Edward Moseley: "Where's my money!?"

Historian Noeleen McIlveena began her book, A Very Mutinous People, with a line (dated 1680) taken from the North Carolina Colonial Records: "We will have noe Lords noe Landgraves noe Cassiques we renounce them all!"

North Carolinians have long had a reputation for a "free society."  We have also been known as stubborn.  :)

It came about like this:

 In 1649, Englishmen had tired of Charles I's Catholicism and decided to chop off his head.  This had never been attempted before... because there was that deal about going to hell for killing a "divine" monarch.  When you chop of a king's head and nothing happens, you tend to no longer regard kingly rule as "divine."  No lightening bolts actually came from the sky when his head rolled across the courtyard.  No frogs, pestilences, hail, or plagues fell from the heavens...

What a liberating experience that must have been! 

During the Interregnum (between monarchs), Oliver Cromwell allowed great freedom (relatively speaking) in the colonies... Quakers who shunned authority, for instance, got to worship as they please.  I brought up Quakers because their anti-slavery and anti-authority stance are important to this state's history... well, at least part of it.

North Carolina, on the south side of the Dismal Swamp (a boundary that must be traversed and where few people survived) and behind the wall of the deadly Outer Banks, offered a wonderful chance to evolve gradually without much interference.  Quakers loved it here!  They flourished in a place where opposing opinions did not matter.

Still, eleven years later, Charles II came back to the throne and (can you believe it?) expected things to return to normal!  lol  Right, dude!  We had a taste of freedom... for half a century... you've got to be kidding!  Anglican (state religion) re-entrenchment came slowly, but decidedly by 1700.  Still, in Northern Carolina, it took quite a bit longer... lol.  There were... uh... rebellions... a few anyway.  He he... we caused trouble.


So, North Carolinians began as the ultimate liberals and pretty much remained that way for decades.  Still, a conservative notion began in the southern parts of North Carolina about 1725.  Much of this had to do with outside influence... or outsiders inside what would be North Carolina itself.  What resulted is... well, a schizophrenic, yet conservative state that Rob Christensen called a Paradox of Tar Heel Politics... the state that we know, love, and sometimes despise today.

You can easily tell that North Carolina is the product of two worlds... one non-conforming Virginians and less aristocratic.  The other is South Carolinian and highly aristocratic.  These were split down the middle by Indians hostile to English invaders behind a maritime "brick wall" called the Outer Banks. The Tuscarora War of 1711-15 took care of the Indians quite early.  From the English point-of-view, northern Carolina, the area "north and east of Cape Fear," was really a waste dump.  The dregs moved there, became pirates, and skimmed their subsistence from whales and porpoises near the shore... and any ship unlucky enough to crash on the hazardous barrier islands.  Early on, we kept a low profile.

South Carolinians, by contrast, were flamboyant, haughty, and did not much keep to themselves.  Charleston was the cream of colonial Anglican influence. 

You might have guessed that the "outside" influence along the Cape Fear River, the one that came later than the Virginian-ish Albemarle region in the north (at least 50 yrs old by 1725) was Charlestonian... led by "Goose Creek" Indian slavers (sons of former governor Col. James Moore)

South Carolina was highly aristocratic by comparison, but it was only a remote part of the English kingdom... a part yet considered "beyond the line" (America in general) to where the wild and land-thirsty capitalistic sons of formerly rich men (and their minions/slaves) went to make their fortunes... after first stopping off at Barbados to murder slaves in sugar plantations, of course.  They were worse than the Koch brothers, if you can believe it!  :)

"Carolina" (to English nobility, really just the area around Charles Towne) was often reminded of its lower status - denied the nobility long reserved for England itself... they were allowed titles like "Casiques" and "Landgraves" when they really wanted "Duke" and "Earl" (maybe even "king!").  English dominance declared itself in Locke's "Fundamental" Constitutions of 1669... where these lower, provincial titles appeared.  Virginian escapees in the Albemarle (northern part of NC) wanted to "renounce" all such titles and develop a more egalitarian society.  So, we have the difference here, in early NC, like we have now... a liberal, egalitarian system based on equality of each individual versus the presumed right to rule of the landed aristocrat.  Thus, the colony's schizo problems after 1725.

Still, this downward glance from the motherland would not sit well with liberal ex-Virginians nor aristocratic Carolinians alike, a temporary alliance was reached, and a revolution developed, but that's another story... 

The point to this story is that the motherland decided to chastise their lackluster non-conforming provincial subjects at the turn of the eighteenth century.  A class/religious struggle developed that was simply one of many historic examples... they still continue today. 

In Charles Town's view, South Carolina already had a well-manicured foot in the aristocratic door that England wanted open in the colonies... and they got full of themselves, too... thought they were immune to England's ire.  That thought perished after the Lords Proprietors disgustedly sold out to the crown (late 1729).

This early class struggle in Carolina (at the beginning of Anglican reassertion around 1700) gave fuel particularly to one man's greed... and if you've read my posts before, you know who he is.    

I've picked on Edward Moseley quite a bit.  This is simply another installment of the abuse of the pseudo-aristocracy that Moseley well represented... my version of #OCCUPY MOSELEY.  Furthermore, no historic figure has enjoyed more favor from modern conservative North Carolinians than this guy.  

Yes, Edward Moseley's father, John (a merchant-taylor of St Giles, Cripplegate parish in London) died when Moseley was only seven.  Well...  the probably-pampered little rich-wannabe kid [temper, temper...] still got into the best school... Christ Hospital's (not medical) Royal Mathematical School, reserved for orphaned children of "substantial" men, with lessons prepared by none other than Isaac Newton (the gravity guy) himself.  According to the celebrated sarcasm in William Byrd's Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia: and North Carolina of 1728 (a funny book, actually), Edward Moseley “was bred in Christ’s Hospital [Newgate, London] and had a Tongue as Smooth as the Commisary, and was altogether as well qualify’d to be of the Society of Jesus.”  Well, Byrd had a definite opinion as well... lol.  He called Moseley "Plausible" in the "secret" version of that history. He never tells why... exactly.  We can guess.  :)

Christ's Hospital and the Royal Mathematical School was the brainchild of Samuel Pepys, who had the frequent ear of the King.  The English government needed navigators for their merchantmen.  Children who graduated were usually apprenticed to a merchant mariner as navigator and Moseley was no exception.  In December 1697, he was apprenticed to Jacob Foreland, master of the ship Joseph, bound for the Spanish port of Bilboa, probably to pick up loads of iron ore.  

Moseley's not-so-modest school of Christ's Hospital (see below)

This was the best we could do as far as public buildings until 1734.  Being the most powerful nation now kind of prevents us from remembering our very humble beginnings.  At least it was brick...

But, the apprenticeship never happened... remember that Edward had rich "friends," as the entry in Christ Hospital's register states.  They "otherwise provided for him" by purchasing his three-year term from Foreland.  This took some clout and money indeed!

Sidenote:

One fact that may have contributed to Moseley's sideline education was Daniel DeFoe.  He also lived in Cripplegate parish and even bid on some brick work at the school that Moseley attended.  DeFoe was not the best businessman, having frequent disputes with school officials.  He also tended to speak his mind quite a bit... and his mind was rebellious.  Young Edward undoubtedly got wind of him.  He probably learned also that fortunes could be made across the seas...  

Daniel DeFoe

Funny that DeFoe had a strong interest in America as well... and our Caribbean pirates!  To tell the truth, a lot of noble wannabes got interested in America... lots and lots of land... and more LAND!  The English loved their land and the power that came with it... remember... they live on an island... land was limited.  Land gave you power!

