ECU Students Working with Cargo of Blockade-Runner Modern Greece-- Part 1

From the Fall 2011 East: the Magazine of East Carolina University.

The Modern Greece was rediscovered in 1962 about 300 yards off the shore of Fort Fisher after a storm uncovered it. Divers recovered around 11,500 artifacts from the wreck. Some of the best items were conserved and put on display at museums.

Its discovery led to the creation of the North Carolina State Underwater Archaeology Branch as a new part of the State Department of Cultural Resources.

However, most of the items were not examined in detail at the time and left in water tanks for preservation where they remained until this past spring when 11 ECU marine studies students went to the Fort Fisher site and did extensive examination, cataloguing and descriptions of said artifacts.

They were led by Susanne Grieve, ECU director of conservation for maritime studies and Nathan Henry, an assistant state archaeologist and they examined consumer goods like tableware along with guns, ammunition and cannons (I didn't know the Modern Greece was carrying cannons).

Without a doubt, I sure would have liked to have been there.

They Should Have Told Me. --Old B-R'er