Thousands of artifacts from the 1862 wreck of the blockade
runner Modern Greece were recovered by state and Navy divers in 1962. Hundreds
of individual pieces have been preserved over the years and have found their
way into countless museum exhibits across the nation. However, many hundreds
more were placed into tanks of water to halt further deterioration and left until
time would allow for closer examination, classification, cataloging and, in
many cases, conservation. That time arrived March 7-9, 2011 when staff from the
Underwater Archaeology Unit at Fort Fisher teamed with East Carolina
University’s Maritime History Program Conservation director Suzanne Grieve and
a team of eleven ECU graduate students and two student interns from UNCW
“rediscovered” artifacts last seen nearly fifty years ago. See the photos of
the work in progress and some Friends of Fort Fisher guests getting a once in a
lifetime look at the artifacts as they emerge from their watery repose.
