United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance.
Maple Leaf as Built.
    Maple Leaf was a typical Great Lakes passenger steamship of the decade preceding the American Civil War. Her Canadian customhouse measurements were 398 tons burthen, 173.2 feet long, 24.7 feet in breadth of hull, and 10.6 feet depth of hull. The carvel-planked hull was described as "a beautiful model... she promises to be a fast-boat." The stempost was vertical with no bowsprit or figurehead and the stern was round with no quarter galleries. The hull had a single deck, with the machinery amidships, and cargo holds fore and aft.¹
    The hull structure was supported along each side inboard of the paddles by hogging frames. Hogging frames were massive arches, with the arched upper face and compression members built of ironfastened wood and tension members of wrought iron rod. They spread the thrust and weight of the engines throughout the length of the hull to prevent the distortion of the hull girder known as hogging.²
    A sponson deck extended the breadth of the main deck in a gentle curve from the bow and stern to the outside of the paddleboxes. The sponson deck was surrounded by a heavy timber guard, which was, in turn, protected by six heavy wooden fenders per side, each suspended loosely from the boiler deck above. When the ship was underway, the fenders were pulled up onto the deck edge to keep them from banging against the edge of the deck.³
    A wooden and iron windlass is mounted in the eyes of the ship on the main deck. This was the standard form of windlass mounted in merchant vessels of the period. A pair of heavy knees reinforced the forward side of the upright carrick-bitts supporting each end of the windlass. A heavy upright timber called the pawl-bitt stood on the forward side of the center of the windlass.

Superstructure
    The main deck was covered by a second deck, the boiler, promenade, or passenger deck, for its entire length. Forward of the paddleboxes, the main deck was completely enclosed by solid vertical sides. Aft of the paddle boxes, the deck was open with the ladies cabin extending from the rear center of the paddleboxes. Cargo doors were located to port and starboard on the bow. Stanchions around the edge of the main deck supported the passenger deck above.⁴
    The passenger deck held a pilothouse forward, and a central saloon 130 feet long, surrounded by passenger staterooms. The saloon table was reported to seat 100 passengers for dinner. The saloon could be cooled by opening windows in the low clerestory roof. Eight staterooms were furnished with French bedsteads and the remaining 32 with two berths each. A reporter described the furnishings:

• The saloon and ladies' cabin beneath are richly decorated with white and gold cornices and paneling, the chairs and settees cushioned with crimson plush, and curtains of crimson and gold damask.⁵

    The passenger deck was surmounted by a light hurricane deck running from the pilothouse aft. The pilothouse was raised above the level of the remainder of the, passenger deck to provide a clear view fore and aft for the pilot and steersman inside. It was roughly octagonal in shape, apparently with windows providing 360 degree visibility.

' Gerald T. Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story Prior to the Civil War," The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American
Civil War Shipwreck, Keith V. Holland, Lee B. Manley, James W. Towart, eds., (Jacksonville, Florida:
St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., 1993) pp. 68-70.

From 1856 photograph frontispiece by Edward T. Whitney in collection of Gerald T. Girvin, Rochester, New York, reproduced in Holland, et al., The Maple Leaf, p. iv.

 Alan L. Bates, The Western Rivers Steamboat Compendium, (Leonia, New Jersey: Hustle Press, 1968) pp. 98-99., 5 ,

Machinery
    Maple Leaf was powered by a vertical or "walking" beam engine. This type of engine was placed in the center of the ship, concentrating weight and thrust amidships. A single large cylinder forward of the paddle shaft drove the piston connecting rod which pushed and pulled one end of the walking beam up and down like a teeterboard. A second or crank connecting rod ran from the after end of the walking beam down to turn the crank on the paddle shaft.'
    The walking beam on the wreck today is a replacement for the one broken during an accident in 1853. It differs from the most common form of steamship beam in construction. The beam is a flattened ellipse cast in a single piece with a central web and surrounding flange for strength. Most U.S. built walking beam engines of the period had a diamond-shaped open framework; Maple Leaf's design was more common in industrial steam engines than in steamships.'
    Steam to work the engine was provided by a pair of wood-burning return tube boilers placed side by side in the hold on each side of the engine passing under the paddle shaft. The boilers are about seven feet in diameter and 27.5 feet long. Firemen threw wood into the firebox at the forward end of each boiler. Heat and exhaust gasses from the burning wood passed through flues in the boiler to the rear of the boilers, back to the front through tubes, and up large diameter, side by side smokestacks forward of the paddleboxes. Steam for the engines was taken from annular steam chambers around the smokestacks atop the firebox ends of the boilers.8

