The 7,000-pound main battery pivot gun of the Confederate sea raider CSS Alabama is headed to the underwater archaeology lab at Texas A&M University.
Searchers recovered the huge cannon over the weekend at the bottom of the English Channel off the coast of France where the vessel was sunk 141 years ago by a Union warship.
A team of French divers and American archaeologists found the cannon 200 feet under the water about seven miles off the coast of France.
The cannon will be placed in a specially constructed container and shipped back to the U.S. for conservation at A&M.
It took divers two weeks to remove enough sediment to excavate the old weapon.
Project officials say it's the heaviest artifact recovered from the CSS Alabama wreck site.
Under the command of Confederate Captain Ralphael Semmes, the Alabama claimed more than 60 merchant shipping prizes valued at nearly $6 million over a period of two years.
Click Here For More Information On The CSS Alabama From The Naval Historical Center
Click Here For Texas A&M University Web Site
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