SS Georgiana

The SS "Georgiana" is one of the best known American Civil War shipwrecks. The history of the "Georgiana" was largely unknown to the public prior to the 1965 discovery of the wreck by then teenage undersea explorer E. Lee Spence and his revelations about the steamer's unusual history. Dr. Spence's research, first published in 1989, directly linked the "Georgiana" to George Trenholm the person believed to be the basis for the character Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind.

The steamer

The "Georgiana" was a brig-rigged, iron hulled, propeller steamer of 120 horsepower with a jib and two heavily raked masts, hull and stack painted black. Her clipper bow sported the figurehead of the a "demi-woman". "Georgiana" was reportedly pierced for fourteen guns and could carry over four hundred tons of cargo. She was built by the Lawrie shipyard at Glasgow-perhaps under subcontract from Lairds of Birkenhead (Liverpool)-and registered at that port in December 1862 as belonging to N. Matheson's Clyde service. The U.S. Consul at Tenerife was rightly apprehensive of her as being "evidently a very swift vessel."

Capt. Thomas Turner, station commodore, reported to Admiral S. F. du Pont that "Georgiana" was evidently "sent into Charleston to receive her officers, to be fitted out as a cruiser there. She had 140 men on board, with an armament of guns and gun carriages in her hold, commanded by a British naval retired officer." There seems to be no reason to dispute his facts or figures.

The wreck

The "Georgiana" was lost on the night of March 19, 1863, while attempting to run past the Federal Blockading Squadron and into Charleston, South Carolina. She had been spotted by the armed U.S. Yacht America (namesake of the famed America's Cup racing trophy) which alerted the remainder of the blockade fleet by shooting up colored signal flares. The "Georgiana" was sunk after a desperate chase in which she came so close to the big guns aboard the [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/gunboats/wisshkn1.htm USS "Wissahicken"] that her crew even heard the orders being given on the enemy vessel. With solid shot passing entirely though her hull, her propeller and rudder damaged, and with no hope for escape, Capt. A.B. Davidson flashed a white light in token of surrender, thus gaining time to beach his ship in fourteen feet of water, three-quarters of a mile from shore and, after first scuttling her, escape on the land side with all hands; this was construed as "the most consummate treachery" by the disappointed blockading crew, who would have shared in the proceeds from the prize.

Lt. Comdr. J. L. Davis, USN commanding "Wissahicken", decided to set the wreck afire lest guerrilla bands from shore try to salvage her or her cargo: she burned for several days accompanied by large explosions when lots of powder succumbed to the flames.

Discovery

The wreck's official discovery was made in 1965, when it was found and correctly identified as "Georgiana" by pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, who had been researching the history of the "Georgiana" and her location for over five years. Spence found the wreck exactly 102 years after the "Georgiana's" loss. Shortly afterwards Spence and Shaffer met and with George Campsen, Esq. formed a salvage company they named Shipwrecks, Inc. with Spence as its president. The company was granted the first salvage license ever issued in South Carolina.

Today the "Georgiana" sits on the bottom with her huge boiler only five feet under the surface. She is now plumed with a glorious array of sea fan, sea whips, and living corals. Large sections of the hull are still intact. In places the starboard side of the shattered blockade runner protrudes over nine feet from the sand. Under the mud and sand lies the remainder of the hull of the ill-fated warship.

On a clear day, skin divers can dive down into the "Georgiana's" immense cargo hold simply by holding their breath. They can swim right past the remaining iron deck supports. The ship's deck was white pine and has long since been eaten away. Sea urchins and sea anemones abound on the wreck. The wreck seems alive with sea bass, grouper, flounder, stingrays, seahorses, and toadfish - a toadfish is an ugly looking fish that actually makes a barking noise, and has a bite worse than its bark. Once in the "Georgiana's" cargo hold, divers can observe heavily encrusted artifacts sitting where they have lain for over one hundred years. Near the forward cargo hatch Dr. Spence found boxes of pins and buttons. Dr. Spence recovered sundries, munitions, and medicines easily worth over $12,000,000, but he never found the 350 pounds of gold believed to be hidden on the wreck. The gold could have a numismatic value of over $15,000,000. Other cargo could bring the "Georgiana"'s total value to $50,000,000.

