspects to the operation. Water depths over 60 feet at each site restricted ailey bottom times without the compression stops to barely over one hour for each member of the dive team. The propeller blades and tankers and barges that made their way up and down the river represented a constant source of during theirvers ascent and descent. By far, the greatest cause of consternation was a freak went disappearance of site marking buoys which were inadvertently dragged away every night as vessels passed by the two wreck sites. The two ships sat in very different states of reservation. Florida was in a did in an esse