Journalist who found Clotilda wants slave ship raised and preserved; state still weighing options

By Brendan Kirby

Click here for updates on this story

    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — Ever since journalist and filmmaker Ben Raines found the long-lost Clotilda slave ship, he has been on a one-man crusade to raise the wreckage and display it in a world-class museum.

The Alabama Historical Commission, which owns the vessel, soon will release a study to determine if that can be done.

Raines does not have high hopes.

“When I hear the state archaeologist say over and over again, ‘We’re looking at preserving in situ,’ what that means is leave it in the mud to rot forever,” he said. “It’s just so short-sighted. You know, we can’t let Alabama be that stupid.”

The Clotilda, which brought back a cargo of slaves from Africa just before the Civil War, could be a marquee tourist attraction. But Lee Sentell, Alabama’s director of tourism, was noncommittal when asked whether the state should spend the money to preserve the ship and put it on display.

Sentell noted that the Alabama Historical Commission, not the Department of Tourism, owns the vessel.

“The Alabama Historical Commission is assessing what are the best ways to tell the story,” he said. “It’s a very fragile piece of history. The Historical Commission will consult with a number of experts on how best to tell the story.”

Even descendants of the former slaves who founded the Africatown community are not sure what to do about the ship.

“It’s important that we do not allow the narrative of whether to raise or not to raise the ship take away from the people,” said Jeremy Ellis, president of the Clotilda Descendants Association. “So that’s the 110 survivors of Clotilda, as well as the Africatown community.”

Timothy Meaher ordered the slave run – in violation of federal law at the time – as part of a bet that he could successfully bring enslaved Africans back to the United States. After the voyage, Meaher ordered the ship set afire and sunk in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, near where he owned large tracts of land.

Raines, a diver who had been searching for the vessel, found it in 2018. The Alabama Historical Commission, confirmed the authenticity of the ship the following year.

What to do with the ship has been the subject of intense debate. The Historical Commission commissioned a study last year. Kathryn Shoupe, a spokeswoman for the commission, told FOX10 News the study has been completed and sent to international experts for review. She said it soon will be released, first to the descendants of the former slaves to founded Africatown.

The Historical Commission last month announced it was preserving four artifacts from the ship for eventual display in the Africatown Heritage House, which opened in July to commemorate the Clotilda. Those objects are:

A lead hawse pipe from the bow. A small section of hull planking held together by iron drift pins. A section of planking that retains marks from a circular steam saw. A timber with an iron pulley and fragments of a braided metal and rope cable in the pulley from the ship’s steering mechanism. Ellis said he is content to wait for the results of that study before deciding if the ship should be removed from is murky grave and put on display.

“I think that we don’t even know if that’s possible,” he said.

Raines said there is no doubt that it is possible. He said is a matter of money and will.

“Of course it can be dug up,” he said. “It’s absurd to say it couldn’t.”

Raines said the Heritage House is a “great first step” but insufficient to fulfill his vision. He envisions a “Smithsonian-quality” museum that would serve as a memorial to the enslaved – a facility where the Clotilda would serve as the most important artifact.

Raines acknowledged that raising and preserving the ship would be costly – in the millions of dollars. But he said it does not necessarily have to be taxpayer money. In fact, he said, a private museum may be preferable. He said a possible model could be the Legacy Museum, a 40,000-square-foot private facility in Montgomery that tells the story of racial justice from slavery to “mass incarceration.”

Sentell said he is heartened by the fact that National Geographic recently named the Clotilda one of the 100 most important historical artifacts in the world. He said that is important in gaining national recognition and drawing more tourists to the state.

“It’s a story that people know locally, but nationally, not quite as much,” he said.

Raines said the story could be told so much more effectively if people could actually see the vessel.

“You know, the ship is an incredibly important, internationally significant artifact,” he said. “And the idea that there’s any possibility we would let it just lay there in the river forever is, to me, absurd.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.