When I was a kid, they had the Cairo at the Ingles Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi and my father and I would regularly go by and look at it - on the one hand I thought it was pretty cool but it also looked like a giant pile of scrap iron under constant wetting by fire hoses to keep it from further deterioration. I never dreamed they would put it back together to this level - amazing.
That's awesome to hear. I can't wait to meet him! @Jackson'sArm and I have been trying to get in on an Ed Bearss tour for 3 years now, and things have always come up that prevented it... but it looks like it's actually going to happen this time. Meanwhile, I'm trying to whip myself into shape so I can keep up with his legendary pace. It'd be a little embarrassing if a youngster like me got left in the dust by someone who's 93!
I saw Ed Bearss speak at Vicksburg in 2013. He was talking about the surrender of Vicksburg while standing at the surrender site in the park. He started pacing back and forth on top of that hill. He closes his eye quite a bit while talking and I though he was going to take a step too far and fall off the hill.
So true...if they don't do that eventually all the original wood will deteriorate to dust and nothing will be left but the iron parts. They have already had to remove the original gun carriages because they deteriorated to the point they couldn't support the weight of the guns anymore.
Our tour with Ed Bearss will include the Cairo. To hear the story of the boat's resurrection straight from the horse's mouth... won't that be something!