Shipwreck Pictures: Civil War-era Wine, Cologne Found

Aged to Perfection

Photograph by Tane Casserley, NOAA

Archaeologists examining the wreck of the Mary Celestia found a crate containing four corked bottles of wine (pictured) "standing lined up in their wooden crate as if they were waiting for their owner to return," Philippe Rouja, Bermuda's custodian of historic wrecks, said in a statement. Packed with straw, the crate had been stashed in a crew member's locker in the bow.

The wine is currently being analyzed in Bermuda, but archaeologist and team member Dominique Rissolo said it's probably a sweet, white wine, perhaps a fortified wine like Madeira.

The wine could be smelled through the bottle's cork, and it had "a pretty strong odor, said Rissolo, of the Waitt Institute, which, along with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), assisted the Bermuda Department of Conservation Services in the recovery of the newly revealed atifacts.

(Related pictures: "Blackbeard Pirate Relics, Gold Found.")

Published August 17, 2011

Civil War-Era Scent

Photograph by Tane Casserley, NOAA

NOAA archaeologist Wayne Lusardi measures a 19th-century cologne bottle found in the Mary Celestia wreck. The bottle contains Florida Water, a citrus-scented cologne still made today. The cologne was found in the Mary Celestia's hold, along with the four bottles of wine, a perfume bottle, a hairbrush, and some shoes.

Delgado, also of NOAA, said the discovery of these personal items is "evocative of the human side" of the Civil War. "We think of this as a big picture, and keep forgetting that this is the story of people," Delgado said.

"What I gained was a very intimate reminder of the human side."

(See "Clues to Pirate Gold Unearthed in Florida, Treasure Hunters Claim.")

Published August 17, 2011

Wrecked Paddle Wheel

Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic

A diver examines one of the paddle wheels of the Civil War-era Mary Celestia shipwreck found off Bermuda in a file picture. The ship was designed to outrun Union gunboats as it dashed for the safety of Confederate ports, Delgado said.

Huge boilers and steam engines could propel it to about 15 miles an hour (24 kilometers an hour)—speedy for the mid-19th century. Profits from such daring runs were so great that sometimes the cost of building or buying such a ship could be recouped in just two runs, he added.

(Also see: "Pirate Pictures: Captain Morgan's Cannons Found?")

Published August 17, 2011

Uncovering History

Photograph by Tane Casserley, NOAA

To the right of a large lump of coal, Delgado measures a tin basin found in the Mary Celestia shipwreck.

There were strong Confederate sympathies in Bermuda during the Civil War—so strong that U.S. consul Charles Allen couldn't fly the Stars and Stripes to celebrate the Fourth of July, because someone had cut down the flagpole, Delgado said.

After the sinking of the Mary Celestia, rumors circulated that Allen had paid John Virgin, the Bermudan pilot responsible for guiding the ship out of harbor, to drive the ship onto the rocks.

Allen never denied the bribery charge, and he wrote to his superiors in Washington, D.C., only that there was no evidence to connect him to such a plot, NOAA's Delgado said.

(Also see "Civil War Wreck Rises Again: Restoring the Monitor.")

Published August 17, 2011

All That Remains

Photograph by Tane Casserley, NOAA

A paddle wheel and mechanical remains are most of what's left of the Mary Celestia after about 150 years underwater.

Soon after the ship had wrecked in 1864, salvage divers pulled away the ship's sides to recover its cargo of rifles, munitions, and canned meat intended for the Confederate port of Wilmington, North Carolina.

(See pictures: "Shipwreck Discovery Yields Ancient Treasure.")

Published August 17, 2011