A long-sunken 11-foot-long cannon
- On 12/12/2009
- In Underwater Archeology
From Texas A&M University - Institute of Nautical Archaeology
A long-sunken 11-foot-long cannon weighing almost 10,000 pounds made its public debut Thursday at the Texas A&M University Conservation Research Lab, part of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.
The cannon was raised at sundown Nov. 22 from the USS Westfield, which was lifted from its watery resting place in the Texas City Channel, where it had been submerged for 146 years.
The recovery is part of a $71 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to deepen the Texas City Channel along the Texas coast to keep waterways open for navigation.
The Civil War Union gunboat ship USS Westfield, originally built as a Staten Island ferry, was intentionally destroyed by Union forces to prevent capture after it grounded in the channel during the 1863 Battle of Galveston.