Back to the abuse...

It was about two years later (1700... the year before the English government felt they needed to eradicate the annoying democratic tendencies in their colonies so they could "re-establish" the established Anglican church in the backwater sites) that Moseley stepped onto American shores in Charles Towne, Carolina... probably brought over at the same time as John Lawson by the governor of Carolina, James Moore, the inveterate Indian fighter, slaver, and all-around "bad news" for the proprietors.  They might have spoken at the Carolina Coffee-house on Birchen Lane.  Moore might also have seen something that he liked in Moseley (warning: this can't be good).  

Incidentally, I've never found where Moseley even stepped onto another ship again...maybe the gold weighed him down too much. :)

Moseley began immediately to work as an ordinary court clerk for the controversial Gov. Moore.  He met and became fast friends with Moore's son of about his age (b. c1682)... or just eighteen years old... still quite impressionable and hanging with the wrong crowd, you might say.  This boy was Maurice Moore who came to Northern Carolina in 1713 to... you guessed it... capture Indians (and take them back to Charles Towne to be sold as slaves in the Caribbean (pirates did not always live on water!).  It's a Goose Creek/Barbadian habit of the Moore boys.

NOTE:  Yes, these Carolina slaving "entrepreneurs" came from Barbadoes where it was more profitable to work slaves to death on sugar plantations and replace them rather than keep them alive to work another day (Ref: Richard Dunn's Sugar and Slaves)... Carolina followed suit with African as well as Indian slaves (ref: "Goose Creek Men" of St. James parish in Alan Gallay's book, The Indian Slave Trade).  It was a huge and profitable business!  By 1710, Africans alone outnumbered Englishmen in Carolina.  The Indians of course, were being shipped out to generate practically free capital.  This was Capitalism at its finest!

The Barbadians' (excuse me... South Carolinians') friend, Edward Moseley was most certainly an Anglican, a "conservative" man of the established church.  In 1703, he cataloged a library of Dr. Thomas Bray's given to the colony of Carolina (meaning "Charles Towne" of course) by the newly established Society of the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.  Yes, that was the official, long-winded title.  :)

Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray

Note that seemingly devout adherence to the state religion did not prevent Moseley joining forces (Moseley made money from conflicts... he carefully remained as neutral as possible) with John Porter (a reputed Quaker) and the Quaker proprietor John Archdale against the Anglicans (now Moseley's competition) in Northern Carolina in 1706-1708... Porter's son, Maurice Moore, and Moseley would all marry sisters and head to the Lower Cape Fear to "capitalize" or take advantage of that open region later...

SPG Seal - the "gift" was slavery and smallpox.

Don't let the innocuous title fool you, the SPG was the official religious arm of English government, who, after retaking English rule from the Cromwells, attempted to eradicate "democracy" (bad for business) in "foreign parts" like America... foreign parts especially like Northern Carolina, a wild no-man's land in which runaway slaves and ner-do-wells escaped taxes and sometimes the law in Virginia... and from other places (I reference a man named Edward Teach/Thatch who was quite welcome in Bath even if Charles Towne was ready to chop off his head).  The government across the pond wanted to establish some control among these wild, lower-class heathens (my ancestors, actually)!  They had it out for the provincial nobility (the 1% of America), of course... not the average everyday North Carolinian peasant (the 99%, or you and me, so to speak).  You could say that the 1% in England behaved as if the 1% in America was lower class and the 99% in the colony never existed!  An excellent extrapolation, if I say so myself... 

Anyway, I digress... while working for Dr. Bray, Moseley met the acting-governor of Northern Carolina, Henderson Walker and his young second wife, Ann Lillington Walker, herself the daughter of another possible transplant from Barbados, "Major" Alexander Lillington.  These folks were aristocratic exceptions in the Albemarle rather than the rule who came to northern Carolina for an easy position of power in such a backwoods wilderness.  As Milton said, "it is easier to rule in hell."  They were Edward Moseley's "equals" of a sort... the provincial versions, at any rate.  Remember that Moseley was born in London... ahem!

Moseley was no more than 21 years old and still quite impressionable and full of himself no doubt.  When Moseley found out that, in 1704, the very next year, that Henderson Walker, only about 44, had died, Moseley jumped right up for the job as Ann's next husband... and of course, the gainer of Walker's extensive land holdings in the remote wilderness province of Albemarle.  He left Charleston sometime after April 1705 to snatch up that free rich gal!  

The reason I know this is because in April of 1705 he handed a note (IOU) for £22 (just under $2000) to Col. George Logan, a friend of ex-governor Robert Daniell (even married Daniell's widow) and said (in the note) that Col. James Moore would cover it for him... to which Moore later said "What the...?" and Logan sued Moseley for the cash.  

By then, of course, Moseley had moved to the Albemarle and gotten hitched!  No record was ever found showing that Moseley actually paid that note.  He bandied it back and forth in court (across the water between the Albemarle and Charles Towne), but probably never paid it.  Logan later asked his friend and executor Daniell (in October 1706) to collect all debts owed to him, but "more especially from Edward Moseley of No. Carolina!" Moseley probably figured that old man Logan would die soon. 

Ann's family had doubts (about Moseley, you ask?  lol).  For any man to have generated doubts at so young an age as 22 probably meant something ominous.  For historian Noeleen McIlveena (one of my favorite authors), Moseley (sarcastically) "must have been a charmer," for he appeared too hungry for land... at least he did to Ann's brother, John Lillington and brother-in-law, Samuel Swann (also called "Major").  They made Moseley sign an agreement that he would not attempt to use Ann's lands for his own purposes, lest he be subject to a £1000 bond (In 1750, £1000 was equal to about $75,000 today, so... it was much more than that)!  Yikes!

The Lillingtons were seriously put off by this guy! They had good reason to be... 

In his time, Moseley possessed roughly about 40,000-55,000 (still adding it up) acres of land, including the land that belonged to his wife's ex-husband.  And, he wasn't up front about how he got that Walker land, either.  Ann Lillington Walker Moseley remained alive until 1732.  So, it wasn't her death that caused Moseley to achieve this feat.  In 1728, Moseley grabbed at a known tract of land that once belonged to Walker (while his wife lived) and he did this because of three factors:  1) Samuel Swann passed away, 2) The Tuscarora War left John Lillington with his deeds burned and needing resurvey, 3) A "Benjamin Walker" had signed his father's land away!  That's right, one of the holders in Moseley's £1000 bond had died, the other desperately needed his services as a surveyor, and Ann's step-son (son of Deborah Chaston?) had betrayed Ann's interests.  Two other tracts were passed by deed from Ann and her husband Edward Moseley to Ann's nephew and brother John Lillington who subsequently turned around and deeded it back to Moseley.  Oh, what a tangled web we weave! 

The first tract (File # 237, 1 Apr 1728), on Kendrick's Creek, had a special paragraph that followed it in the records.  Interestingly, Benjamin Walker states that his father left him the land in his will.  Well, Henderson Walker's will states " all ye rest of my Estate, bothe reall & personall, whatsoever, I give my wife, Ann Walker , and to her heirs...."  Not exactly the same wording, and Benjamin was probably not her son (i.e. heir).  Whether Ann gave him permission for this is not known, but the fact that Moseley got the release statement from Benjamin and not from Ann herself is clear enough, I think.  [It's also possible that Benjamin was John Walker's son and that John was left that land by Henderson Walker.  Still... ]

Moseley was careful that no one could say he didn't act legally when he got this land, the release for the 200 acres on Kendrick's Creek shown below, attached to a deed in 1728 (release previously recorded in 1727):

Release statement for his father's land by Benjamin Walker, 1727.  Note that Elizabeth Lillington, probably John's daughter witnessed it.  Note also that Benjamin Walker signed with a "B" because he was illiterate. 