1856 Edward T. Whitney photograph op cit.
Toronto Daily Patriot, October 10, 1851, quoted in Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story," pp. 71-72.
Cantelas, Maple Leaf.- The 1993 Field Investigations, Draft manuscript, pp. 39-54.
Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story Prior to the Civil War," p. 76; T. E. Crowley, Beam Engines, (Aylesbury, Bucks: Shire Publications, Ltd., 1976) passim; Frank J. Cantelas, "Maple Leaf: The 1993 Field Investigations," draft copy of report produced for St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., by the Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, pp. 51-53.

Cargo: Associated Material Culture
    At the time of her loss, Maple Leaf was carrying most of the baggage of three U.S. Army infantry regiments; the stock of at least two sutlers; a Brigade headquarters; and gear and baggage of several smaller attached units. The military units included: the 112th New York Volunteers; the 169th New York Volunteers; the 13th Indiana Infantry Regiment; and the headquarters of Foster's Brigade of Vogdes Division. The baggage included tents and other equipment of the military units as well as material belonging to individual soldiers. l°

t° Cantelas, Maple Leaf.- The 1993 Field Investigations, p. 105; Towart and Witt, "The Maple Leaf as a Union Army Transport," pp. 14-17; D. K. Ryberg, "Regiments with Baggage Aboard the Maple Leaf," in The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck, pp. 31-42.

11 Cantelas, Maple Leaf: The 1993 Field Investigations, p. 105.
12 James J. Miller, "The Sociology of a Shipwreck Project," The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck, Holland, Manley, Towart, eds. (St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., 1993) pp. 125-126.

Steam propulsion came to the Great Lakes in 1816, when the American-built Ontario and the Canadian-built Frontenac began operation on Lake Ontario. Using the hull design of existing Great Lakes sailing vessels, early steamers were otherwise quite similar to Eastern river steamships, with side paddle wheels amidships supported by extended sponsons, and large deckhouses for passengers. The first steam vessel completely adapted to the Great Lakes was Great Britain of 1830, with a bluff bow, square stern, side-by-side boilers and smokestacks, and a full main deck superstructure surmounted by a canopied promenade deck.'

Still, Watts, Rogers, "The Advent of Steam Navigation in the United States." pp. 68-72; Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States, pp. 187-191, 202.

Career on the Great Lakes
    Maple Leaf worked on several different passenger routes across and along the length of Lake Ontario during her first four years. Then in 1854, with the company in severe financial straits, Donald Bethune left the country, absconding with the company's operating cash. The company stumbled on for a while but in April 1855, the remaining partners sold Maple Leaf and the charter on another steamer to a new joint stock company centered in Rochester, New York.'

Mills, Our Inland Seas, pp. 151-163; Gerald T. Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story Prior to the Civil War," The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck, Keith V. Holland, Lee B. Manley, James W. Towart, eds., (Jacksonville, Florida: St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., 1993) pp. 86-95.

Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story Prior to the Civil War," pp. 63-67.


Girvin, "The Maple Leaf Story Prior to the Civil War," pp. 67-71.

Maple Leaf Sold to United States Owners
    As the American Civil War began, tensions between the United States and Canada increased. Maple Leaf was placed in an awkward position by trading between the two neighbors. United States Army recruiters offered bounties to young Canadian men to join the Federal service-many accepted. The sympathies of many other Canadians ran with the Confederacy. On the Fourth of July 1862 a riot broke out when Maple Leaf arrived to carry Canadians to the American celebrations. Cheers for Jeff Davis and Beauregard joined with cries that the band booked for the excursion play "Dixie" as well as "Yankee Doodle."¹⁰
    The worst business conditions in Maple Leaf s career brought an end to her service on the Great Lakes in mid August 1862. Captain Schofield and his partners sold her for $25,000 to Lang and Delano of Boston, who in turn chartered the steamer to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Department. The way in which Maple Leaf entered U.S. registry to serve in the war is uncertain. This sale gave an American company and subsequently, the United States government, control of a vessel still legally registered in Canada.           Maple Leaf steamed out of the lakes and down the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic to Lubec, Maine.
    Lubec was a small, out-of-the-way port, where conversion for Maple Leaf s new duty would be inexpensive and rapid. Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. Johns, New Brunswick, were full of blockade runners under repair, while most U.S. ports were fully engaged in building or preparing ships for war."

