Gobsmacked

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With all of the traveling I do and things I see, it is hard for me to be overwhelmed. But it happened today. Overwhelmed. Amazed. Gobsmacked. What accomplished this? The USS Cairo at the Vicksburg National Military Park. One thing you probably never think about during the Civil War is the Navy. But the Navy was involved, and even the Confederacy had a Navy! The Union built seven “city-class” iron boats, each named after a city (the Pittsburgh, the Louisville, the Cairo, the Cincinnati, the Mound City, and the Carondelet [that being the city in Missouri where the boats were built]). Here’s a kicker for you: the Pittsburgh and the Louisville were never sunk or damaged, and never defeated in battle. They were both scrapped after the Civil War. The only one of the seven ships that exists today is the Cairo. And it WAS sunk. The Cairo has the distinction of being the first casualty of a “torpedo” in history. She was sunk by a hand-detonated mine (the precursor of the torpedo) in the Yazoo River on December 12, 1862. All 251 crewmen made it off the ship safely. She rested at the bottom of the Yazoo River for 101 years, until she was discovered and raised. Asterisk: an accident with the crane broke the remains of the ship apart. As a result, they brought her up in three pieces and “restored” her in Pascagoula. If you remember, I went to a Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Georgia on a trip a few years ago. That was NOTHING compared to this: you can actually walk through the ruins of the Cairo. Dang, that was amazing. Inside the museum, you can see plenty of artifacts that were recovered during the salvage operation. They are in remarkably good shape. (The information says the mud in the Yazoo River preserved things, I would imagine similar to the peat bog bodies.) These things include mess kits for the enlisted (tin) and officers (china), a Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce bottle, medicine bottles, liquor bottles, shoes, toiletries, and weapons. One of the funniest things was an informational sign that said that a bottle of pepper sauce discovered in the ruins “proved to be edible, if not delectable, after 100 years in the Yazoo mud.” WHO did they get to volunteer to taste 100-year-old pepper sauce??? You might think it’s just the sailor in me, or the Civl War buff, that made this so amazing. Maybe it’s both. Or maybe it’s the utter respect for the people who can find a Civil War artifact as big as an iron boat and restore a good portion of it. COLLAGE: (Top left) Various shoes found in the wreckage of the Cairo (Top right) The Lea & Perrins bottle (marked #4) (Bottom left) The restored fore section of the Cairo (Bottom right) The original paddle wheel and boards from the Cairo