McIlveena called Moseley "land hungry." What do you think?  :)

I'd also say that he was intelligent and cunning, but that might be a compliment to him... lol.

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My interest in Edward Moseley began when I started to investigate the Lower Cape Fear developments between the rival towns of Brunswick Town and Wilmington.  You can guess that Wilmington won the struggle (I've talked to Wilmington residents who didn't even know where Brunswick Town was...!?)... but, it was not an easy one for the time (1732-40).  The protracted difficulties came because the fight was against the Family (the Moores, Moseleys, Porters, Swanns, Allens, Drys, etc, etc... all families of related individuals, through genes or marriage ("Major" Samuel Swann's widow, Elizabeth married 4 times in her life, the last time to Maurice Moore, founder of Brunswick Town in 1725... yeah, Anglicans were all about the traditional view of marriage like Dan Cathy... so they did it multiple times... down Gingrich!).   At the time, Family members sat on the assembly and in the governor's council and were a force to be reckoned with. 

In many ways, Moseley won over (tricked?  bribed?) everyone... despite Wilmington's favor in British political circles... especially by Gov. Gabriel Johnston and his patron... Lord Wilmington (imagine that!).  The silver-tongued devil Moseley even got the Virginian Swanns interested in his schemes.  He even got the Moores, who should have been pissed at him for that note, too...

In 1718, Moseley (with Maurice Moore) opposed NC governor Charles Eden (well, they locked his secretary, John Lovick, out of his house and then rifled the papers) because Eden cavorted with Blackbeard the pirate (the Teach/Thatch fellow) and threatened Moseley's income from survey fees... from potential immigrants who feared piracy. He attempted to stall Thomas Pollock's attempts to get help in the Tuscarora War from Virginia... because his friends in SC (especially the Moores) could use the money from the sale of the Indians to the West Indies.  Also, he collected fees for surveys that he never performed (I've proven this one).  Yes, he was a businessman... a perfect model of corporate loveliness! 

Moseley, in no uncertain terms, was a real SHIT!  

See why I like to pick on him?  But, the strongest incentive that I have for this is not because of what he did... it is because every conservative politician in NC since the Revolution has used his example as a positive one.  One of them, George Davis of Wilmington, said in June 1905 (few years after the race riot) at a NC Daughters of the American Revolution function:

“Of all the men who watched and guided the tottering footsteps of our infant State, there was not one who in intellectual ability, in solid and polite learning, in scholarly cultivation and refinement, in courage and endurance, in high Christian morality, in generous consideration for the welfare of others, in all true merit in fine, which makes a man among men, who could equal Edward Moseley.”

Gag!  As Shakespeare said, "... the gorge rises at it!"

Historian D. H. Hill, in 1906, declared him to "always [be] on the side of the people."

William L. Saunders, editor of the North Carolina Colonial Records, declared Moseley’s “undying love of free government, and his indomitable maintenance of the rights of the people.”  Saunders, was, of course, the Grand Dragon of the NC KKK (a little tighter on that noose, Bill!) in the late 19th century... probably more conservative than the Tea Party!  lol

Well, absolutely none of this hyperbole about the real Edward Moseley is true.  It was just political propaganda.  You see, when the American Revolution came along in 1775, Moores and Moseleys and many of the Family stood up against Britain... right along with the rest of us.  They were, after all, aristocratic, pompous, rebellious types (it was also a good place to pick up those titles that they loved so much... "Colonel," "Major," etc).  It stood in America's favor as far as becoming an independent nation.  In this context, Moseley would compare more to Samuel Adams, of the Sons of Liberty, burning effigies and tar-and-feathering British officials... if you can imagine Moseley getting his hands dirty.  It's easy to look back on these times with reverence, but I'll guarantee that you would NOT want to live in them.  Still, the fledgling new STATE of North Carolina, in dire need of heroes, had few to choose from...so guess who we chose?

Moseley... make no mistake... he was a bad man... an aristocratic, pompous and arrogant greedy man who cared little for the poor and the middle-class and thought nothing of stomping them into the mud with his gold-buckled fancy shoes... or having his driver do it.  He came to America because he had nothing and, as the son of John Moseley, he "deserved" everything.  

An interesting reference that I found:  Edward's mentor (before he ran out), Gov. James Moore, in reference to the contested actions of a merchant in court (1701), said that "Mr. Painter having comitted Piracy; not having his majesties Pardon for ye Same.  Its resolved he is not fit for that trust."  Moore obviously believed that piracy was one of his duties... his "trust!"  lol  The king accused him of it, also. 

Edward Moseley showed that he learned that lesson well, too. 

In early America, especially North Carolina, a financially-depressed British rich kid could appear wealthy and even feel powerful as a King among the pines!  The Family, indeed, contemplated a kingdom of their own in the Brunswick settlement along the Cape Fear River.  Moseley even felt that he had royal backing for his crimes against the North Carolinians that he sneered at each day.  

One thing that I've noticed after years of researching this guy is... that when he would get caught doing something that the King frowned on, he submitted quickly and acted like he was only trying to best serve his king.  Moseley did not have guts enough to fight for the people, Dr. Hill... sneakily against them, maybe... the powerless lower class... US!  No, he was a sniveling coward who absolutely adored land, power, and money.  

This is ever so relevant to today... Edward favored the Anglican version of the domineering established church (when it suited), not unlike the religious right today that sees Chick-Fil-A as a golden financial example of God's power... 

I believe that Edward Moseley and Mitt Romney could have played admirably together in their mansions with their gilt toy soldiers... "off with his head" they might say with a sick little grin on their faces!  Still, our society today is becoming more and more democratic thanks to the invention and massive democratizing potential of the internet... the haughty aristocratic days are numbered... the days of Edward Moseleys, Paul Ryans, David Kochs, and Eric Cantors is about over.  We the people (the Quakers) are coming back out and speaking our minds. 

Take a look at the image below of a NC colonial-era 4-pence currency to see the name of two-time treasurer of the colony printed on it... this 1748 note also had the names, Eleazer Allen and Samuel Swann (younger one... now Moseley's "buddy") on it.  These were two gentlemen that also belonged to the Family (virtually, an early Sicilian-type mafia).  

The Family's Brunswick Town may have faltered before 1740, but the Family remained in power for quite some time... even taking virtual control of the rival town across the river... Wilmington.  Again, there was a riot there in 1898... the only coup to ever occur in United States history... over race... hundreds murdered... you might have heard... "negro carcasses" clogging the Cape Fear River... led by one of Maurice Moore's great-grandsons, Alfred Moore Waddell and his cousin, "Col." Roger Moore (named for Maurice's brother, "King" Roger Moore).  Yeah... "Gone With the Wind" might easily have been set in the Lower Cape Fear with the immense rice plantations that once sat on the river...

 

By the way, seeing his signature on the money must have given wannabe rich kid, Eddie, a sexual experience!

The soapbox is free... :)

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Dethroning the Kings of Cape Fear: Consequences of Edward Moseley's Surveys

Purchase an e-copy for $5 or get a print version among more titles by B. C. Brooks

Aristocratic Pyrates of the Albemarle

Purchase an e-copy for $5 or get a print version among more titles by B. C. Brooks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brunswick Town and Wilmington

 Purchase an e-copy for $5 or get a print version among more titles by B. C. Brooks

 

 

 

 

Abraham Ortelius, Man of Vision

Abraham Ortelius by Peter Paul Rubens

By contrast with John Ogilby, who began his life as a dance-master and theatre owner and drew his map for the Lords Proprietors as a late-life indulgence, Abraham Ortelius began at the age of twenty in 1547 as an illustrator of maps.  He met great men of the cartographic profession like Gerardus Mercator, whose 500th anniversary birth was celebrated on March 4th this year!  Ortelius' comes up in 2027.  His family was originally from Augsburg, however, Abraham was the eldest of three children of Leonard Ortels, an antique dealer in Antwerp.  Abraham learned Latin from his father and independently studied mathematics. 

