Blog > What's in the mud !?
What's in the mud ? An old Sunken Hull !
I am sure many of us living in Mount Pleasant have heard the name "Sawyer" ! "Ben Sawyer" Boulevard is one of our roads connecting parts of Mount Pleasant from East to West. Nice neighborhoods are easily accessible incl the new development "Bentley Park" with just 44 homes starting in the mid 500's. Amazing location with all the convenience just a walk or a short bike ride away.
"Sawyer" was the name of a vessel, commissioned in Oct 1919 ! It was the first concrete passenger vessel made in America. The 700-ton, 128.5-foot ship, was able to carry 500 people. Nine vessels of this type were built from 1919-1920 by the Newport Shipbuilding Corp. of New Bern, N.C. and they were made from steel and ferro cement.
In 1923, Joseph Sable brought the decommissioned "Sawyer" together with another ship the "Maj. Archibald Butt" to Charleston. In 1926, the "Sawyer" sank near Adger’s Wharf and its wreck created long-term problems for port authorities who called her the “old sunken hull.” Eventually, and after many unsuccessful attempts, the "Sawyer" was raised in June 1929. The old hull was towed to its current site at the Mount Pleasant harbor site and has remained there as an iconic fixture.
Brigadier General James Estcourt Sawyer, born in New York in 1846, came from a distinguished military lineage. He enjoyed an amazing career from the time he joined the military at a young age of 19. Soon he was Acting Judge Advocate of the Division of the Atlantic and Department of the East. He later served as Aide de Camp to Gen. Schofield. During the Spanish-American War, he was Chief Quartermaster at several military posts. Sawyer served as Special Disbursing Officer to the Philippine Commission and as a member of the Spanish War Claims Board in Washington, D.C. He eventually retired as Brigadier General and Chief Quartermaster at the Department of Dakota in 1910. He died on May 29, 1914, in New York and is buried in Burlington, VT.
Wow ! Such interesting facts for anyone interested in history, and we have a lot of that here in Mount Pleasant.
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