Confederate Steamer Dive Continues

By Joan Wenner, J.D. · Originally published August 2016 · p. 3

WILMINGTON, N.C.—The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Underwater Archaeology Branch in the Office of State Archaeology report the examination of the Scottish-built steamer recently discovered near the mouth of the Cape Fear River (see May 2016 Civil War News), is continuing as the weather and currents cooperate with divers. “While several additional details in the sonar image were confirmed including its length and the stern of the blockade runner pointing towards the beach, a detail not apparent on sonar” said Billy Ray Morris, State Director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch, “is the vessel’s framing pattern is single iron frames on 18-inch centers which add to confirming the ship’s identity as the Agnes Frye (initially named The Fox), based on the “extensive historical documentation in hand,” he said. More sophisticated sonar equipment was supplied by the Charlotte, N.C. Fire Department and assistance from their Search and Rescue divers. Captain J.D. Thomas, Chief, has also arranged for Brian Abbott, President of the Haslett, Michigan-based Nautilus Marine Group International and maker of the equipment, to operate the hi-tech sonar. It was noted that this sector scanning imaging sonar

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technology is in use for the first time for a North Carolina underwater shipwreck site. This technology he said is faster and does not require good visibility, which the murkiness of the waters has been hampering the State and Institute for International Maritime Research personnel along with the unsettled currents in the area. The ship was one of those lost during the Union’s blockade of Wilmington. The project is funded through a federal Battlefield Protection Program grant. The Civil War Chronology published by the Naval History Division of the Office of Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., offers the following communications: Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory in a telegram to a Commander Maffit in July 1864, gave his orders regarding new Confederate-owned blockade runners: “It is of the first importance that our steamers should not fall into the enemy’s hands. Apart from the specific loss sustained by the country in the capture of blockade runners, these vessels, lightly armed, now constitute the fleetest and most efficient part of his blockading force off Wilmington….As commanding officer of the Owl, you will please devise and adopt thorough and efficient means for saving all hands and destroying

the vessel and cargo whenever these measures may become necessary to prevent capture.” On December 1, 1864, the USS Rhode Island captured the blockade running British steamer Vixen off Cape Fear, North Carolina, with cargo including arms. On December 5, in his fourth annual report to President Lincoln, Union Naval Secretary Welles noted the great impact on the Confederacy made by U.S. seapower, “an undertaking without precedence in history.” Sixty-five steamers have been captured or destroyed endeavoring to enter or escape from Wilmington. The U.S. Navy, he noted, had grown to 611 ships mounting more than 4,600 guns, and by December had taken nearly 1,400 prizes, and their “fearsome ram Albemarle lost.” On December 8, the USS Cherokee captured blockade running British steamer Emma Henry at sea east of North Carolina with a cargo of cotton. On December 13 the Union fleet massed for the bombardment of Fort Fisher departing Hampton Roads, Va. for Wilmington. The Union’s sidewheel steamers like the USS Hetzel helped in strengthening the Federal hold on North Carolina coastal waters. Stay tuned for more on the Agnes E. Frye in future updates.