View of south end of Cape Island in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina. The remains of the Civil War-era steamer Planter are located within sight of an 1857 lighthouse. 
 
 The wreck of a ship once commandeered by slaves and sailed to freedom during the Civil War has very likely been found. 
 
 The shipwrecked Planter almost certainly rests beneath 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) of sand and water off Cape Romain between Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this week. The ship went down in 1876, 14 years after its enslaved captain and crew ran it out of Charleston Harbor and turned it over to the U.S. Navy. 
 
 The story of the Planter is one of heroism. The ship was completed in 1860. The next year, an enslaved young man named Robert Smalls came aboard as a deck hand. Smalls had more freedom than most slaves, and was allowed to keep some of his pay and move around the Charleston waterfront with some autonomy. (Smalls may have been his owner's son, according to his descendants. Smalls' mother was a slave in the home of a man named John K. McKee, and the family suspects that McKee's son Henry, who inherited the pair of slaves in 1848, fathered Smalls.) [See Images of the Planter and Shipwreck Site] 
 
 Audacious plan 
 
 Robert Smalls, who piloted the Planter to freedom during the Civil War. Credit: Library of Congres 
 
 Smalls worked his way up to the position of wheelsman — the person who steers the ship. During the Civil War, the Planter was rented to the Confederates and used as a supply, transport and dispatch ship, running cannons, soldiers and other wartime necessities along the coast. Most of the crew were enslaved African-Americans. 
 
 The idea of commandeering the ship started as a joke, Smalls would later tell Harper's Weekly magazine. But soon it turned quite serious: The nine African-American men of the crew met in secret at Smalls' house and planned their escape. They put away provisions in the hold and waited for their chance. 
 
 It came on May 12, 1862. The ship had just returned to Charleston Harbor after picking up some cannons from nearby Cole Island. The plan was to deliver the weaponry to Fort Ripley the next day. That evening, however, the white men in the crew went ashore for a soiree. Smalls and his crew jumped at the opportunity, first steaming to pick up their relatives in the North Atlantic wharf and then sailing right out of the harbor. Smalls blew the ship whistle at the Confederate checkpoints, convincing those guarding the harbor that the ship was simply getting an early start on the day's deliveries. 
 
 "Once out of range of the rebel guns the white flag was raised, and the Planter steamed directly for the blockading [Union] steamer Augusta," Harper's explained in June 1862. 
 
 Heroism and loss 
 
 Smalls delivered the Planter and the 16 escaped slaves on board to the U.S. Navy. He then piloted the ship in action against the Confederacy, and was later transferred to pilot other ships in a new post in the U.S. Army. He'd have another brush with heroism in 1863, again on the Planter. The ship was moving supplies along Folly Island creek near Charleston when it came under heavy shelling from Confederate guns. The captain of the ship ordered that the ship be beached and abandoned his station. Smalls instead piloted the Planter to safety. As a result, the ship's captain was dismissed, and Smalls promoted. He was the first African-American to become a ship captain in the U.S. military. [Shipwrecks Gallery: Secrets of the Deep] 
 
 After the war, the Army sold the ship to a private company, which turned right around and sold it to its original owner in South Carolina, John Ferguson. The ship soon went back to its pre-war duties delivering supplies up and down the South Carolina coast. Smalls went on to represent South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
 
 In 1876, the Planter was attempting to tow a ship that had run aground at Cape Romain up the coast from Charleston. In the process, the Planter hit a shoal and sprung a leak. The captain beached the ship in hopes of repairing the hull, but a storm blew in and battered her beyond repair. The crew salvaged everything they could, including pistons, life boats, engines, cabin doors and even blankets and mattresses. 
 
 Rediscovery 
 
 Shifting sands have long covered the remains of the Planter, and the site of the wreck was lost. NOAA's Maritime Heritage Progam set out to find the wreck, reviewing original accounts of the accident and historic charts of the shoreline as it was in 1876. Once a likely location was pinpointed, NOAA researchers used a magnetometer towed beneath the water in search of large quantities of iron. 
 
 The found one such cluster 9 feet (3 m) below the ocean bottom, near where the shore would have been when the Planter wrecked. The area is environmentally sensitive (Cape Romain, up the coast from Charleston, is home to a national wildlife refuge), so attempts to uncover the wreck will need to be taken with care, NOAA reported. What's more, the Planter is likely fragmented from the relentless beating of the waves. The state of South Carolina will decide whether to excavate the ship's remains or to simply mark the spot in remembrance of this storied vessel. 
 
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 NOAA identifies probable location of iconic 
 
 Civil War-era steamer 
 
 Former slave piloted Planter to freedom 
 
 Planter at Georgetown, South Carolina. (Credit: Naval History and Heritage Command) 
 
 NOAA announced today it has determined the probable location of the remains of the Civil War-era sidewheel steamer Planter, which gained national fame in 1862 when a group of enslaved African Americans commandeered the Confederate Navy transport ship in a daring escape to freedom. 
 
