By Associated Press
Charleston, SC – Conservation officials say two cannons from the CSS Alabama have been preserved at the same South Carolina lab conserving another Civil War artifact, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.
The Alabama was built in England by Southern sympathizers It seized dozens of Union merchant ships during the war, until the USS Kearsarge sank it in the English Channel in 1864.
The Charleston Post and Courier reports Friday the wreck was found in 1984. The two cannons were raised eight years ago.
Lab workers scraped away the hardened sediment on the 32-inch, smooth bore cannons and soaked them in chemicals to leech out sea salts.
Officials say that, in appreciation for the work, the Navy may allow one cannon to be displayed at a planned Hunley museum.