It's interesting to note that some of his family had escaped religious persecution in Europe by living in England, much like Huguenot Frenchman from the siege of La Rochelle in 1627-8.  My Huguenot ancestor, Jean de Fonvielle came to Carolina from England after spending time there to escape Catholic persecution.  Many North and South Carolinians can lay claim to that history.  It seems that England was the religious refuge of Europeans of this time, not unlike the United States gained famed for in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Ortelius' World Map of 1570, Typus Orbis Terrarum

Abraham Ortelius was admitted to Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke as an illuminator of maps in 1547.  The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography tells that he after he became a  "dealer and collector of maps, Ortelius eventually started making maps himself. His first map, a wall map of the world, was published in 1564 and was followed by a map of ancient Egypt (1565), a wall map of Asia (1567), a wall map of Spain (1570), and a map of the Roman empire (1571). He had already acquired some renown and means when in 1570 he published his Theatrum orbis terrarum, considered to be the first modern atlas, being a handy collection of maps of the same dimensions providing a survey of the world as known up to that moment.

A portion of Abraham Ortelius' 1587 Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio

As for historians of North Carolina, it is important to note that his Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio, published in 1587, included recent details learned from the Roanoke voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh.  The name "Wingandekoa" is clearly marked with a large sound or river extending west into the mainland (Albemarle?).  "Cape St. John" is also the older name for "Cape Hatteras."  This information could not have been more than a couple of years old.

The really interesting part of this map is the notation "Apalchen" to the west of Wingandekoa.  Is this the origin for the name given to the Appalachian mountains?  The 1528 Narvaez Spanish expedition that explored the interior of La Florida met a nation of Indians near Tallahassee calling themselves the "Apalchen" or "Apalachen," later translated as "Apalachee."  The curious part of this Ortelius map shows that he interpreted this information to mean that "Apalchen" existed directly west-northwest of Wingandekoa, which it certainly did.  He got this interpretation in 1587!  Nice work, Ortelius!  Uh... hope you weren't referring to the Indian nation specifically and not the territory.  :)  We'll talk later about the apparent St. Johns River from the area of today's Jacksonville, Florida area running through the Appalachians... you may have missed on that one, ol' buddy... of course, that may have been the Indians and not the mountains.  Oh, well.  Who can blame you for never having visited America!? 

Of course, Ortelius was well acquainted with many of the affluent and scholarly people of his day.  Theodore de Bry engraved many of John White's watercolor paintings for Thomas Hariot's A Brief and True Report of the Newfound land in Virginia about Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke voyages of 1584-1587.  Hariot published his book in 1590.  De Bry was born in Belgium 1528, a year younger than Ortelius and often visited Antwerp as well as London.  Although I've found no reference to date, I'm certain that Ortelius must've known the noted engraver.  He may even have met John White.  As painters and illustators, they all virtually dealt in the same business.  He could easily have known about the Roanoke voyages, even in 1587, not having passed away until 1598. 
 

Animation of Pangea to today

The most fascinating detail of Abraham Ortelius's work, however, is that he predicted continental drift, the mechanism by which the continents on Earth spread apart from the one giant continent of Pangea, a supercontinent that existed over 200 million years ago in the early Mesozoic era.  This was Mercator's influence that pulled him into scientific geography.  W. J. Kious' "Historical Perspective" in This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics, explains Ortelius' genius:

Gerardus Mercator

"Abraham Ortelius in his work Thesaurus Geographicus ... suggested that the Americas were "torn away from Europe and Africa ... by earthquakes and floods" and went on to say: "The vestiges of the rupture reveal themselves, if someone brings forward a map of the world and considers carefully the coasts of the three [continents]."

He is the first known to have suggested this idea, obviously from the arrangement of the continents as they appear like scattered pieces of the same puzzle.  As one can easily see in his 1570 map, Typus Orbis Terrarum, the continents do fit together rather well.  Alfred Weggener would have to reinvent this theory almost 400 years later, in the mid-20th century.  It is remarkable that he could make this prediction from his study of maps of the 16th century!

Abraham Ortelius was, indeed, a man of great vision.  That he possibly conferred with Theodore de Bry, and/or John White, Thomas Hariot, and others of the Roanoke voyages gives us the impression that these endeavors were all cutting-edge science of the 16th century, as indeed, they were.  Remarkable that the Lords Proprietors of Carolina relied on a local dance master for their map while they were surrounded by such greatness and science.  In retrospect, John Ogilby must have charged less.  You get what you pay for, as they say. 

Mistakes of Our Ancestors

John Ogilby (1600–1676), by William Faithorne

Today, we live with the errors made by our ancestors and their partners who explored America.  We tend to lionize our ancestors into something larger than reality.  Indeed, as we debate the wisdom of America's founding fathers in our politics, it helps to understand just how human these people actually were.  Errors were quite common in history and some still persist today.  Here is presented just one of those errors from an early map that has remained in the present.

John Ogilby (1600-1676), noted as a publisher and geographer, did not begin his career as such.  As a young man, his father died, leaving a debt which John paid with money from a lottery secured by the Virginia Company in March 1612.  Seven years later, he was apprenticed to John Draper, a London dancing master.  It appears that this was his first trade.  The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography tells that John Ogilby spent his professional life under various titles: "dancing-master, courtier, and theatre owner between about 1620 and 1641; poet and translator from 1649; and, from about 1669, compiler of geographical works and atlases, culminating in his Britannia (1675)."  Ogilby only became a cartographer in 1670, soon receiving a commission from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina for a map of their province in America.  The Oxford DNB goes on to say, "he conceived of a series of atlases to cover the whole world, to be funded through lotteries, subscription plans, and advertisements. The first, Africa, appeared in 1670. Others followed soon after: Atlas Japannensis (1670), America (1671), Atlas Chinensis (1671), and Asia (1673)."  The most important part of understanding John Ogilsby 1671 map of Carolina is the next line from the DNB:  "These were not the fruits of Ogilby's own work but rather well-produced compilations of extant translations and others' accounts, a common practice at that time."

1671 Ogilby Map of Carolina, titled "First Lords Proprietors' Map; New description of Carolina by the order of the Lords Proprietors"

By the title of John Ogilby's 1671 map, "First Lords Proprietors' Map; New description of Carolina by the order of the Lords Proprietors," we can glean that the Proprietors had not yet made a map of their territory and desired to know what their holdings entailed.  They had only owned Carolina for less than a decade (a very short period of time in the 17th century).  Still, there were accounts from various expeditions by Englishmen to Carolina, or through Carolina from Virginia.  Merchants had plied these waters probably since the founding of Jamestown in 1607.  Ogilby had access to many of these details as he prepared his 1671 map.  Undoubtedly, he relied heavily on Richard Hakluyt's information concerning the Roanoke voyages.  He read of Governor John White's avenging the death of George Howe by attacking Indians on the shores of the mainland just west of Roanoke Island.  Of course, White discovered then that they had made a mistake and attacked their friends from the island of Croatoan (today's Hatteras) and not the intended hostiles of Dasamonquepeuk.  As you can see, Ogilby marked "Croatan" on his map to indicate where future explorers may find the renowned friendly Indians of that nearly century-old tale. 