 The announcement was made in Charleston, South Carolina, where NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries released a report on its search for the Planter and plans for an interpretative sign and future exhibit dedicated to the Planter’s legacy. The effort to find the Planter supports NOAA’s Voyage to Discovery initiative, which seeks to highlight African-American maritime history through education, archaeology, science and underwater exploration. 
 
 Under the leadership of Robert Smalls, the ship’s steersman, crew members navigated the steamer out of Charleston Harbor on May 12, 1862, and delivered the vessel to the United States Navy. The New York Herald called the escape “one of the most daring and heroic adventures since the war was commenced.” 
 
 The notoriety generated by the escape and capture of the Planter led to Smalls eventually becoming the first African-American master in the U.S. Navy and a member of Congress representing South Carolina – the state where he was born a slave. NOAA’s report helps fill gaps in the largely untold story of Robert Smalls and the Planter, which wrecked on a beach in March 1876 while trying to tow a grounded schooner. 
 
 
 
 In an attempt to answer lingering questions about the Planter’s fate, NOAA researchers reviewed historical documents and analyzed oceanographic and meteorological conditions that may have existed at the time of the Planter’s loss. The likely site where the vessel came to rest, off Cape Romain between Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina, was confirmed with magnetometer and hydro-probing surveys that detected the presence of large concentrations of iron consistent with the remains of a sunken ship. The vessel’s remains are buried under 10-15 feet of sand and water in an environmentally sensitive area. 
 
 “Our interest in finding the Planter is about more than just unlocking the past and secrets of the deep,” said Daniel J. Basta, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries director. “This expedition is an opportunity to highlight African-American contributions to the country’s maritime heritage and inspire young people to consider careers in marine science to help expand the boundaries of ocean exploration.” 
 
 NOAA's report, "The Search for Planter," is available online. (Credit: NOAA) 
 
 Following Smalls’ commandeering of the Planter on May 12, 1862, the ship continued to be used by the U.S. Navy as a dispatch and supply vessel with Smalls as pilot. However, by September of that year, the Navy transferred the craft to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, where it supported Army operations around Charleston, Port Royal and Beaufort. 
 
 News accounts suggest that after the war, Smalls and the Planter were well known among local African Americans. As the Planter’s captain, he transported many freed slaves to newly created farmsteads and communities at Hilton Head and Port Royal. With Smalls at the helm, the Planter was reported as the ship that carried black dignitaries and passengers to the ceremony of the symbolic raising of the Fort Sumter flag which had been lowered after the fort’s capture by the Confederates. 
 
 On March 25, 1876, while trying to tow a grounded schooner, Planter sprang a plank in the bow and began to take on water in the hold. The captain elected to beach the steamer and repair the plank, hoping to get off the beach with the next high tide. However, stormy seas battered the Planter as the tide rose and the ship was too badly damaged and had to be abandoned. Upon hearing of its loss, Robert Smalls was reported to have said that he felt as if he had lost a member of his family. 
 
 A copy of the report and media images will be available for download at: http://www.voyagetodiscovery.org/planter.htm. 
 
 
 
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 Additional Photos ||||| Smalls then raised a white shirt or tablecloth as a sign of surrender to the Union ships blockading Charleston Harbor. The commanding admiral was so impressed with the escapade that they offered Smalls a job as pilot of the Planter, which was turned over the Union Army as a transport. 
 
 Smalls became a cause célèbre in the North, and was tapped to recruit black slaves to form units to fight against the Confederacy. He eventually was elected to Congress. After the war, Smalls and the Planter were well known among local African Americans. As the Planter's captain, he transported many freed slaves to newly created farm communities at Hilton Head and Port Royal. 
 
 The Planter returned to service as a cotton cargo hauler along the South Carolina coast. It ran aground off Cape Romain in 1876 during a salvage operation and in time, its exact location became forgotten. 
 
 NOAA officials resurrected the Planter search in 2008. Underwater archaeologists believed they found the ship in 2010 in 12 feet of water and 10 feet of sand in Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. Because the ship lies inside an important sea turtle breeding area, it’s not likely that it will be salvaged. 
 
 NOAA and NABS put together this website about the history of Smalls, the Planter and other ships during the slave era.
– After the American Civil War, a storied ship was wrecked off South Carolina. Now, experts believe they've found the remains of the Planter, a Confederate supply ship commandeered by its crew of slaves and turned over to the Union, LiveScience reports. The ship's wheelsman, in charge of steering, was one Robert Smalls, whose "knowledge became vital to the Confederates," an expert tells Discovery. The crew at first joked about commandeering the ship, Smalls later said, but eventually the slaves decided to take real action. When the crew's white men were partying offshore in 1862, Smalls and Co. made a daring break for it, picking up relatives as they escaped. They turned the Planter over to the Union, and Smalls continued to operate it as it fought the Confederates. He became the US military's first African-American captain, and eventually a US congressman. Years after the war, in 1876, the ship was damaged in a storm near Charleston and buried in sand. NOAA researchers have likely rediscovered it using a magnetometer to trace its iron. Now, South Carolina could excavate it—or install a tribute at the site. A plaque has already been made, Reuters reports. (Another shipwreck off South Carolina appears to house plenty of gold.)