Overview
- Dredging for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project unexpectedly exposed cannons in early 2021, prompting crews to stop work and bring in archaeologists and divers to recover the finds.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the recovery yielded 21 cannons and other artifacts while 17 cannons were sent to Texas A&M for conservation and officially returned to Savannah on June 3, 2026.
- Conservators at Texas A&M’s Conservation Research Laboratory spent more than three years desalinating and stabilizing the iron, removing heavy corrosion and extracting wood plugs, paper wads, cannon balls and intact gunpowder wads from inside 14 of the cannons.
- Researchers say the artifacts are likely linked to British vessels deliberately scuttled in 1779 to block French forces during the Siege of Savannah, with possible ties to HMS Savannah and HMS Venus but no conclusive ship-level attribution.
- The preserved pieces are now on public display in the Savannah History Museum’s “Loyalists and Liberty: Savannah in the American Revolution” exhibit, opened for the July 2026 250th anniversary events while reporting still varies on the total recovered count and claims about how many cannons were loaded.