08/28/2026
Brown’s Ferry Vessel Recovery—50th Anniversary
Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of South Carolina’s most remarkable underwater archaeology milestones.
In 1976, thousands gathered along the Black River at Brown’s Ferry Landing—and many more watched on television—as an early Colonial sailing vessel was lifted from the river after centuries beneath its waters.
Discovered in the early 1970s by sport diver Hampton Shuping, the vessel lay entombed beneath approximately 10,000 handmade bricks, its final cargo. Built of local pine, live oak, and cypress, the small double-masted vessel is believed to date to the mid-1700s.
Under the direction of State Underwater Archaeologist Alan Albright and Ralph Wilbanks of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology’s Underwater Archaeology Division, the shipwreck emerged from the Black River in a specially constructed lifting cradle.
Its preservation journey was equally extraordinary: temporary storage near Columbia, transfer to a purpose-built USC facility, and two decades of conservation in polyethylene glycol (PEG). At one point, its conservation tank was the largest in the world.
Today, the Brown’s Ferry Vessel and several of its associated artifacts are preserved and displayed at the Rice Museum in Georgetown.
If you are walking along Georgetown’s waterfront, stop in to see this unique example of South Carolina’s maritime past—and visit the nearby South Carolina Maritime Museum for its model, bricks, and additional shipwreck history.
