the loss of 16 crew. Even more poignant are the remnants of an officer’s coat that were found draped over one of the two gun carriages. “This is probably what one of the crew took off to keep from being dragged down as he went into the water,” Marcie Renner, the museum’s chief conservator, told me during another visit. Pretty exciting stuff, slowly materializing after 147 years of submerged history.
On the bike ride back to the marina, we take a faster route, heading west toward Deep Creek, but this time past the modern and growing Christopher Newport University and the impressive I.M. Pei designed Ferguson Center for the Arts, one of the most highly regarded performing arts venues in the region. It’s nice to know that you can stop at Deep Creek or Leeward and go, whether by bike or taxi, to a world-class museum or performing space.
One of the lesser known