Posted on 08/05/2014 11:15:14 AM PDT by Borges
Good post. Leaders make their victories look easy.
I guess after he had done what he had hoped to do, he could retire. lol
http://www.al.com/specialreport/mobileregister/index.ssf?finalresting.html
Tecumseh’s final resting place
By CASANDRA ANDREWS
Living Reporter
08/05/01
FORT MORGAN — An orange and white buoy floating atop murky seas serves as their headstone.
For the nearly 100 men who lie entombed in the Civil War ship the USS Tecumseh, the metal can-shaped marker is the only visible reminder of the Union soldiers presence in Mobile Bay.
On Aug. 5, 1864, the Tecumseh, a Union iron-hull, fired the first shot in the Battle of Mobile Bay, the bloodiest naval fight of the Civil War.
Within half an hour of shattering a cannon shell over Fort Morgan, the Tecumseh struck a mine — known then as a torpedo — lurched, rolled on its side and sank nearly 30 feet.
It took about two minutes.
Twenty-one men escaped, some swimming to shore and others using rafts to reach safety. Most historic accounts maintain that 93 others went down with the ship.
For 137 years, the pride of Rear Adm. David Farragut’s fleet during the Union attack has been stuck in the mud at the entrance of Mobile Bay.
“The Tecumseh is the only surviving, intact Civil War-era, Ericsson-design Union monitor,” said W. Wilson West, a maritime historian. “There are three others but they are all on the bottom and in various states of disrepair. Tecumseh, by far, is the jewel in the crown.”
Efforts to raise the ship — or at least protect it from scavengers and commercial boat anchors — have made little headway in recent years.
The boat that took 120 seconds to sink would take at least 10 years to pull up and restore, historians said.
“Here is a national treasure. It should not be just ignored,” said Jack Friend, a Mobile naval historian. “We have a responsibility not to let it rust away or be destroyed in some manner. Someday, it might be raised.”
He doesn’t imagine that day will come in his lifetime, though. Friend, who was commissioned to examine the feasibility of raising the ship in 1974, said then it would cost about $10 million to bring it up and restore it. He estimates that the cost would be much greater today.
A full recovery and restoration could take as long as 15 years and cost at least $80 million, said West, who wrote the “USS Tecumseh Shipwreck Management Plan” in 1997.
Among the plan’s recommendations:
Establish a regulated navigation area with a 100-yard radius around the wreck;
Set up a closed circuit surveillance system at Fort Morgan;
Create a heritage zone for sites important to the Battle of Mobile Bay.
An effort of that magnitude would require a fleet of historians, archaeologists, engineers, investors, fund-raisers, government officials and salvage crews, he said.
So far, none of his plan has been implemented.
“People consider the Tecum seh sort of safe at the moment, in the sense that it’s not going anywhere,” West said of why he thinks the government isn’t taking action. “It’s on the shelf at the Naval Historical Center. They have other priorities right now like the Hunley, and other naval wrecks. It’s a money issue and a priority issue for them.”
Bill Dudley, director of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, said the government is aware of Wilson’s management plan.
“We suggest leaving it as it is, which is called a ‘preservation in place option,’ which costs less money,” Dudley said. Tecumseh holds the “remains of 93 sailors. We feel we owe them the respect they have earned. We don’t feel like we should disturb it any more than it’s been.”
One reason the project would carry such a hefty price tag is because the Tecumseh was built of thick wood and massive iron. It weighs about 2,100 tons and measures 225 feet long.
The weight of the vessel and the soft bottom of the bay would work against recovery. Nearly 99 percent of the Tecumseh is buried in mud, according to numerous surveys. One-inch thick iron plates are bolted and riveted to the outside, with 10 plates stacked on each other.
By comparison, the USS Hunley weighs about 7 tons and is 40 feet long. The price of raising and restoring it is running into several million dollars, Friend said.
Other recoveries haven’t gone so well. The raising of the USS Cairo from the Yazoo River in Mississippi in the 1960s is an example of what can go wrong. Cables were used to pull the boat out of the river. The vessel was so heavy that the cables cut through the hull, severing a portion of the stern. Hundreds of artifacts plunged back into the river.
