This past week, the Department of Cultural Resources' Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) in conjunction with Fort Fisher State Historic Site and the Friends of Fort Fisher worked with students from East Carolina University's Maritime History Program and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington as they catalogued and preserved artifacts from the Blockade Runner Modern Greece.

The artifacts, previously held in outdoor tanks, needed to be cleaned, recorded, catalogued, photographed and organized. The students from ECU and UNCW worked tirelessly to make sure this significant find of Civil War era objects would be preserved for the future. Among their efforts were surprising new finds of British Enfield Rifles, Bowie knives, leg irons, bayonets and other war materials, as well as household and farm items such as files, chisels, scissors, knives, forks, spoons, hoe heads and picks.

Watch their process here.