Assistance in identifying artifacts from the USS Westfield:
Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:25 pm
Hello all,
It has been a long while since I have used a forum, and I hope my etiquette is up to par. Please let me introduce myself, I am the project manager for the conservation phase of the USS Westfield conservation and reconstruction project. The USS Westfield was a former Staten Island ferryboat that was converted into a warship during the American Civil War. Westfield saw much service in the Gulf of Mexico as the flagship for the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, until she met her untimely fate during the Battle of Galveston in the early hours of New Years Day 1863. Most of the wreck was recovered in 2009, in advance of a major dredging operation conducted by the US Amy Corps of Engineers and the US Naval Heritage Command. For the past 5 years, we have been conserving the remains of this warship to ensure the preservation of the artifacts recovered and to ensure the memory of those men that died aboard her.
At the completion of this project, there will be several major reconstructions built out of the surviving artifacts. We have already completed and transported a 9200 lb 9 inch smoothbore Dahlgren cannon to the final museum, where the cannon now sits on a partial deck reconstruction, complete with armored plates recovered from the ship.
The next phase is to take the massive cylinder fragments from the walking beam engine and reconstruct them on to a ghost frame to show what survived and what is missing. We started this on Monday.
The final phase will incorporate a two story boiler built out of thousands of fragments recovered from the site. Half of the display will portray a plywood reconstruction on how we believe the boiler once looked, while the other half will display the actual recovered artifacts.
Despite our best efforts, we still have numerous pieces of steam machinery that we cannot identify. We have theories, but many need the confirmation from a more knowledgeable public. I would like to start posting pictures of these artifacts in hopes that members of this forum can identify them from experience. Definitive answers will be gladly acknowledged in the final exhibit and any resulting publications.
For more information on the project, please see the link listed below:
http://www.thc.state.tx.us/public/uploa ... r-2010.pdf
All the best,
Justin Parkoff, MA
Project Manager / Conservator
Conservation Research Laboratory
Texas A&M University
P.O. Box 2827 | College Station, TX 77841
justinp@tamu.edu
(210)249-1800
It has been a long while since I have used a forum, and I hope my etiquette is up to par. Please let me introduce myself, I am the project manager for the conservation phase of the USS Westfield conservation and reconstruction project. The USS Westfield was a former Staten Island ferryboat that was converted into a warship during the American Civil War. Westfield saw much service in the Gulf of Mexico as the flagship for the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, until she met her untimely fate during the Battle of Galveston in the early hours of New Years Day 1863. Most of the wreck was recovered in 2009, in advance of a major dredging operation conducted by the US Amy Corps of Engineers and the US Naval Heritage Command. For the past 5 years, we have been conserving the remains of this warship to ensure the preservation of the artifacts recovered and to ensure the memory of those men that died aboard her.
At the completion of this project, there will be several major reconstructions built out of the surviving artifacts. We have already completed and transported a 9200 lb 9 inch smoothbore Dahlgren cannon to the final museum, where the cannon now sits on a partial deck reconstruction, complete with armored plates recovered from the ship.
The next phase is to take the massive cylinder fragments from the walking beam engine and reconstruct them on to a ghost frame to show what survived and what is missing. We started this on Monday.
The final phase will incorporate a two story boiler built out of thousands of fragments recovered from the site. Half of the display will portray a plywood reconstruction on how we believe the boiler once looked, while the other half will display the actual recovered artifacts.
Despite our best efforts, we still have numerous pieces of steam machinery that we cannot identify. We have theories, but many need the confirmation from a more knowledgeable public. I would like to start posting pictures of these artifacts in hopes that members of this forum can identify them from experience. Definitive answers will be gladly acknowledged in the final exhibit and any resulting publications.
For more information on the project, please see the link listed below:
http://www.thc.state.tx.us/public/uploa ... r-2010.pdf
All the best,
Justin Parkoff, MA
Project Manager / Conservator
Conservation Research Laboratory
Texas A&M University
P.O. Box 2827 | College Station, TX 77841
justinp@tamu.edu
(210)249-1800