Civil War at Sea
    The Civil War was not only fought on the well-known battlefields of the nation; it was also fought at sea, on the coasts, and along the rivers. The history of this part of the great struggle has been largely neglected. Only two naval vessels, USS Monitor and USS Tecumseh, are represented in the National Historic Landmarks Survey. Twenty-eight more vessels associated with the Civil War are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
    The policies followed by the Union and Confederate naval leaders throughout the Civil War were formed according to several requirements. One prominent naval historian summed up the parameters:

...certain variables have always been at work. At any given time the task of the navy's leaders has been to assess their relative weight when constructing a policy and strategy. The most prominent of the permanently interacting variables-or elementsinclude the external political and economic environment; the policies of the president and his advisors, whether in peace or in war; the temperament of the Congress as the putative embodiment of the people's will; the state of warship technology, that is, hulls, propulsion systems, and armament; the attitudes and competence of the officer corps; and the prevailing concepts about the nature of naval warfare."

Power Projection
    The United States had used naval power directly to force a favorable outcome in the conflict with Mexico, where no real naval opposition was encountered. Naval forces blockaded enemy coasts and convoyed troop transports to directly assault enemy territory. These . operations provided valuable experience for the next national conflict. During the Civil War, officers used that experience in boldly executed offensive operations to expand the role of sea power in attaining national goals.
    Union naval strategy called for a progressive separation and defeat of southern areas in detail. The first act of the Union naval command was to establish blockades off Confederate ports. This was followed by efforts to stop commerce raiders; naval gunfire support of army operations, particularly amphibious operations such as those on the outer banks of North Carolina and at Port Royal, South Carolina; establishment of supply bases close to operating areas; fleet operations against coastal forts; convoy of particularly valuable merchant vessels; operations against enemy naval units; and assaults on major southern seaports.
    Larger naval vessels of the Union navy such as the sailing frigate Cumberland and the steam sloop of war Kearsarge were designed for operations in deep waters against enemy warships. The north discovered early in the war that vessels of these types, which made up the bulk of the navy's fleet, were not well suited to many of the tasks that they would be called on to perform in the coming struggle. These vessels required large crews, deep water, and prodigious amounts of fuel -to operate. To win the war the North would have to build new types of warships and convert others from commercial vessels.

Chartered to U.S. Army
    Maple Leaf was chartered to the Army on September 3, 1862, the day after her purchase. The contract was signed by Charles Spear for the owners and Captain W. W. McKim for the Army. The charter was intended to last only the brief period of time needed to transport

Work in the South
    On June 10, 1863, while off the Virginia coast, underway for Fort Delaware, Confederate officer prisoners of war overpowered the guard and took over the steamer. They guided the steamer to a point below Cape Henry, Virginia, where they landed and set the vessel free. The escaped prisoners made their way to Richmond and the capture placed the steamer Maple Leaf in the newspapers. l'
    Maple Leaf continued to carry troops from place to place along the Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coasts, into 1864. One particular center of operations was Port Royal, South Carolina, the Union Army encampment on the barrier islands of South Carolina.

18 Daniel Ammen, The Old Navy and the New (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1891) pp. 362-365.
19 Daniel Ammen, The Navy in the Civil War: The Atlantic Coast (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883) pp. 68-71.
z° James Russell Soley, The Navy In the Civil War: The Blockade and the Cruisers (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883) p. 124.

• First. Procure an outlet for cotton, lumber, timber, etc.; Second. to cut off one source of the enemy's commissary stores; Third. to obtain recruits for the negro regiments; Fourth. to inaugurate measures for the speedy restoration of Florida to her allegiance.21

'3 Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959) vol. 1, p. 195, vol. 3, p. 1449; D. K. Ryberg, "Regiments With Baggage Aboard the Maple Leaf," The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck, Keith V. Holland, Lee B. Manley, James W. Towart, eds., (Jacksonville, Florida: St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., 1993) pp. 31-39.
Z' Dyer, Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, vol. 1, p. 198; Ryberg, "Regiments With Baggage Aboard the Maple Leaf," pp. 39.
'5 Dyer, Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, vol. 1, p. 134; Ryberg, "Regiments With Baggage Aboard the Maple Leaf," p. 39.

