[CH] Don't know much about history...
danceswithcarp (dcombs@bloomington.in.us)
Sun, 18 Jul 1999 10:39:19 -0500 (EST)
Pepper Sauce Trivia
On the Combs Family Summer Tour 1999, Pat and I stopped at Vicksburg
National Battlefield Park, as touring these War Betwen The States places
is one of our hobbys. One of the really cool things about Vicksburg is the
salvaged federal gunboat *Cairo* is on display there.
The Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo river in December of 1862 by an electrical
mine. No one was killed even though the ship when down in 12 minutes
and only the tops of the smokestacks were visible above the water to mark
the spot. In order to keep the Confederates from salvaging the guns and
armor the Union sailors destroyed the smokestacks and the Cairo was lost
for over a century.
In the 1970s the Cairo was found intact covered in Yazoo river mud and a
huge salvage operation took place, raising the entire ship in two pieces
(it broke). Inside the ship was pretty much every personal item and naval
issue the Cairo sailors had carried because the ship sank so fast no one
had a chance to recover anything. Jars of medical tinctrues were found
still sealed and tests showed that different alcohols, ammonias and
opiates were still pure.
Also found was a sailor's personal bottle of "pepper sauce." Tests showed
that it was still edible but the archeologists/scientists report said it
wasn't real palatable to taste or to look at.
carp
ps: Must've been DIS.