However, Ogilby may not have read that account clearly enough to realize that the Croatoan Indians did not actually live in that location on the mainland, but instead, went there simply to gather the corn left by the hostile Indians that had fled English vengeance.  The weather was unseasonably hot and dry.  Crops did not grow well without water and they were hungry on their tiny island far from the mainland.  Ogilby made a mistake.

That was not his only mistake on this map.  In the area of the "Clarendon" River, now known as the Cape Fear River, he clearly understood and drew the area of the "thoroughfare" across from the present Wilmington in North Carolina today.  By 1671, the Barbadoes Adventurers led by Sir John Yeamans had already planted a town on that river.  They had difficulty there and abandoned the settlement.  Many other cartographers refer to this settlement as "Charles Town," not to be confused with the "Charles Town" settled in 1671 further south by the same group.

Ogilby produced this map in 1671 and probably had no knowledge of the Barbadian plans to settle Carolina again.  Still, he had heard of the settlement in the area of Old Town Creek south of today's Wilmington.  Note where Ogilby marked "New Town" on his map.  It is much farther inland from the "thoroughfare" than Wilmington... NOT where the first "Charles Town" was actually founded.  He has "New Town" even farther north of Stag Park, about the area of today's Burgaw.  There was not a settlement that we know of there by 1671.

Portion of 1709 map made by John Lawson and John Senex

No mention of this "New Town" is ever made on later maps.  However, John Lawson used Ogilsby's map, made for the Lords Proprietors, to make his own map, again addressed to the Lords Proprietors, in 1709.  The map was made to accompany his book, A New Voyage to Carolina, in which he described in great detail the plants, animals, and customs of native inhabitants of the Proprietor's lands.  He repeated the erroneous "Croatan" labeling across from Roanoke Island.  He even went so far as to call the Indians of Hatteras Island, "Hatteras Indians," well... because the Croatan lived elsewhere, right?  Wrong.  The error stuck.

1820 Brazier-Fulton map of Croatan and Roanoke Sounds

The very name of "Croatan" was used on many later maps and it even gave its name (again) to the body of water that separated the mainland from Roanoke Island, "Croatan Sound."  It is still called this today, as shown on the Google Earth image below:

Google Earth image showing "Croatan Sound"

One can imagine the thoughts of the Croatoan Indians on Hatteras at the silly-sounding Englishmen as they continued to refer to this area as "Croatan."  They had probably forgotten the mistaken event in 1587 that started it... the easy mistake that John White had made and apologized for as he visited Hatteras Island to plead with his friends, Manteo's people and his mother, chief of the Croatoan people.

Clearly, our ancestors, including our founding fathers in America, have made many mistakes.  Of course, most United States citizens today will say that the British made this mistake, somehow disconnecting themselves from the ones who made these simple errors.  That is not to say that we do not still make mistakes, just that our advancing technology prevents these larger ones.  Speedier communication afforded by satellite and the internet helps a great deal when you imagine that it took weeks and even months to get a message across the 17th-century Atlantic.  One has to also imagine a time without television, xerox, and a plethora of computer graphic formats.  Our society has much to be thankful for.


The study of history reveals many mistakes.  It sometimes makes history quite enjoyable and entertaining, contrary to the impression given by most high school students.  Think of how you were drawn to this blog entry.  :)

John Ogilby could have avoided this mistake by reading Hakluyt more carefully.  He did not.  Why, we can only guess.  Perhaps he had dance classes coming up and had to prepare lessons for his students.  Obilby had a life that interfered with his hobbies, after all.  His mistake in 1671 became translated to our modern generation as "Croatan Sound."  We probably shouldn't go into the name of the "Croatan National Forest," located also NOT on the Outer Banks, but near New Bern in Craven County... on the mainland once again.

If I were a Croatoan Indian, I would feel kind of annoyed.  :)

CSS Neuse Gets a New Home

CSS Neuse early on display in the open.  Photo taken from Jerry Blackwelder, "The Fall and Rise of a Confederate Ship," The State (Sept, 1990).

Back in the early 1960s, three local businessmen from Lenoir County decided to invest in a common venture to bring the CSS Neuse up from the bottom of the Neuse River.  May 19, 1963, the large Confederate gunboat was finally pulled from the river and the state later took charge of it and moved it to the already existing Richard Caswell historic site in Kinston, NC.  See the video:  The Story of the CSS Neuse, a Confederate Battleship in Kinston, NC.  That was almost 50 years ago. Today, the boat gets moved into its final location... a temperature and humidity-controlled facility in downtown Kinston, North Carolina.  For nearly half a century, however, the boat did not have it so good.

Construction of the 158 by 35-foot sister ship of the CSS Albemarle had begun in New Bern in 1862, but Union forces took that city, shelled the unfinished gunboat, and the hull of the Neuse was floated upriver to White Springs (today's Seven Springs) above Kinston to safeguard it while being finished.  The Neuse was then planned to assist in recapturing the city of New Bern.  However, it would never make it back.  Instead, it would fire its guns only once in a land battle to cover its retreat from Kinston as the Civil War came to a close.  Before leaving Kinston, Commander Joseph Price and his "long-legged boys from the piney woods" set the steam engines to explode and scuttled the CSS Neuse in the shallow waters of the Neuse River where it would lay for a hundred years until the Civil War centennial in 1961 revived interest in it.

The beleaguered vessel underwent over two years of back-breaking effort to be pulled from the sandy bottom.  It suffered again under that effort, for maritime archaeology was still in its infancy.  Procedures and methods that we easily assume today were nonexistent in the 1960s.   As the picture below shows, there had been a substantial section of the hull intact when these efforts began.  Furthermore, after the boat was pulled from the water, it lay on the bank of the river for months until the state had taken charge and removed it five miles to Kinston.  It had been cut in three sections to make the transport.  Again, she suffered. 

Two photos of recovery: the Neuse still in the river showing deck planking (left) and the boat on the shore (right) before being transported to Kinston at the Richard Caswell site.

The Neuse was put in place at its new home in Kinston and a concrete pillar "shed" was built to partially protect it from the weather while Leslie Bright and his team worked for years to conserve the boat and the many artifacts associated with it.  Those efforts were largely finished by the 1970s.  The varying temperature and humidity, snows of winter, rains of spring, and the excesive heat of the summer have done continual damage to the CSS Neuse.  Even the leaves of fall threatened the boat with decay and insect infestation.  Year-round devastation resulted and successive treatments have been necessary to preserve the state's cultural resource. 

Furthermore, due to its position near the river bank, the Neuse had been exposed to nearly as many destructive forces as it experienced when scuttled in 1865!  Two hurricanes have threatened to rebury the boat and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 destroyed the visitor's center associated with it.  The boat was removed closer to Highway 70 and placed under a new temporary structure while plans were made to move it lock, stock, and barrel into a new facility in downtown Kinston. New exhibits have continuously been designed and built by East Carolina University's Museum Studies Program under Dr. John Tilley in anticipation of Neuse's future.  I enjoyed being a part of the last of those classes before this move today. 

The story of its resurrection and life over the past half-century have been a tragic one.  The people of Kinston, who had fallen in love with their huge tangible historic artifact of a bygone age, have sought for those many years to preserve the Neuse for as long as possible.  Their love of this boat can be seen today on a corner of downtown Kinston, in the construction of the only ironclad replica ever built (half-scale), the CSS Neuse II.  It sits in a park just behind the new building designed to preserve the boat today.  Certainly, these residents and the state have put a lot of effort into the CSS Neuse.

