The armored remnants of a Confederate warship, the CSS Georgia, which laid at the bottom of the Savannah River in Georgia for 150 years is finally being raised to the surface one 5-ton piece at a time.
Navy divers began working in late June to recover cannons, unexploded shells and other artifacts from the riverbed, finally started midweek on their final major task - retrieving the estimated 250,000 pounds of the warship's armored siding, according to Fox News.
Designed as a means to defend the river channels below Savannah, she was later anchored in the Savannah River as a floating battery after the engines turned out too weak for offensive use. When Sherman's March to the Sea captured Savannah by land on Dec. 21, 1864, Confederate troops scuttled the gunship to prevent it from being use against them, according to ValdostaToday.
Still classified as a captured enemy vessel by the Navy, the remains of the Confederate ironclad are being recovered as part of a $703 million project to deepen the Savannah harbor for cargo ships.
Navy Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Potts says his crew began Wednesday breaking down three large sections of armored siding into 20 smaller chunks and raising them to the surface. However, due to river currents limiting divers to less than approximately three hours underwater each day, Potts estimates that with the assistance of all their equipment, it will take his team nearly a month to raise all of the armored siding, according to the AP.
All artifacts from the CSS Georgia are being sent to the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, for cataloging and preservation. The Navy hasn't revealed where those artifacts will ultimately wind up.
