Great History At Risk

Governor Deal announced that the State of Georgia is proceeding on the nearly $700 million port of Savannah project.  The plan is to make the port larger to accept the 1200 ft. tankers that will be able to pass the Panama Canal soon.  One part of this is the CSS Georgia.  The Civil War warship that guarded the Savannah River and Fort Jackson.  The wreck was found in 1968 and has been marked so dredging would not harm it.  The CSS Georgia is now complicating the $653 billion project further, as the project will have to become a fullscale, $42 million underwater archeological dig before massive dredgers can begin deepening the port.
Built with money raised from a local women’s club, the CSS Georgia became a testament to the South’s industrial weakness compared to the North – its steam engines were too weak to push the prow through the river’s current. Meanwhile, it was the approach of an icon of that industrial superiority – General William Tecumseh Sherman – that caused Confederates to quickly scuttle and sink the CSS Georgia upon the Union Army’s approach.
By its ignominious end, the Georgia had become a floating cannon platform on the river. It never fired a shot in battle.
Broken into pieces on a bottom littered with cannonade, the Georgia remains an important part of Southern history, even as it remains classified in Washington as a captured enemy boat.
Part of the ship was raised in November 2013, but a good bit of the ship remains to be salvaged.  This is a vital piece of Georgia’s history from the Savannah area that must be preserved.

Deal said that the project will likely begin late next year.  This project is going to take some years to complete.  Much of the warehouse space waiting in Henry County will have to be refurbished before anyone moves in.  And another part of the mix is what will be in those 1200 ft tankers.  Container ships are freighters not tankers.  So, does this mean that oil will be off loaded at Savannah?  If so a large area of tanks will have to be built in the area for the crude if that is the case.  At least our children and their children can look forward to this future task.

In the meantime, underwater archaeologists will have their hands full recovering the CSS Georgia.  It might even take more than $42 million to complete the project.

The Staff of the Henry County Community News Blog