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. 

Pleasure Driving into North Carolina Maritime History

I like to drive.  Ever since before I had a driver's license, I loved to take off down the road and go places I've never been.  This started with a minibike, a Honda 50.  It was so much fun and living in the country gave me a lot of room to legally (sort of) operate it.  

Anyway, I love the open road.  At least, I used to.  Have you seen it lately?  Well, you'd better if you're driving on one.  Take your eyes off of that road for even a second and you'll be in an accident.  I don't know why so many people wanted to invade our quaint little private spaces, but they have.  Now, it's a sheer sign of insanity if you want to drive for pleasure.  

Well, I found a place that I can recapture the past glory days of driving in the peace and quiet.  No, it's not Montana although that works, too.  No, there's a place right here in North Carolina and it's mostly flat and straight, so it's pure pleasure driving at its best.  


I hesitate to tell everyone because I don't want to spoil it for myself.  Still, I hate to be so stingy.  I'm not a capitalist and actually DO believe in the biblical tenets of sharing... yes, not for a profit, but for FREE (the real kind of "free" with no catches).  Note: Jesus would not be a capitalist either.  Try to imagine a kindly socialist with long hair, a robe, and sandals working on Wall Street... in an office I mean and not down on the street, living in tents with the Occupiers.  No, you can't really imagine that, can you?  Maybe one day we'll practice what we preach...


Ever heard of Hyde County?  

Enter Gull Rock, Wysocking Bay, Hyde County, NC

I used to travel to Roanoke Island by way of a hectic northerly route north and then an eastward turn on Hwy 64.  Not any more!  Now, I follow the little known route of 264 through the forests and swamplands of Pitt, Beaufort, Hyde, and Dare Counties to arrive just west of Roanoke.  The only real obstacle that you might have to avoid is a snake.  And if you do happen to hit the poor guy, well... no damage to your vehicle anyway.  I have yet to come across a bear, even a deer.  I suspect they are there, so don't go thru there without looking.  Still, talk about a quiet, pleasant drive.  Just like when I used to go from my hometown of Fayetteville to White Lake for the weekend.  

I never worry about who else is on the road... really.  

This place is remote.  One day, I decided to take a side venture off of Hwy 264 and try to find the little town of Gull Rock in Wysocking Bay, where the Revolutionary War personality Stephen Brooks was buried.  Brooks, who was born probably in New England in 1725 and died in Hyde County 1797, was one of those early maritime adventurers who came to early Hatteras Island and then, like many, settled on the mainland of Hyde County, just across the Pamlico Sound.  He married Mary Farrow, the daughter of Jacob Farrow, who also lived on Hatteras Island near where we find the Hatteras Indians.  Many of his family filtered west into Beaufort and Pitt Counties, some even to Tennessee.  

William & Martha Foreman Brooks

Well, I did not find Stephen's grave there in Gull Rock and wondered what must have happened to the original Methodist Church there (The Outer Banks, Hyde, and most of Dare were predominantly Methodist in belief - a maritime NC religion?).  But, I did find William Brooks, a son of Stephen who founded a Methodist church and congregation in Hyde.  Beside him were his wife and family in the Brooks cemetery there.  Deeds reveal his lasting presence in Hyde County.  His son, Caleb was responsible for many of the homes that you will see dotting the landscape around Lake Landing in Hyde County.  

The connection to my Brooks ancestors has its own history.  William may have had a younger brother, Ephraim who moved west to Anson County... just to confuse his Brooks with mine, of course.  The amazing science of DNA proved the difference in our groups and, sadly, I had to say goodbye to Ephraim and his bunch.  But, alas, it sparked my interest in this Brooks family and eventually led to my fascination with Eastern NC and Hatteras Island and its history.

I assume that Stephen Sr. and Jr. are hanging around in the nearby wooded areas.  I need to search for his burial information again because I'm sure that Stephen Brooks had a tombstone in Hyde... I hope it's still there.  I didn't have much time to search though because it was late in the day and there are few streetlights that far out in the wildlife preserves of Hyde County.  

Celia & Banister Midyett

I got another welcome surprise that day and in the very same cemetery, was Banister Midyett and family, including Daniel Midyett and another Daniel just a half-mile down the road in Gull Rock in the Pugh cemetery.   Banister Midyett is very likely closely related to the Nathaniel Midyett who bought the "Indian Town" (most likely of John Lawson fame) from the Elks family in 1788 just before the few Indian Elks faded from existence in 1802.  His family may even have continued to own the town well into the twentieth century, if some of our information is correct.  


