The Denbigh Project: Excavation of a Civil War blockade-runner

The blockade-runner Denbigh, one of the most successful and famous of the American Civil War, was located and recorded near Galveston in December, 1997. The site, 41GV143, was identified during a reconnaissance by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University. The 182-ft (55.5 m)-long, iron hulled, 258-ton displacement side-wheeler was built in 1860 by Laird, Sons & Co. of Birkenhead as a coastal paddle steamer and, when new, was considered a crack ship with all the latest features of design and technology. This paper covers the 2000 excavation phase of an underwater archaeology project to investigate the Denbigh. It is the third in a series of preliminary progress reports. The report also provides updated findings on the ship's history.