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Blockade Runner Modern Greece
Highway Historical Marker To
Commemorate Blockade Runner Modern Greece
January 14, 2013
- Fort Fisher, NC - In conjunction with the observation
of the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Fisher on
Jan. 19, a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker will
be dedicated for the Confederate blockade runner, Modern
Greece at 12:30 p.m. at the Fort Fisher Visitor Center.
The vital importance of Fort Fisher to the Confederate
cause was highlighted in the film Lincoln.
In the pre-dawn hours of June 27, 1862, the British
owned Modern Greece headed for Fort Fisher and
Wilmington, planning to deliver vital military supplies
to the Confederate soldiers there. The vessel was
spotted by Federal forces, came under attack, was hit
and then sunk by the Confederates. After 100 years on
the ocean floor, the wreck was uncovered by a violent
storm. A team of Navy Ordnance School divers on holiday
in the spring of 1962 began recovery of the artifacts.
The divers eventually recovered thousands of artifacts
including rifles, Bowie knives, leg irons, bayonets, and
also found files, chisels, scissors, knives, forks,
picks, and much more.
The (then) Department of Archives and History in
cooperation with the Navy and other agencies managed the
research and recovery efforts. The undertaking led to
legislation that the state of North Carolina had
sovereign right to all shipwrecks that were unclaimed
for more than 10 years. The state further established a
professional staff and a laboratory to oversee the
preservation and an archaeological assessment of North
Carolina's submerged cultural resources. The Underwater
Archaeology Branch became one of the country's first
underwater archaeology agencies, and remains one of the
most respected in the nation.
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