Thursday, January 25, 1990
For Maple Leaf salvage, year ahead is make-or-break time

Off Mandarin Point, under about 30 feet of murky St. Johns River water, silt and old- fashioned mud, lies what Civil War history experts call a "national treasure."

If lip service could bring up and preserve that treasure, it would already rest  -  complete with explanatory labels - in rows of glistening glass cases on display at museums, having been treated to keep it from crumbling after removal from the underwater environment.

However, in Jacksonville where city officials have been looking for a "Project X" that would put the city on an attraction map, little help has been forthcoming for salvaging the largest volume of Civil War artifacts anywhere.

Measured in hundreds of tons, many of these artifacts are packed away in boxes bearing the names of their soldier owners from at least two Northern regiments. These belongings became time capsules after the Maple Leaf, in the early morning of April 1, 1864, hit one of 12 mines, each containing 70 pounds of small-grain powder, planted by the Confederates off Mandarin Point. Now, 125 years later, some of the boxes have been opened.

Even with less than 1 percent of the cargo salvaged, historians have been amazed at the historical richness of the find. The St. Johns River had been a jealous custodian for all the intervening years.

Money is needed to bring up, in an orderly fashion, this historical treasure, and then to preserve it. Jacksonville dentist Keith Holland has stretched his resources and those of his fellow salvors to the limit in carrying the project this far.

The whole thing has been handled remarkably well by Holland and St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions Inc. From the location of the wreckage, painstaking historical research and the tough task of obtaining salvage rights to groping through pitch blackness and mud in the vessel's cargo hold and then the preservation of the finds, the operation has been keyed to the preservation of what is discovered.

Jacksonville now has its own self-taught cadre of experts in both underwater salvage and in Civil War relics.

Denied state historical preservation funds last year, it appears the group will be successful this year in seeking about $175,000 for conservation and interpretation of the 1,300 pounds of material already recovered.
The key need, however, is for funds to carry on the salvage work itself. Holland makes no bones about what the future will look like if there is no help in bringing up the vast amounts that remain in the cargo hold.

"We're fighting for the survival of our company," he said. "It is costing too much money. Without help, within a year we won't be able to carry on.

With more than 399 tons of materials still underwater, what has been brought up so far is merely enough to tantalize. There are bound to be many surprises and many more break through in knowledge about the Civil War era in what, if anything, follows.

Judging from the condition of legible news paper pages already salvaged, it is very possible that readable regimental records may be recovered.

Experts, sent by the Army to look at what has been found, marveled at the contents and their state of preservation. They recommended a push by Holland and his group to spread news nationally of the find and its importance.

Given the obviousness of the cargo's importance, certified by every expert who has viewed what has been removed, it is amazing that financing for further salvage has not been made available close to home.

It's much less expensive to dream about a non existent "Project X."