All in all, this was a very pleasant day.  I had a great, quiet drive and found some of those personalities that I've studied so closely as a genealogist and an historian.  I rather enjoyed myself.  Still, Stephen Brooks is out there and I have yet another adventure awaiting me upon my next visit.  I love to think about how this man lived near and probably spoke to the last Hatteras Indians to live as natives before assimilating into American culture.  


There will be another pleasure drive through Hyde County for a visit soon.  :)

John Lawson's Indian Town on Hatteras Island

What am I doing?  I'm celebrating a great New Year at Mi Casa Cafe on St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida.  I'd also like to introduce my new friend, Spaten Oktoberfest beer.  It just became my favorite.  Mi Casa Cafe specializes in Cuban and Reuben sandwiches, too.  I had the Cuban.  Magnifico!   

What does St. Augustine have to do with John Lawson's Indian Town on Hatteras Island?  My first inclination was to say "Not one damned thing!"  That's not exactly true, though... and a good part of why I'm writing about it now.  Think maritime... 

Actually, my wife and I are simply celebrating our anniversary in style after coming back from Orlando (yeah, the Disney place) where I presented my paper on the "Disappearance" of the Hatteras Indians.   

St. Augustine is a perfect place to reflect on Hatteras Island because of the tropical environment, that, thanks to the Gulf Stream, resembles that of Hatteras Island.  It is the last point northward where the palmetto grows and I even found a reference to the National Park Service buying a ten-acre orange grove for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore!

Where did the Hatteras Indians go?  Well, nowhere.  That's why the quotes around the word "disappearance"... it's a clever toy that we writers sometimes use to denote questionable status to this particular use of the word.  

Hatteras Indians never disappeared, nor did they leave the island... not all of them, anyway.  They're still there.  You can ask them yourselves anytime you like.  They can also tell you where to find the old "Indian Town" visited or written about by John Lawson in his 1709 book.  And, it's not where Dr. David S. Phelps dug at the 31DR1 archaeological site in 1998.  That site is near Buxton.  Now, he did find a town, but one that had already been Anglicized by the time Lawson visited or heard about it.  

Note: I keep saying "visited or heard about" because there is still some question as to whether or not John Lawson actually visited the island.  I happen to think he did because his map shows Hatteras as very different from other maps of the time.  I think he actually witnessed that Hatteras Island was bigger than others believed it to be then.  

1709 Lawson/Senex Map (partial)

 John Lawson was not much of a geographer.  He was a self-trained ethnographer and naturalist.  He didn't even make this map, but he worked hand in hand with engraver John Senex to produce it to accompany his book, New Voyage to Carolina that was being published upon his return to England in 1709.  

The old Elks property and their town remained in a virtually virgin state for a long time.  Old accounts tell us why as well... Indians there wanted to remain aboriginal, not become as modernized as the Indians that lived and worked with Europeans near Buxton.  Of course, sadly, they would be unable to hold out forever.  European society clearly dominated over theirs and most European cultures rarely respected Indian culture.  Hatteras, though, may have been better than most places, thanks to its maritime egalitarian nature.  It may even have attracted other Indians who escaped enslavement following the American Revolution when Indians and Africans were grouped together in the census.  Slavery became a uniquely American phenomenon after the Revolution when the new nation needed the money, no longer able to depend upon Great Britain for support.  You can read up on this in David Cecelski's Waterman's Song if you're interested.  He mentions some of the residents of Hatteras Island, too. 

The new highway encouraged Hatteras residents to come up to speed in the 20th century.  Before that time, the island sat apart from the North Carolina mainland.  I'd even venture to say that Hatteras has rarely, if ever, been a part of North Carolina at all.  It more appropriately belongs to the Atlantic community that includes places like Nantucket Island or... St, Augustine, Florida.

Native inhabitants may have wished to live apart from the town at Buxton because they wanted to preserve their culture, very much like traditional Algonquians on Nantucket Island separated from Christianized Indians.  This part is just as vital to North Carolina history as the discovery of the Lost Colony.  Small steps....

I spent the better part of last week preparing for the Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society Biennial Conference in Orlando where I presented this work.  The reception was very good.  A lot of good new research comes out of these conferences where researchers can meet and discuss similar topics, get new ideas and such.  This event benefits us all.  I learned a lot there myself.  Now, onto a new idea that I got while in Orlando and maybe some of that Spaten Oktoberfest!