 Searching the ocean floor for shipwrecks has carried
Greg Stemm around the world. Now, his search has come full circle as the local
heritage museum in his family's hometown will proudly display his company's Civil
War era find – treasures from the SS Republic®*.
A unique exhibit, courtesy of Stemm's Odyssey Marine Exploration company, "Shipwreck! Treasures from the SS Republic" will be on display at the Baldwin County Heritage
Museum in Elberta, Alabama, beginning Sunday, August 31, 2008.
While some
artifacts from the SS Republic have appeared
in other Odyssey exhibits in the large cities of New Orleans, Tampa and Detroit,
Elberta, Alabama, which has 552 residents, including Stemm's grandparents, is
the only place this collection can be seen. The discovery of the wreck, the high-tech
exploration and the recovery efforts undertaken have all garnered worldwide media
attention, such as an hour long National Geographic program. "Shipwreck! Treasures
from the SS Republic" exhibit will also
showcase these efforts, along with the vessel's rich history and the wealth of
artifacts and coins recovered. Bound for New Orleans, which was in the
midst of reconstruction, the Republic
departed a New York dock on October 18, 1865 with 59 passengers, 500 barrels of
cargo, and a reported 400,000 dollars in gold and silver coins. Five days into
the Atlantic journey, this steamer encountered what Captain Edward Young described
as a "perfect hurricane." As the two paddlewheels stalled, the passengers soon
began abandoning the ill-fated ship. On October 25, 1865 at 4:00 p.m., the Republic sank about 100 miles off the Georgia
cost. There, it would rest in its watery grave a third of a mile below the crashing
waves for the next 138 years. A decade plus project to find the lost Republic was begun by Stemm and his Odyssey
co-founder John Morris. The search efforts of their company – which focuses on
deep-ocean shipwreck exploration and archaeological recovery – culminated in July
2003 with the ship's discovery. A 19-month recovery followed and yielded over
14,000 artifacts and more than 51,000 coins. As one of the most valuable shipwreck
coin collections of United States gold and silver currency ever found, these coins
exceed $75 million in retail value with the rarest coin valued more than half
a million dollars.  The SS Republic was built in 1853 in Baltimore,
MD, and was launched into commercial service as the Tennessee.
In 1861, it was captured by the Confederate troops only to be captured the following
year by Union forces. This vessel participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay (August
1864) when Admiral David Farragut issued his famous "Damn the torpedoes, Full
speed ahead" command in the waters between Forts Morgan and Gaines. Surviving
this battle, it was renamed the USS Mobile
in 1864 before being sold to its final owners – a private investment group in
1865 – who renamed it the SS Republic.
The "Shipwreck! Treasures from the
SS Republic" exhibit will be on display
indefinitely at the museum, which is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and the second and fourth Sunday from noon to 5:00 p.m. Although
museum admission is free, exhibit admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for seniors,
$8.00 for children (age 2-12) and $6.00 for school groups of any age. Reservations
are recommended. The Baldwin County Heritage Museum is located between Mobile
and Pensacola on Highway 98 in Elberta about 3.5 miles east of the Foley Beach
Express. For more information, visit www.baldwincountyheritagemuseum or call 251-986-8375. For
more information on the Odyssey Marine Exploration, visit www.shipwreck.net. * SS Republic is a registered trademark of Odyssey Marine Exploration,
Inc. |
