Locations of the Shipwrecks Found During the Mississippi River Expedition

Manassas

Her suspected hulk (It was not dug up to be absolutely certain) lies a half a mile above the Boothville High School on the southwest bank of the river. Note: a mag survey done later by Texas A & M University shows her to be almost completely under the levee. It’s best to look during low water. There is a flat reef-like barrier edged with a small rock breakwater that extends into the river from the base of the levee about fifteen feet. If you walk this area, you can easily detect her iron mass. From a boat you can only pick her up by running parallel to the breakwater. She is buried nine feet under the silt and is probably very well preserved.

Louisiana

She lies deep under the shoreline mud a hundred yards in front of the southeastern embankment of Fort St. Phillip. You can easily walk the area during low tide.

Varuna

This durable little gunboat rests against and under the northeast shore about a mile above Ostrica Canal.

Governor Moore

After a courageous fight she ran aground and burned a few hundred yards above the VARUNA. Kids used to swim off both wrecks as late as the nineteen forties. They can be easily located, and as of the time of the expedition, bits and pieces of them still protrude from the shoreline.

Arkansas

She rests deep under the levee on a north/south heading about a mile and four tenths south from the auto/railroad bridge just below Free Negro Point. 230 yards below river mile 233.

All the above wrecks are easily accessible and would lend themselves to a core or casemate method of excavation. NUMA would especially like to see work done on the Manassas and the Arkansas. Clive has, in the past, offered to fund an exploratory dig on the Manassas, but no one has yet stepped forth from Louisiana.