Confederate Torpedo Service
    Among the rebel reinforcements sent to Florida was Army Captain E Pliny Bryan of the Confederate Army Torpedo Bureau. This was a secret organization that developed a system of explosive devices for use in warfare. Although experiments and some field trials of subterranean and submarine torpedoes had produced promising results, no military force had developed a system for their use. The Confederate Torpedo Bureau and the related Submarine Battery Service developed the weapons and their placement which produced a result far out of proportion to the financial cost and numbers of people involved.
    On the night of March 30, 1864, Captain Bryan and five soldiers from the Second Florida Battalion planted twelve torpedoes in the St. Johns river channel near Mandarin Point. The torpedoes, called mines today, were buoyant wooden kegs anchored to float out of sight beneath the surface. Each mine held 70 pounds of fine grain gunpowder in a keg detonated

Maple Leaf transported the personal belongings and camp equipment for three regiments, the headquarters of General Robert Foster, and considerable sutler stores with her to the bottom. This cargo has great potential to provide information about the ordinary material used and kept by soldiers in the field.

The sinking of Maple Leaf immediately led to the beginning of regular patrols of the river by naval gunboats and armed Army transports. Ships kept carefully in the path "swept" by the lead ship. Troop transports were convoyed by gunboats, which could provide covering fire if ambushed. On April 17, after the discovery of another type of torpedo in the river, the Union abandoned Palatka. Despite the patrols, a second Army transport travelling in

I James W. Towart, and Col. J. V. Witt, "The Maple Leaf as a Union Army Transport," and Richard A. Martin, "The Great River War on the St. Johns," in Keith W, Holland, Lee B. Manley and James W. Towart, eds., The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck (Jacksonville, Florida: St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., 1993) pp. 15-17, 23-26.

29 John Townsend Bucknill, Submarine Mines and Torpedoes As Applied to Harbor Defence (London: Offices of Engineering, 1889) pp. 1-4.

30 George B. Balch to S.C. Rowan, April 1, 1864, ORN, ser. I, vol. 15, p. 307; Telegram from Patton Anderson to Thomas Jordan, April 1, 1865, ]bid., p. 316; Naval History Division, Navy Department, Civil War Naval Chronology, 1861-1865 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971) IV-37.

convoy, General Hunter, was sunk by a torpedo near the wreck of Maple Leaf during the withdrawal on April 17.32

Dealing with the Wreck

The Civil War left a number of sunken vessels blocking southern rivers and harbors; Maple Leaf was but one of hundreds. Those that could be salvaged profitably were sold by the Treasury Department, leaving other more dangerous or less valuable wrecks to be cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Treasury Department advertised Maple Leaf and two other wrecks for sale on September 20, 1870, but found no buyers."

That left the Corps of Engineers the responsibility for clearing waterways of the torpedoes, obstructions, and sunken vessels that prevented safe navigation. On November 17, 1882, the Corps of Engineers contracted with Roderick G. Ross of Fernandina, Florida, to "remove" the wreck to a depth of 18 feet. Wreck removal as practiced by contractors following the Civil War meant clearance of underwater obstructions by any means practicable. Wrecks could be. raised and removed completely, blasted flat on the bottom, or any combination of the two."

Ross apparently removed the portions of the hogging frame above the main deck, protruding parts of the machinery, and the remaining superstructure by February 1, 1883. He was paid $3,880 for his work over the winter. Ross missed one part of the wreck and was awarded an additional contract in 1883 to remove the offending wreckage. The wreck continued to appear on maps as late as 1911, disappearing from notice thereafter until 1984.3s

Relocation of the Wreck

In 1984, a Jacksonville dentist, Keith Holland, and other professional and business people interested in historic shipwrecks located a wreck tentatively identified as Maple Leaf. The group matched satellite imagery of the St. Johns to historical charts and searched in a small area that they believed held the remains of the Union transport. That year, they formed

Saint Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., (SJAEI) as a for-profit company, that being the easiest route to forming an organization to secure rights to excavate the wreck."

Dr. Holland and others in the group contacted experienced professional archaeologists, historians, and conservators in their quest to carefully excavate and conserve the material they had located. SJAEI had difficulty in determining which government agency had jurisdiction over the wreck; they filed suit to claim salvage rights to force resolution of the issue of ownership of the wreck."