Photos of the first housing near the Neuse River.  At left is a full view of the Neuse and at right is Leslie Bright (foreground) and his team as they took efforts to conserve the boat.  Photos from Underwater Archaeology Branch in Fort Fisher, NC.

CSS Neuse II in downtown Kinston location (left) and the CSS Neuse remains on display in a newer shelter near Highway 70 (right).  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

 
North Carolina Historic Sites maintains the boat and its artifacts today.  The website announced plans for the new facility in downtown Kinston on Queen street.  The move was more than a decade in the planning. 

Empty home at 6 am!  Photo by Baylus C. Brooks.

Today, June 23, 2012, is the day of the move.  It began at 6:00 am. The Neuse's temporary housing near Highway 70 is now empty and the three sections of the CSS Neuse have been loaded onto special wheeled devices for their transport downtown.  These three sections will be hauled down Highway 70 by semi-trucks to its new home at 100 North Queen Street in the brand new CSS Neuse Interpretive Center, designed by Dunn & Dalton Architects of Kinston.  The move was performed by Wolfe House & Building Movers LLC of Pennsylvania. Wolfe is owned by the Blake Moving Company of Greensboro, contracted by the state for the move.

CSS Neuse site director Morris Bass and Dusty Westcott with NC Historic Sites prepare the specially-designed video car to videotape the move (left) and the truck with the first section pulls out of the old Vernon-road facility onto Highway 70 (right).  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.recovery

William Rowland snaps pictures as he happily observes the second truck as it exits the old facility (left) and the third truck exits with the bow of the boat (right).  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

The first truck pulled out of the old Vernon-road facility at about 6:30 am.  The three sections were formed in line while on the highway and before the move began, which would be done in unison.  William (Bill) Rowland was on hand to witness this historic event.  Bill, who has a manuscript collection at East Carolina University's Special Collections in Joyner Library detailing every aspect of the CSS Neuse's recovery and history, including GPS coordinates of the known positions of the boat and its artifacts, was on hand with a big smile. He makes his way downtown to await the boat's arrival and join with the gathering crowd.

The three sections of the CSS Neuse were lined up on Highway 70 before the trip downtown (left) and Bill Rowland goes downtown and dons his hardhat for the installation of the first (or stern) section of the boat in the new facility (right).  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

The first, or stern section arrives and is guided by remote control into the building.  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

Another happy person, Assistant Site Director Holly Brown snaps pictures as the Neuse glides into its new home (left) and as the crowds gather even thicker on an early Saturday morning in downtown Kinston (right).  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

The middle section (about 50 tons) moves into the building (left), Bill Rowland showing off the bow and final section (middle) before it goes into its spot below the "ghosting" that will give visitors an idea of the shape of the original hull.  This ghosting will be lowered onto the Neuse's remains once it has been secured into place.  Photos by Baylus C. Brooks.

The three sections of the hull were separated from the trucks and then remote-control guided into place by the special wheeled devices attached below them.  Holly Brown states that the devices allow for a full 360-degree turn radius for maximum maneuverability.  This is a professional job well done.  It went off without a hitch and was mostly over by noon.  I'm sure that made Bill very happy.  Just look at his face!  :)

Re-conservation of CSS Neuse's Artifacts

CSS Neuse is a Confederate Ironclad ship that was built in White Hall, NC in 1862 and floated down the Neuse River to Kinston where it was scuttled after Union troops took the town in 1865. It was recovered in the 1960s, conserved and placed on display outdoors. The artifacts were conserved twice before and now, they're getting another facelift... especially after Hurricane Floyd flooded the visitor's center in 1999 and rusted a whole bunch of this stuff.  The Neuse is being moved into an indoor facility in downtown Kinston this summer and these artifacts are planned as part of a brand new exhibit to accompany the ship's new home.  The home of the CSS Neuse Facebook page is here and the Historic Sites page for it is here.

How do you learn proper conservation techniques?  It all began with a class in Museum Studies at East Carolina University.  Two of us were also taking a conservation class at the same time and one of us had already had it.  Well, the fact that you've had a class does not make you a proper expert, as we later found out.  Experience in the field was an absolutely necessary ingredient.  None of us had that.  In other words, we had to start from scratch and gain that experience.  A little life experience was a plus as well.  What's worse is that every "expert" in the field gave us different advice, some of it quite detailed for such an imperfect, resource-challenged project.  There's a big difference between the ideal and the practical, although you should always be guided by the ideal.  I used to manufacture and install stained glass windows, which on occasion required me to adapt to new situations that I might encounter in the field.  It happened almost on every job.  Likewise, most conservation projects necessarily center upon the practical; compromise must be a familiar idea to us all.  This is a delicate balance, affected by resources, time, location, future storage capabilities... a plethora of factors.

Me back in the good old days (before the grey crept down my face), soldering my stained glass window to metal hangers that I had to adapt to the masonry work of this church in order to hold my window in place.  I had always worked on wood before.  This was new.  The window had to be fitted closely to the masonry in order to seal it properly.  This window required three months of drawing, cutting, painting, firing, and assembly.  I wasn't about to let it come out of that wall!

One really wild idea that was told to us was to put as many as fifty coats of expensive tannic acid solution on the Brooke Cannon Shells that we worked with, even though the cannon from the QAR got only three.  Well, that was a sheer disaster; shall I say "Dismal Failure?"  Imagine 50 coats of red Krylon on your Red Ryder... or 50 coats on anything with great detail... where was that picture of the British carriage again?  lol  All diagnostic features disappeared in a sea of uneven paint!  It was gross... except at a distance, when you couldn't make out the details of the wreck.  Not only was it thick, but the metal never reacted to it.  I remember seeing a beautiful old Mustang one time and, as I approached, it became obvious that something drastic had happened to it.  That's what we had with SLM-006, the only Mullane shell contained in the Neuse artifact collection.  It's a special piece for them.  Ideally, this shell needs to be completely redone, this time with 1/10th of the expensive chemicals and a healthy application of common sense. 

Examples of corroded artifacts: SLB-003, EH-003, and GC-002

Then came the idea of mixing phosphoric acid into the tannic solution directly instead of making a dilute solution first and using a medicine dropper to adjust the pH that way.  I should say that that was not the fault of any trained expert, but the results of inexperience in laboratory methods.  Again, this is why you need a supervisor for such projects (which we lacked, unfortunately); but fear not, the more attentive of us were able to persevere through the rough areas and make a proper go of it.  The best method for adjusting pH comes from Algonquin College's video (in case you're interested).  By the way, adjusting the pH is apparently not as critical as some might lead you to believe.  J.T. Baker makes a tannic acid that should already be the proper pH.  Still, the other tannic acids available do not get much higher in pH and effect the results in no observable way.  Another oft quoted detail that seems to make little difference, but can be used to make a little political noise.  The mistake with the phosphoric acid just wasted our time and made the artifacts quite ugly.  You can see the results of the phosphoric acid on the shells in the last of these three comparison photos (SLB-002 from the start of the day 4/25/2012):

The first image is how the objects looked when they were conserved before, with Conquest, a tannic acid and acrylic mix. The second picture is the same object with most of the Conquest still on it, but with the oxidation scrubbed off. Forty coats of tannic acid solution were added on top of the Conquest. Bare metal still shows through these many coats, having never reacted with the metal. The last image shows a similar shell treated correctly, with only three coats of tannic acid (like the cannon at the QAR lab), and powdered art-quality graphite stippled into resistive areas to make the black color uniform throughout. Most experts will agree that excessive coats are not necessary. As you can see here, they are quite terrible in appearance by comparison to the proper method. Note that the first and last images show similar textures on the artifact. Diagnostic details are preserved.

