Water Ways

Charleston's history is the story of water, the element that surrounds it and that has determined its growth, prosperity and, sometimes, destruction. When the H.L. Hunley was raised from the depths of the harbor, Charlestonians were again reminded of their ties to the element that embraces the city.

The H.L. Hunley Confederate Submarine (courtesy Friends of the Hunley)

Hidden at the bottom of Charleston Harbor for 130 years, the Hunley was located and raised from the seabed off of Sullivans Island in 2000 and has been reposing in a chemical bath at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center ever since while restoration and analysis continues. It's appropriate that this landmark vessel - the first working combat submarine to sink another ship, the Union's USS Housatonic - resides in what became, fifty years after the Hunley's loss, a major supply and repair base for the United States Navy.

The land on the west bank of the Cooper River was originally intended to be Chicora Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, co-creator of New York's Central Park; but in 1901, the city of Charleston agreed to appropriate the land to the federal government for use as a naval base, which remained in operation until until it was decommissioned in 1996.

The naval base, circa 1960

It began life as a dry dock for the repair of naval ships, but began actually building warships in the 1930's and during World War Two, when the keels were laid for two of the largest ships ever built at the yard - the destroyer tenders USS Tidewater and USS Bryce Canyon. A modern descendent of the Hunley, the USS Conger, put in at the base for repairs in 1948, along with German submarines captured during the war that the Navy altered and repaired. At its wartime busiest, the Navy yard employed nearly 26,000 workers.

The Power House (c) S.C. Picture Project

Quite a few of the old naval structures survive at the site, from the impressive 1908 Power House that drove the huge pumps that drained the dry docks, to the crumbling former Marine barracks, the base dispensary, and a restored non-denominational chapel, The Eternal Father Of The Sea.

The Dead House

And there's something even older than the Hunley at the site - the "Dead House", a brick structure dating from the Revolutionary War, when it used by the British as a powder magazine. It's thought the grim name is from a period when the building was used as a temporary morgue.

Today, the Navy Yard's future remains unclear. It's currently owned by a developer who plans a multi-use community with residential and commercial units, including repurposing some of the existing structures; and Clemson has built, alongside the Conservation Center, an energy research center and a graduate studies building. But history goes deep here, and will hopefully be preserved.

A Light In The Dark

With winter darkness arriving earlier in the afternoons and lasting longer in the mornings, Charleston Harbor can be especially dangerous for late-arriving ship traffic. It means one of the harbor's longest-serving beacons, the Morris Island Lighthouse at the mouth of the Harbor, is especially welcome. Even though it's officially decommissioned, this landmark off the tip of Folly Beach continues to flash a welcome to arriving traffic.

There's been a beacon at the site since Charleston's earliest days, when English settlers kept a fire burning, fed by oakum and pitch, to guide arriving harbor traffic. It was followed by a towered beacon which rose on the island in the early decades of the 18th century, replaced by a much taller one with a Fresnel lens beacon erected in the 1850's, only to be torn down by the Confederacy when South Carolina seceded to prevent it from falling into the hands of Union troops during the Civil War.

The lighthouse and keeper's cottage in 1935. (Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)

The present lighthouse dates from 1876, and was fully automated in 1938 when beach erosion and rising water levels threatened the keeper's lodging, which was torn down. But by 1962 the Coast Guard had decommissioned the lighthouse as continuing erosion threatened the structure's stability. It passed through several private hands until being acquired in 1999 by Save The Light, which leases the lighthouse from the state's Department of Natural Resources and works works to maintain and preserve the lighthouse. You can learn more about the lighthouse's long history here.

The lighthouse has been a popular destination on our SINHG Trips calendar for several years, and is on the schedule for a visit late this spring.

Silver Shells

With Thanksgiving behind us, the holiday season is in full swing. Adding to the holiday spirit for shellfish lovers is the start of peak season for oysters and oyster roasts, with "r" months stretching ahead into next spring. Some less traditional oyster lovers may scoff at what seems like another quaint custom, but there's actually some proof that this r-restricted dictum may not only be scientifically valid but quite ancient.

Fossilized snail parasites

Research conducted by the Florida Museum of Natural History at a 4,000-year-old shell ring on the Georgia coast shows that the native people responsible for these mysterious rings up and down the southeast coast were harvesting oysters during the fall, winter and early spring, but not during the summer. The timetable was determined by studying the remains of parasitic snails attached to oyster shells. The snails have a known life cycle of twelve months, so by measuring the length of the stylus the snails insert into the oyster shell, researchers could extrapolate when the host oyster had been collected and its shell deposited at the ring.

The ancient nomadic hunter/gatherers responsible for shell rings likely moved inland during the summer, the research suggests, partly because experience had taught them that oysters harvested in the summer months were watery and shrunken, although they might not have known the cause - that the oyster's reproductive cycle peaks during the summer and leaves the mature animals weak and emaciated. The harvesting cycle at these shell rings may be the earliest example of sustainable aquaculture, letting oyster populations replenish before returning to them in the autumn.

Oyster farmers keep sustainability in mind

Written cautions against eating raw oysters during the r-less summer months appear in an English cookbook of 1599, when reliable refrigeration methods were far in the future but sickness from consuming the food in the hot months was well-documented. Modern harvesting and icing methods help get around that danger; but, still, many oyster farmers suspend market shipments in the summer until young oysters spawned during the warmer months help re-establish populations.

So celebrate this r-marked holiday and new year, and be sure to sustainably dispose of oyster shells at designated collection points, where they'll be collected and used to seed new beds. There are two nearby sites managed by the SCDNR - on Wadmalaw Island at Bears Bluff Fish Hatchery, and on Johns Island at Gilligans Restaurant on Main Road.