The wreck was found to remain the property of the United States Army and administered by the General Services Administration. The State of Florida was found to have no legal claim to the wreck, but was acknowledged as an interested party in the careful excavation, conservation, and curation of the material that might be collected from the wreck.

The suit resulted in a compromise agreement wherein SJAEI could proceed with excavation, receiving 80% of all material recovered. The United States Army and the State of Florida would each receive 10% of the recovered material: Florida would lend archaeological and conservation expertise to the project. The result of this agreement has been a most extraordinary archaeological project. SJAEI, although a for-profit company entitled to sell 80 % of what it recovered, has kept the archaeological material and records together without dispersal. Dr. Holland describes the SJAEI Maple Leaf project as a public trust which deserves to remain intact as a collection.38

By 1989, the early guarded expressions of interest from state and Federal historical preservation professionals evolved as well, eventually resulting in substantial grants to the project from the state of Florida and the U.S. Army .39 This funding has been used for excavation, conservation, storage, and publication of results. Lee Manley, a skilled divemaster, was hired to organize the project full time and set up a conservation laboratory in Jacksonville. Another significant step was the initiation of a cooperative agreement between SJAEI and East Carolina University (ECU). ECU provided Frank Cantellas as the

'8 "St. Johns Archaeological Expeditions, Inc., plaintiff, vs. The Unidentified, Wrecked and Abandoned Steam Vessel Believed to be the vessel Maple Leaf," and "Stipulation for Compromise Settlement," United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Case no.: 84-1383-CIV-J-16, as reprinted in Appendix D, Holland, Manley, Towart, The Maple Leaf, An Extraordinary American Civil War Shipwreck.

39 Stephen W. Sylvia, "Introduction" to Dr. Francis A. Lord, "Underwater Time Capsule: The Wreck of the Maple Leaf," in North South Trader's Civil War, (May-June, 1992), p. 30; William E. Marden, "500 get first look at Maple Leaf artifacts," The Florida Times-Union, (Jacksonville, Florida: October 27, 1988).

full-time archaeological manager to oversee planning and execution of a succession of three summer field schools carrying out documentation of the shipwreck structure.'

Conclusion

The Maple Leaf site possesses great potential to add to our knowledge of the past. Florida State Archaeologist James J. Miller calls Maple Leaf "a vitally important shipwreck" and says of the archeological project:

No underwater archaeological project in Florida has even come close to the Maple Leaf in representing a model for public and private sector cooperation, or for public benefit."

4° George A. Threewitts, "East Carolina Divers Probe Civil War time Capsule," Underwater USA, (December 1991) p. 28.

United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

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Mueller, Edward A. St. Johns River Steamboats. Jacksonville, Florida: Edward A. Mueller, 1986.

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Neeser, Robert Wilden. Statistical and Chronological History of the United States Navy, 17751907, 2 vols. Research and Source Works Series, no. 507. n.p., 1909; reprint ed.,New York: Burt Franklin, 1970.

Nulty, William H. Confederate Florida: The Road to Olustee. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1990.

Reed, Rowena. Combined Operations in the Civil War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1978.

Ridgley-Nevitt, Cedric. American Steamships on the North Atlantic. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1981.

Roper, Stephen. Handbook of Land and Marine Engines Including The Modeling, Construction, Running, and Management of Land and Marine Engines and Boilers. Bridgeport, Connecticut: Frederick Keppy, Scientific Book Publisher, 1875.

Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies, (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989.

Spratt, H. Philip. Handbook of the Collections Illustrating Marine Engineering. South Kensington, London: Science Museum, n.d.

Tyler, David Budlong. Steam Conquers The Atlantic. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939.

Whittier, Bob. Paddle Wheel Steamers and their Giant Engines. Duxbury, Massachusetts: Seamaster Boats, Inc., Book Division, 1983.

United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

The site dimensions extend 600 feet radius from the UTM Reference Point of 17 434450 3336345.

The Maple Leaf's hull is essentially intact. The boundary of the site is based upon visual examination and magnetometer surveys. The wreck is stable, with little natural deterioration, and the site has suffered no erosion. Due to salvage work done in the 1880s, it is possible that some of the upper decking and artifacts may be scattered within the radius.