CSS Neuse Interpretive Center to host first Shipbuilding Saturday
Sink or swim, Saturday will be a good day for history buffs, boating enthusiasts and anyone interested in learning a little more about the CSS Neuse.
The CSS Neuse Interpretive Center will be hosting their first Shipbuilding on Saturday.
“The reason we chose the date,” Matt Young, site manager, said, “is it’s the anniversary of when the contract was awarded to the shipbuilding firm that built the Neuse. It was awarded on Oct. 17, 1862, and Howard and Ellis were the shipbuilders.”
The day will include lectures, crafts and exhibits related to the art of shipbuilding.
“Paul Fontenoy, the curator of Maritime History at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort is going to be coming and doing two lectures, one in the morning and one in the afternoon,” Holly Brown, site interpreter, said.
Dave Stone, historical interpreter two, will be leading a shipbuilding craft session for children.
“They’ll get to build and decorate a model,” Brown said. “We have them in pieces where they can put it together.”
Two guests will be talking to attendants about different aspects of shipbuilding. An antique wooden yacht restorer will show how fastenings were done and how to caulk a wooden boat.
“When these boats were built, you had gaps in between the planks,” Stone said. “You can’t really make them fit perfectly so you have to make a caulking in it, which is driven in, in this case, on the Neuse, they used cotton to caulk it with. In the olden days of sailing ships, they usually used the ropes that were undone and driven into the cracks to make the boats water tight but that oakum was in short supply because of the blockade and the South had plenty of cotton and it’ll do.”
There will also be a steam engine collector on hand to talk about how boats like the Neuse were powered when they were built, Stone said.
The event begins at 10 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. For more information, contact the CSS Neuse Interpretive Center at 252-522-2107.
Jennifer Cannon can be reached at 252-559-1073 or at Jennifer.Cannon@Kinston.com. Follow Jennifer on Twitter @JennCannonKFP.