Historians estimate there are at least 50,000 artifacts lodged in the muck inside the Tecumseh, including the ships two 15-inch cannons. Divers for the Smithsonian Institute removed an anchor and dishes from the ships’ dining hall during a 1967 expedition.
West supports launching a new comprehensive study to determine the ironclad’s latest co ordinates and condition as well as changes in the surrounding sand, sediment and environment in the last three decades.
The last such survey was conducted by the Smithsonian Institution’s Tecumseh Project Team. Funds dried up and the project was suspended. He said the government isn’t likely to pay for a new survey any time soon.
West, who lives in Toronto, said keeping commercial barges and shrimp boats away from the area would help keep future damage of the wreckage to a minimum.
“Shrimp trawlers go up and down every season,” West said. “I’ve watched them go up and down each side of the buoy at will. And I think local divers might go out there every once in a while thinking they can get something off of it.”
Dudley, who is also director of naval history for the government, said one reason a navigation zone hasn’t already been created around the wreckage is because it’s in the middle of the Mobile ship channel.
“We feel it’s under careful observation from Fort Morgan,” Dudley said. “The Coast Guard and Marine Police are ready to report any folks who look like they are going to go down and do something.”
Friend, who is writing a book on the Battle of Mobile Bay, said he would like to see someone create a virtual reality tour that explores the Tecumseh, inside and out. He said Fort Morgan would be the perfect spot to show such a presentation.
The Mobile historian, who fought in a tank while serving in the Korean War, said he’s been ensconced in naval history since he came home more than three decades ago. Fishing off Fort Morgan also drew him to the Tecumseh.
“I would be out on the water.... on a late August day, all peaceful and serene,” Friend said. “The noise, the smoke, the men being wounded, it was difficult to imagine.”
Friend came to see the Tecumseh as a tank that floated on water.
“There was certainly a similarity that exists between people in ironclads during the Civil War and people who fought in tanks in later wars.”
Despite the passage of time, interest in restoring the ship continues.
“People are always asking me if I think it can be raised,” Friend said. “If it could be raised it would be wonderful. People from all over the world would come to see it.”
Interesting map. Thanks!
“...“People are always asking me if I think it can be raised,” Friend said. “If it could be raised it would be wonderful. People from all over the world would come to see it.”...”
What’s with the “IF?” crap...
We put men on the MOON with 1960s technology; yet they can’t figure out how to raise a ship in only 30 feet of water?
What the hell happened to “Can Do!” America?
Great post!
Ft. Morgan and Ft. Gaines are interesting sites to visit if ever you’re down there on the Redneck Riviera. You can easily see from Ft. Morgan the buoy that marks where USS Tecumseh sank.
IF really means if the cost can be justified.
I guess you’re right... something about the way it was worded just irked the crap out of me.
Because it's been sitting in only 30 feet of water for 150 years. Metal rusts.
One controversial account—states that the Monitor was sunk by a submarine! A steam powered Rebel submarine what used a mine to sink the ironclad. The blast sank the sub but the Rebel Captain escaped and was captured by a Yankee Gunboat. I believe it was the CSS Captain Sterling. If they recover the Monitor—they might find the sub resting near her. It had a 3 man crew—used a steam engine—to build up steam—the fires were put out and the compressed steam used to power it for a limited run under water. If true it would re-write naval history.
“...Metal rusts...”
I know...
But - there’s probably still a lot it intact, enough to raise and maybe attempt a restoration.
Hell they pulled a busted up WWII P38 Lightning out of 75 feet of solid ICE up in Greenland several years ago. The ice had started crushing it.
Anything is possible if you want it badly enough. This is a piece of American history.
Then again, it is also a tomb... maybe it IS better to let it rest.
“...If true it would re-write naval history....”
How cool would THAT be...
Didn’t they find the USS Monitor (from Monitor vs Merrimac fame) some years back, and try to raise that???
I recall seeing that - maybe... it might have been here on FR, actually...
on eBay--
uh, akin to my pen and my phone.
Cool map.
Was there this weekend, too bad the wrong side won.
We still be paying the price, and will never stop paying the price.
We were there a month or so ago. We really enjoyed the museum and walking around the grounds of Ft. Morgan.
It was really hot.....it is even hotter in August, and the soldiers wore wool uniforms.....how miserable they must have been.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.