A Dredge Crew Found Pre-Civil War Cannons Near Downtown Savannah

In former February , the Army Corps of Engineers was working to deepen the Savannah River abutting the metropolis of Savannah , Georgia . Hauling up huge gob with their grapple digger , the squad came across two cannon , the lineage of which continue nameless .

base on their measurements , the cannon have been identified as nine - pound heavy weapon predating the Civil War . ( In term of firepower , these gunslinger wereno prank . ) They were pulled up near the historical website of Old Fort Jackson , alongside a composition of timber and an anchor from the same period . Only after the objective were set down on plug-in could be separated from the muck .

“ What you have left is whatever the dredge pull up , ” said Andrea Farmer , an archaeologist with the Army Corps of Engineers , in a phone call . “ It could be anything from telephone perch , to erstwhile tires , to alloy pieces , and then of course the carom . ”

A possibly-Revolutionary-Era cannon, one of two to be dredged off Savannah.

A possibly-Revolutionary-Era cannon, one of two to be dredged off Savannah.Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Other)

There is n’t the first such discovery near Savannah . In 2013 , parts of the CSS Georgia , a Confederate ironclad gunboat , were recovered from the same river . The Army Corps of Engineers is working with the United Kingdom ’s Royal Navy on the new discovery , in case they belong to a British ship from the Revolutionary War .

Though Farmer did n’t excogitate on the target ’ provenance , Royal Navy historiographer made their opinions known in apress releasepublished last hebdomad . The British research worker think the cannons and affiliated jetsam to have belonged to the HMS Rose , a royal ship scuttled as a blockship off Savannah in 1779 , when the urban center was under besieging ( by Americans ) .

“ It is exciting when artifacts from naval story are found , ” said Commander Jim Morley , the United Kingdom ’s assistant naval attaché in Washington , in the command . “ The discovery of an anchor , cannon , and ship timbre give us a expectant chance to turn with our U.S. colleagues and allies to help key them . ”

The guns are being kept in tubs of water for preservation purposes.

The guns are being kept in tubs of water for preservation purposes.Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Other)

Most of the topside piece of the deep-set ship were moved after the British skipped Ithiel Town several long time later , but heavier pieces like the firepower and the anchor may have been take for too cumbersome to retrieve . In any slip , the Savannah River is n’t the most peaceful of weak Steffi Graf . Depending on the time of solar day , the piddle will flow out to sea or in from it , complicating conservation condition as well as archaeological resume .

Going onward , the American team will focus on geophysical surveys and side - scan echo sounder , which is a ship - mount technology that allows marine archaeologists to make images of the river bed . After that , diver will do a manual inspection of the bottom . The silty bottom and the to - and - fro of the current make visibility much non - existent , Farmer tell , hence the multiple surveys .

Whether or not the mothership to the cannons is identified , they have a temporary home , at least : water tanks at an undisclosed positioning on nearby Hutchinson Island , where they can be kept dependable and semi - salinated in weather that mirror the river layer on which they ’ve sat for over a century .

An anchor that’s at least 160 years old just came out of the Savannah River.