Civil War ship found at bottom of Houston Ship Channel yields trove of artifacts

The Dahlgren Cannon will sit in Texas City Museum on a re-created carriage and will form the first phase of the exhibit due to open early 2014. The Dahlgren Cannon will sit in Texas City Museum on a re-created carriage and will form the first phase of the exhibit due to open early 2014. Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Civil War ship found at bottom of Houston Ship Channel yields trove of artifacts 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

A 150-year-old Civil War ship and its contents is on its way to Texas City after being excavated from the bottom of the Houston Ship Channel and restored in a five-year project.

The USS Westfield, which sank in the Battle of Galveston in 1863, was brought to the surface in 2009 in what was the largest maritime archaeological rescue project ever undertaken in Texas.

Once up, archaeological conservators discovered hundreds of artifacts including belt buckles from the crew, boiler and engine parts as well as live ammunition.

The star of the find is a 12-foot-long cannon, which could have fired projectiles over a mile and a half.

"This thing is a beast!" said Justin Parkoff, manager of the Westfield project at Texas A&M Conservation Research Lab where the restoration is taking place.

Early in 2014, that cannon will be sitting on a re-created carriage at the Texas City Museum.

Closer to summer comes a rebuild of the engine cylinder, and later in the year a massive reconstruction of the boiler. That will be so big it will reach the museum roof, Parkoff said.

"It will be a huge attraction," said museum curator Linda Turner. "So many Civil War buffs will want to come and see it. It will be dramatic."

The Westfield sank on New Year's Day 1863 during the Battle of Galveston, where Confederate troops recaptured the island in an early morning surprise attack.

The ship, a converted Staten Island Ferry boat, ran aground. It's captain didn't want the ship to be captured so called for an evacuation and set a charge to blow it up.

Unfortunately for him, the charges went off prematurely and he and 12 others went down with the ship.

"We're always looking for bone," said Parkoff. "Every time I find a bone, I treat it with the utmost respect." He doubts the bones they have found are from the crew, but they will be sent away for analysis.

It's been a painstaking conservation process. Hundreds of fragments of the ship and its contents were brought up covered in marine concretion, essentially looking like huge rocks. Many had to be X-rayed to see what was inside.

Often that led to some big surprises. One piece that looked like a bolt revealed a tiny salt pot on X-ray which is now a treasured and unique part of the exhibit.

"It's been a very difficult process," said Parkoff. "We didn't know what any of this was, it's unrecognizable. How do you make sense of hundreds of bits of metal?"

It took years of work with pneumatic tools and chisels to remove most of the concretion, then longer in chemical baths to uncover the true identity of the massive metal jigsaw.

"Individually, these pieces mean nothing, but together they tell a story," Parkoff said.

Once complete, the Westfield exhibit will become the second largest of its kind in Texas. The largest is the French ship La Belle, which was recovered from Matagorda Bay. It is also being conserved at Texas A&M and eventually will end up in Austin.

"Westfield's tragic story reminds us of the sacrifices that both sides were willing to take in that war." Parkoff said. "The story of this vessel and those men that died aboard her should be honored and preserved for future generations."