Resting on top of the "Georgiana's" shattered wreckage is the remains of the sidewheel steamer "Mary Bowers", which struck the wreck of the "Georgiana" while attempting to run the blockade into Charleston.

Was she a Confederate cruiser?

A United States consular dispatch dated January 6, 1863 stated, "The steamer "Georgiana", just arrived at Liverpool from the Clyde. She is new and said to be a very superior steamer. ··· Yesterday while lying here she had the Rebel flag flying at her mast."

The London "American" took special note of her in its 28 January 1963 edition as a "powerful" steamer and remarked that her officers wore gold lace on their caps, considered a sure indication she was being groomed for a man-o'-war.

After the "Georgiana's" loss on March 19, 1863, the United States Secretary of Navy wrote: "the destruction of the "Georgiana" not only touched their (the Confederate's) pockets, but their hopes. She was a splendid craft, peculiarly fitted for the business of privateering."

The "New York Times" of March 31, 1863 gave a spy's description of the craft as "a superior vessel, ··· built expressly for the rebel navy." The spy reported that she was "altogether a faster, stauncher, and better vessel than either the "Oreto" (CSS "Florida") or CSS "Alabama"."

The London "Times" of April 8, 1863 described her as follows: "There is not the least doubt of her being intended as a privateer."

Thomas Scharf (who had served in the Confederate navy), in his Post War reference work "History of the Confederate Navy," described "Georgiana" as the "most powerful" Confederate cruiser.

Dr. Spence, who discovered this wreck and identified it as the "Georgiana", believes that she was indeed intended as a privateer or cruiser due to the naval guns found aboard, her deep draft hull construction, her heavier than standard iron planking, and the closer than normal, doubled up, Z-beam, framing used throughout the vessel.

"Georgiana" and the real Rhett Butler

Contemporary accounts published in the Charleston "Daily Courier" reported the "Georgiana's" cargo as consigned to Fraser and Company, a blockade running firm headed by George Trenholm. Dr. Spence has uncovered evidence showing that the tall, handsome Trenholm was the historical basis for much of the Rhett Butler character in Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "Gone with the Wind". Warren F. Spencer, in his book "The Confederate Navy in Europe", states that at the end of the war the company of Fraser Trenholm had so committed itself to the Confederate cause that "along with the Confederacy it was bankrupt".

Sources

"Underwater Archaeology on the "Georgiana"," by E. Lee Spence, presented before the International Conference on Underwater Archaeology, 1974

"Spence's Guide to South Carolina", by E. Lee Spence, Nelson Printing, Charleston, SC, 1976, OCLC: 2846435), pages 1-5

"Treasures of the Confederate Coast: The "Real Rhett Butler" & Other Revelations", by Dr. E. Lee Spence (Narwhal Press, Charleston/Miami, 1995, ISBN 1886391017, 1886391009, OCLC 32431590)

"Wreck of the Confederate Mystery Ship "Georgiana", 1863" , by Dr. E. Lee Spence "ShipWrecks" magazine, Vol. 1, #1, pp. 35-56, 1990

"Civil War Shipwrecks," by Lee Spence, "Argosy" magazine, "1977 Treasure Hunting Annual", pp. 34-38, 90

"Wreck Chart", map by E. Lee Spence (Shipwreck Press, Sullivan's Island, SC, 1978, OCLC: 6270166 )

"Shipwrecks of South Carolina and Georgia, 1520-1865", by E. Lee Spence (Sea Research Society, 1984, OCLC: 10593079), pages 47-55, 634, 635, 656, 657, 722-736

"The Confederate Navy in Europe", Warren F Spencer ULAP Page6 ISNB 081730861X.

Related Links

[http://www.shipwrecks.com Sea Research Society] (founded in 1972 to encourage research and archaeology of shipwrecks)

[http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/collects/lists/social/civilwar.html Civil War blockade runners] (has some information on Mary Bowers, etc.)