KURE BEACH, NORTH CAROLINA—The wreckage of an iron-hulled ship has been discovered by the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Institute of International Maritime Research in the Atlantic Ocean. It was found near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and Fort Caswell, built to defend the port of Wilmington in the early nineteenth century. The vessel may be one of three Confederate blockade runners—the Agnes E. Fry, Spunkie, or Georgianna McCaw—known to have been lost in the area. “A new runner is a really big deal. The state of preservation on this wreck is among the best we’ve ever had,” Billy Ray Morris, Deputy State Archaeologist-Underwater and Director of the Underwater Archaeology branch said in a press release. Union forces cut off this last Confederate supply line in January 1865. To read more about nautical archaeology, go to "History's 10 Greatest Wrecks."
