Lead Pig from the Confederate blockade runner Modern Greece
date: label: associated date
content: 1862
name: label: maker
content: Newton Keates and Company
notes: label: Description
content: This lead ingot, or pig, was part of the cargo of the blockade runner Modern Greece, which sank off of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, on 27 June 1862. The Modern Greece was out of Falmouth, England, supposedly bound for Tampico, Mexico, but its real destination was Fort Fisher to supply the Confederates. As the ship tried to avoid fire from the Union ships patrolling the inlet, it ran aground and sank. A good deal of the cargo, which also included munitions, gunpowder, liquor and clothing, was retrieved by Confederate soldiers; other items, like this ingot, sank with the ship and were retrieved a hundred years later when a storm caused the sand covering the ship to shift, allowing divers to salvage from the wreck.
label: Description
content: The ingot is inscribed “Bagillt Works/ Newton Keates & CO Liverpool”. Newton Keates & Company was based in Liverpool, but had a smelting factory in Bagillt, Flintshire, North Wales, on the banks of the river Dee. This area was rich in mineral deposits, and was home to many extraction enterprises. Most likely, the ingot was bound for a Confederate arsenal in South Carolina or Georgia, to be melted down and used for ammunition.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Naval
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.59428-N(1)
label: accession number
content: 267814
label: catalog number
content: 59428-N(1)
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Ingot
label: Object Type
content: ingot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, lead (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 33 in x 5 1/2 in; 6.35 cm x 83.82 cm x 13.97 cm