One example of phosphoric acid overdose.  The image to the left is a whitish brown because of the phosphates covering it and unreacted tannic acid on top of that.  It should be noted the phosphoric acid is sometimes used for the same purpose as tannic acid to preserve iron and that an a cream-colored coating would not harm the iron and protect it just the same, but what an ugly result!  The image on right is a properly-reacted SLB-002 with tannic acid.  Again, diagnostic detail has not been lost. 

Perhaps the biggest help was a minor reference to the "stiff" bristle brush that did not sound much like a paint brush, which was the assumption for so long, an uneducated method that I was to discover that was employed by a former group that was later fired for the same thing.  The tannic acid had not been getting into and reacting with the metal because we were painting it on like the red paint on that old metal shed that my father had taught me how to paint on... kind of like Mr. Miagi with that "brush up, brush down" bit.  A sea of tannic acid just sat there like a light beige clear overcoat.  When there are iron oxides present, like on a freshly electrolyzed cannon at the QAR lab (see pic), the tannic will react easily with those to turn black, even when painted on.  That's just not what we had nor what should be done in any situation.

Cannon from the QAR fresh from the electrolyte solution.  It's ready to be scrubbed down in tannic acid.  This will instantly turn the rust a dark purple hue, give off a lot of heat (exothermic), then turn deep blue-black.  The QAR lab only uses three applications of tannic acid to accomplish this.

If you've ever used a rust converter in your garage, you know the reaction that I'm talking about.  Still, we were bead blasting these artifacts to bare metal.  There was no rust on them to react readily to tannic acid.  My guess is that some "fresh" conservators were advising in these cases to increase the number of "coats" of tannic acid until the metal finally reacted (if it EVER did react, which I doubt).  Think about the word "coats."  It implies a paint... not a reactive chemical that should be worked into the metal's surface.  That was the source of the error.  Like I said, 50, and as many as 200 "coats" of tannic acid were advised to get a reaction that never comes.  The mere bulk of the tannic acid simply hides the unreacted areas.  You can't see the forest for the trees.  This just seems wrong.  Did anyone ever seriously get good results with this!?  I can't believe they did... not on bare metal... not on any iron artifact... in fact.  :)  It's also wasteful and expensive.

There was hope!  A very old paper by J. B. Pelikan in 1966 was the first to show a picture of a "stiff" bristle brush in use with tannic acid and this picture verified what I was beginning to think, but which none of the modern literature would say directly.  After 1966, it would seem that everyone in the field just began to assume that's what you use and called it simply a "brush" from then on:

Conservation of an iron knocker on the door of the state castle Hradek near Nechanice. The surface of the fittings and the decorative nails is being thoroughly brushed with a tannin solution. (Pelikan, 1966:113)

This technique works on bare metal as well as rusty iron.  Again, after 1966, some of the literature hinted at that, but never came right out and said it!  It's those little hints, lost and forgotten in an academic sea of "paper-plexion" that have to guide you sometimes.  Again, the education is helpful... as long as you use some practical sense and real-life experience to temper it with.  Thank you Pelikan!

I can only speak for myself and, needless to say, I learned conservation in the field as much as I did in the classroom... and in the literature!  I mean, I had a few years of laboratory (and a lot of practical... I'm older, after all) experience, but very little in conservation.  Some of the experts were of tremendous help, too.  My conservation instructor, Shanna Daniels, contributed valuable assistance to us along the way.  Also, the Queen Anne's Revenge (QAR) conservator, Wendy Welsh, was of the utmost assistance in the last few weeks.  By the way, Wendy will be coming to a symposium on the conservation of the CSS Neuse at the Neuse Regional Library at 510 North Queen Street in Kinston on May 19th at 2:00 pm.  Leslie Bright, the original conservator from the 1960s will be there as well.  This will be very informative and I know that I have my questions!  Don't forget to hit Bathfest earlier that day in Bath!

Another conservator who has been hugely helpful is Nathan Henry of the Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) at Ft. Fisher.  Henry deals mostly with salt-infested marine artifacts, but his practical knowledge of metals conservation was quite valuable.  The UAB also has 73 folders of negatives and documents from CSS Neuse's original conservation in the 60s & 70s.  Digitizing those would be hugely valuable to the festivities this summer and the new facility with its new exhibits, which could use some of those pics.  Scanning those is what I did last week.  UAB was planning to digitize their shipwreck files this summer and I gave them a head start on the Neuse files.

Last but not least was our faithful Admiral of the High Seas, Dr. Brad Rodgers, the director of Maritime Studies at ECU.  His manual, The Archaeologist's Manual for Conservation: A Guide to Non-Toxic, Minimal Intervention Artifact Stabilization, published in 2003, gave us valuable insight into the methods. 

The best part of this project was the problem-solving.  The artifacts that we worked on were several cast iron Brooke and one Mullane shell, a wrought iron trunnion cover (cannon carriage piece), a flag pole socket and three wrought-iron eyehooks.  Try as we might, the wrought iron pieces did not take the tannic acid solution very well.  However, with Shanna, Wendy, Brad's, and Nathan's help, we were able to find the right formula/technique and get excellent results (almost surprisingly instant results), at least on the cast iron... finally!  Still the wrought iron artifacts can easily be coated with tannic acid and then charcoal, using the coloration idea behind Conquest, but without the vinyl, fine sand, and acrylic coating that has shown possible galvanic corrosion problems.  These are minor, but avoiding them is easy with this method.

I could also point out another flirtation with the literature at the end of this process and which got misconstrued and confused once again.  There is some evidence that graphite could have a galvanic corrosive effect with cast iron under the right conditions.  Ahem!  :)  However, in order for an electrochemical process such as this to take place, the graphite and iron would have to come into direct contact AND they would have to be able to conduct a current.  Powdered graphite (I actually used artist-quality charcoal which is a different allotrope of carbon from "graphitized iron") suspended in dried tannic acid could never conduct electrons because the particles of graphite cannot actually touch one another... the "wires" aren't connected.  Now, if you're talking about solid graphite rods (pencil lead, for instance) laying directly against bare metal, that's a different story.  This was just another red herring... something to stall progress.  Still, a valid concern, however minor and distracting, and it deserved some thought.  To appease the theoretical alarmists, a simple coat of Acryloid B-72 (basically, a lacquer) over the area to be stippled with graphite solves that little problem right away! It even makes it easier to do because the older layers are not dissolved by the new application.  NOTE: Still, I performed an experiment to illustrate that the graphite/tannic acid mixture does not conduct a current when dry and, therefore, is harmless.  The artifact looks beautifully uniform throughout and will last a long time in the proper care without any galvanic problems other than what was already there in the larger, more serious and irreparable problems between the copper alloy and the iron.

This is the major galvanic concern, especially if water is still trapped inside the shells to act as an electrolyte and complete the circuit!  The differing metals cannot be removed from one another without damaging the artifact and must be somehow made electrically inert through temperature and humidity controls upon display... and by popping the hood and draining the excess fluids! lol  Again, this is the REAL galvanic problem....  My, where is the time going!?  :)

Dr. Brad Rodgers, with 25 years of experience in the field, stated that metals were predictable.  He should know, I guess.  There is no need in reinventing the wheel.  In other words, it's not that hard, folks!

