DAUPHIN ISLAND, ALA 1855 Clipper Discovered

[Gypsy Heart]

http://www.nola.com/national/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/114076576739890.xml


They were going to cut it up and haul it to the dump. This could be an important piece of Alabama history," said Forest, a marine archaeologist from Mobile, this week. "We can't let that happen."

Forest said the wreckage could be a portion of the 19th century clipper ship Robert H. Dixey, which sank near the mouth of Mobile Bay after striking a sand bar during a hurricane in 1860.

The 165-foot clipper ship was built in Boston in 1855 and was used to haul merchandise, mainly cotton, from Mobile to Eastern Europe.

 

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[MichaelB]

There was a huge story about this wreck in the Sunday Mobile Register about 3 months ago. Right off of the Fort Morgan is an area known as Dixie Bar. It received the name from the Captain mentioned above. I might be over at the island this weekend. I will take my camera and post some pictures.

I have lived on Mobile Bay my entire life and learned last year that at the end of WWI that the NAVY sunk a destroyer inside the Bay North of Fort Morgan to help stop some erosion. How was it found? There was an extended try spell and the water level in the river was exttremely low. Some guys were cutting across the Bay and hit the top of the destroyer that was just under the water line. One man was killed and another seriously injured. The Coast Guard took some heat and they put buoys out. Also on your GPS a warning zonewill now show up. Just someinteresting fyi.

MichaelB

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Wow...will be great to see your photos on it if you make it over there!!!

 

[MichaelB]

From todays paper. It looks like this section will be broken up and sent to the dump as no one is interested in it.

 

[wreckdiver1715]

This is another difference between the Treasure Hunter and the Archaeologist; If this were a ship, that had? say, just happened to have some good old Spanish pieces of eight, and a few doubloons. Any old Treasure Hunter worth his salt would have no problem mounting an excavation of the site, removal and restoration/preservation, and documentation of the site within the guidelines of a proper archeological dig. Small problem: he would have to sell a portion of the treasure in order to pay himself, and his best treasure hunting friends. Oh! Don?t forget that is going to cost them a lot of cash to buy, and or rent the equipment required to complete the project. Capitalist pigs!
The Archaeologist community would launch an all out media assault against the Treasure Hunter. They would cry ?How dare this evil plunderer of the high seas make a profit on a piece of history?. They would demand ?The state should take control of the site in the name of the people. Then the state should employ a team of my best archeologist friends to excavate the site?. Hmmm! Now, just who is trying to make a profit? Communist hypocrites!
Now we have some poor archeologist, well, he may not be poor. I?m just guessing that like me, he could not afford to go onto graduate school, and that only makes him a little more than a treasure hunter himself, according to the academic elitist. In any case, he is attempting recover a 19-century ship on dry land that was just hauling cotton. I just have to ask, what about all your aggie alumni? Where are they? Oh! Forgot, they don?t do wrecks in the United States. It?s so much more fun (and profitable), to recover ancient wrecks overseas. That, and there graduate training taught them that there is no profit in old 19-century cotton haulers.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1141467486326490.xml&coll=3

 

[MichaelB]

Yeah........what he said!

MichaelB

 

[billinstuart]

I'm still pizzed about my treatment by "archeologists" who determined that a timber system found on the beach after a hurricane north of Stuart was a "bridge timber". With Sophisticated scarf joints, and curved timbers at both ends. Couldn't be a keel, it was too long (over 75'). Am I missing something here?

 

[MichaelB]

Re: DAUPHIN ISLAND, ALA 1855 Clipper Discovered UPDATED

This is from today's Mobile Register. It says the artifact was 40 feet long and weighs 7 tons......just another example of how powerful those storms are on the barrier islands.

MichaelB