"Old Piece of Wood" Washed up on North Carolina Beach Identified as Civil War Artifact
Last week, approximately four decades after it washed ashore on North Carolina's Kure Beach, a mysterious piece of timber was finally examined by experts.
According to The Charlotte Observer, the curved piece of timber with holes and an iron fastener was donated to the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology on Friday. Though it might easily be mistaken for driftwood, state officials say it's actually much more. They believe it was from a type of 19th Century vessel used by Civil War profiteers off the Carolinas.
"While it may seem like just an old piece of wood, these frames can be a wealth of information by assessing a few key features," North Carolina Office of State Archaeology explained on Facebook alongside photos of the historic find. "Its width, length, and curvature suggest that we have nearly the whole profile of the vessel, and the transverse holes near its base indicate where it had been fastened to a floor timber."
"All of this fits the bill of a coastal trading schooner, used in North Carolina for a lengthy span of time for activities from fishing to running blockades in the Civil War," the state concluded.
Blockade runners, like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, were war profiteers who repurposed private vessels in order to help the Confederacy with the risky task of getting around Union blockades of Southern ports.