All of this effort was excruciatingly intense and complex because of the differing and often conflicting opinions and variability of lab practices (remember that these are not usually chemistry majors).  One piece of advice for those getting into the field... you will be surrounded by people who only half understand the methods, have minor lab skills or experience, or, worst still, have been mis-taught or misled in some way.  Don't dispute them.  They can always find someone with credentials to back them up on any tangent they can dream up.  They can make your life a living hell!  Get all of the information you can BEFORE you start, make a plan, and then get the job done.  Most of all, get it done and done right.

After all that happened, after four long, difficult months, after all the starting, stopping, and testing suggested methods (most of which did NOT work) along the way, success came at last.  Needless to say, I got an "A" in conservation class!  It took perseverance and a lot of common sense, too.  Loads of common sense... please, never underrate common sense!  You can tell that I'm ready for a break, huh?

British author, Douglas Adams said, "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."  How right he was! 


After all that, I could finally say, "Call me conservator!"  Maybe someday, I will have the chance to work on other projects.  But, for now, I just wanna kick back and have a beer!  You know how fond I am of Spaten Oktoberfest... :) 

In this picture, there are three shells visible, the trunnion cover in the background and the eyehooks in foreground.  One note is that Jack Bell (Bell, 2003:32 and 113) states in his book on Civil War ordnance, Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance: A Guide to Large Artillery Projectiles, Torpedoes, and Mines that while all sabots from Union ordnance were listed in contemporary sources as “brass,” all Confederate ones were listed as “copper.”  Still, he states that “Some of the Confederate ones may actually be brass or some alloy other than pure copper….” (Bell, 32).  As observed on April 9, 2012 and obvious in this picture from April 25th, the brass appearance on the sabots was due to the protective coating applied in the 1970s.  The contemporary sources were correct in that a high-copper content was used, as you can see on the standing shell to the right.

GC-002, the trunnion cover, after proper conservation

A full gun crew works a 9" Dahlgren, USS Mendota.  Note the trunnion cover in the center of this photo.  It kept the cannon from jumping off the carriage when it fired.  Brooke guns were mounted on a carriage that was steeper in angle on the front, providing for two angles on GC-002 above.

NE-3W-9, an eye hook that we named EH-002, from 1975 to the present.

Eyehooks of wrought iron and coated in tannic acid with graphite added for color.

A display idea showing an extension of the fuse and its components extended from the hole from which they fit.  The angle of the display will show off the entire structure of the shell.

Update from May 19, 2012 and the "Wood, Iron, and Time" event where we got to speak with Leslie Bright and Wendy Welsh in Kinston: 

Leslie told us about the details of the conservation process that he helped to pioneer and Wendy talked us some of the modern techniques that we use today.  I was also able to talk with Spencer Waldron, retired conservator for Historic Sites.  According to Spence, Leslie loved the Conquest, which he said was properly applied by scrubbing it in (another late, but welcome reference).  Apparently, Leslie used Conquest up until the time he was rushed by the state and he used Epoxy Resin to finish the shells.  This was not so easily apparent from his book.  I thought that I had seen some evidence of this in the shells we had.  I remember having to argue this point as well.  I'm thinking that conservation is a touchy subject for some folks.  But, not so for Leslie and Wendy.  This was an enjoyable and friendly event!  It was nice to sit in a room with all of these minds: David Moore was there, Morris Bass, the site director and a most knowledgeable scholar in his own right, his right hand, Holly Weaver, Bright & Welsh, of course, and Bill Rowland, a man who worked tirelessly to record the early recovery efforts and draw plans, locate GPS coordinates, etc.   There was another retired scholar and I wish I could remember his name. 

As it turns out, Spence told me that the site hired some extra hands after the storm in 1999 that painted the Conquest on like I described earlier instead of scrubbing it in... they were fired for wasting chemicals and time.  I guess you can't fire volunteers... lol. 

Leslie Bright in Kinston, May 19, 2012

Wendy Welsh in Kinston, May 19, 2012

Modern Greece Shipwreck Fun

Me in my "action gear" lol

Ah, what a bright and cheery day to be crawling in the muck!  We twelve students from ECU's archaeological conservation class got some real experience... hands on for thousands of artifacts for the civil war blockade runner Modern Greece.  There's more.  You see... not only did we encounter artifacts from the Modern Greece, excavated in the 1960s and re-interred in these watery graves on the grounds of Fort Fisher and the Underwater Archaeology Branch's facilities in Kure Beach.  There were also artifacts from the Ella and the Ranger popping out of the first tank that we worked on the first day (March 5).  Each item that came out of the tank, Nathan, Chris, and/or Mark were there with manifests showing what ship it had belonged to.  

No matter that we got dirty, cold, wet, etc... we had fun putting our hands (er... gloves) on those artifacts and seeing them for the first time in 50 years when they were first re-interred on this site, not far from their original resting place in the sea waters just off the Cape Fear River.  

You see the pants that I'm wearing in the photo?  This pic is from Day 2, after the first washing.  Needless to say, I won't be going out on the town in these jeans anytime soon.  May I introduce you to the black, muddy pit that we worked on the second day?  Look below:

Tank drained and awaiting us...

     Yes, this was nasty.  See?  Archaeological conservation is really fun!  You get to play in the mud and get credit for it, too.  And, apparently, we drew some attention on this project.  The Raleigh News and Observer came out, Channel 14 and the Charlotte Observer did a video on us, TV3 in Wilmington came out, the News-Record in Greensboro carried it, and our new friend, Brian Nestor filmed the entire process for a 5-minute video produced by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.


Brian's second video from NC-DCR:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgvjPNnmDjQ


Amazing how old stuff can be such popular news, huh?



There were British Enfield Rifles, Bowie knives, leg irons, bayonets and other war materials, but we also found household and farm items such as files, chisels, scissors, knives, forks, spoons, hoe heads, picks and much more.  It was a tremendous haul! 

Swamp People in Hyde County!

This is sort of an update to the last entry about pleasure driving through Hyde County.  I spent the day in the library and learned why it was that I didn't find Stephen Brooks Jr. and his wife Mary Farrow Brooks.  Stephen was a fish... really.  The book In Memory of...: An Index to Hyde County Cemeteries tells exactly where they are buried... on an island.  There is no bridge to this island, nor is there even an identifiable area of high ground where you might find a graveyard.  Still, they are the only two people buried here in the "Lightwood Creek Marsh Cemetery."  

How appropriate of a name!

Portion of Wyesocking Bay area in Hyde County, NC

I'm guessing that Stephen and Mary probably lived on this island and operated their ship from this point.  He did have a ship.  During the American Revolution, he ran supplies to and from a British-besieged Hatteras Island with it and lost it in the process.  

Stephen and Mary, as well as her father owned land on Hatteras at one point... speaking of point, Brooks Point near present Brigand's Bay is named for one of the Stephens... either this guy or his dad.  After Stephen Jr.'s death, his wife Mary and son Isaac held the property for awhile.  Stephen had passed away at his home in the marsh in 1797.


Interestingly, a great many families can be found in both places, Hatteras and Hyde County.  Brooks, Midyett, Gibbs, Davis, Wahab, etc lived in both places, many of them began with a single person who lived in both... like Stephen Brooks.  


I wonder where his ship is....?  I know some underwater archaeologists in ECU's Maritime Program... hum... :)  I'll probably need the funds to find it first.  Oh, well. 

Here's the cemetery data that I found:

On page 233 of In Memory of...

By the way, the information about Wallingford, Connecticut is still questionable according to what I've heard.  Here's the annotated map showing the cemetery's location:

Map from the same book... #30 is Lightwood Creek Marsh Cemetery

 Well, that settles that.  I guess I'll have to try a quiet boat ride instead of a car next time.  The real obstacle will be avoiding the hunters that seem to be the only people out that way.  I may need some rubber boots, too.