Civil War Blockade Runner

Wine found on Marie Celestia wreck

Five bottles of unopened wine stashed on the Marie Celestia shipwreck hint at shipmates “making a little money on the side” in the trans-Atlantic black market.

A team of international archaeologists has discovered the cart of bottles hidden in the bow of the ship 147 years after she sank off South Shore.

The discovery suggests the blockade ship, which was used to transport guns to British-backed Confederate forces during the US Civil War, was involved in the illegal wine trade.

The wine, which looks like it has been re-bottled and re-corked, is said to bring a “human story” to the ship, which took about seven minutes to sink in 1864. It is understood that the illegal contraband was stashed in the ship’s bow to keep it out of sight from the ship’s captain and federal inspectors. The “very human story” is said to tie in with the sailing term: ‘one hand for yourself, one hand for the ship’.

Public Works Minister Derrick Burgess announced at a press conference yesterday that diving expeditions had excavated the bottles of wine from the site. The international team has been working with Bermuda’s Department of Conservation Services. Mr Burgess said this announcement had been “150 years in the making”. He said: “What they have found is fascinating a secret stash of five bottles of unopened wine, lodged inside the wreck which lay hidden since September 6, 1864.

“The Mary Celestia is a wreck with historical significance to the United Kingdom, where she was built, Bermuda, where she operated out of and where she wrecked, and the United States, where she ran as a blockade runner during the US Civil War.

“And for this project to take place so close to the anniversary of the American Civil War gives the discovery all the more resonance.”

Mr Burgess added: “This project is very exciting from so many perspectives from an archeological point of view, for our local marine heritage and for the compelling history that will no doubt be of interest to our residents and visitors alike.”

The international team was brought in after Bermuda Government Curator of Wrecks Philippe Rouja found one bottle of wine in January after a series of winter storms churned up the seabed around the site.

LookBermuda - Mary-Celestia Project - International Partnership ...

&Nbsp;to an international team of archaeologists working with Bermuda’s Department of Conservation Services.  A secret stash of wine, lodged inside the bow of the wreck of the Mary Celestia, which lies immediately offshore from the Fairmont Southampton Princess and some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, has emerged from the sand and silt which had shrouded it since the ship struck the reef and sank on September 6, 1864.  Five bottles of wine, still packed inside a wooden crate, remained corked with their liquid contents intact after 147 years underwater.

The top of the crate emerged from the sand inside the bow after a series of winter storms swept over the site in January 2011.  Dr. Philippe Rouja, Bermuda’s Custodian of Historic Wrecks, secured the bow of the wreck after recovering a loose bottle of wine, also still corked, and immediately reached out to colleagues at NOAA and the Waitt Foundation in order to create an expert team with experience in marine heritage management and the excavation of shipwrecks of this period to explore and potentially rescue this unique find. The Bermuda Government has been working with these eminent institutions since 2009 in the formation of the Sargasso Sea Alliance – an Alliance dedicated to enhancing protection of the Sargasso Sea in which the islands of Bermuda lie.

The Waitt Foundation  has underwritten the displacement costs of the initiative for all foreign partners as well as sending Dr. Dominique Rissolo, an archaeologist and executive director of the Waitt Institute, along with Joe Lepore, the Waitt Institute’s chief diver and head of ship operations, to aid in the exploration and  recovery of the contents of Mary Celestia’s bow.

Archaeologist Dr. James Delgado, the director of the Maritime Heritage Program in the Office of National Marine  Sanctuaries of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, joined by two NOAA team members, Tane Casserley and Wayne Lusardi, joined the rest of the team this past week to co-direct the project with Drs. Rouja and Rissolo.  Carefully removing all of the sand and silt from inside the broken but still intact bow of the wrecked blockade runner, the team exposed the wooden crate, intact wooden paneling and shelves, and a corroded metal wash basin rusted fast to the inside of the hull.  As Dr. Delgado gently removed the silt from the crate with Dr. Rouja, the tops of the bottles inside slowly emerged with their corks still in place.  “The promise of the one bottle found this past January  was realized in that moment,” said Dr. Rouja.  “To reveal even more of this lost cargo standing lined up in their wooden crate as if they were waiting for their owner to return is a great reminder of how archaeology adds excitement and value to our shared historical narratives.

Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, a political, social, and military history

The Civil War adventures of a blockade runner

The Civil War archive, the history of the Civil War in documents

Confederate Blockade Runner 1861-65

The Civil War Day by Day