Charleston South Carolina

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Hot and humid is what we have here again. We are driving north but it isn't helping. We are in Charleston and went to town today. Another beautiful and historic city. It also dates back a ways. Even more than Savannah by about 90 years. We were at a plantation today that dates back to the late 1600's. It is called Magnolia. It was a rice plantation of about 2000 acres in it's day. It was and still is owned by the Drayton family. Something like 11 generations of them. It has not been a plantation since the Civil War. It is now known for it's gardens and historical tours. As you can see there are still a few of the slave quarters in the pictures. They were actually a little nicer than I thought. They were occupied right up until the mid 1990's. Not with slaves of course but with descendants of slaves that stayed on but now work for pay. They have nicer accomodations now. The main house is really something and there is a picture of it from the outside but no photograghy was allowed inside. It backs right up to the water.
Now we actually started our day on the tour bus to get an overview of the city. Our tour guide was a bit hard to understand. He took us through the historic district for about 90 minutes. We saw the house used in the Movie "Patriot" with Mel Gibson as well as John C. Calhouns place. You can see out to Ft. Sumter where the first shot of the Civil War was fired. We are going out there tomorrow on the boat. Otherwise it is one beautiful Antebellum home after another and they are all nicely preserved or restored. I will get a few pictures of those tomorrow.
We also saw the CSS Hunley. That is the very first submarine. It was recovered a few years ago and it is sitting in a 90,000 gallon tank of water while the scientists restore it. 137 years on the bottom have taken it's toll. Once again no photography was allowed so you will have to take my word for it or google it. It was risky business. 8 guys crewed the thing. 7 of them all turned a crank that turned the prop by way of a chain and gear like your bicycle. A candle burned for a little light and when it went out it was time to surface for air. Pretty high tech. It sank 2 or 3 times and they kept bringing it back up, getting the dead crew out and trying again. It had a successful attack and sank a Union ship called the Houstonian with it's "torpedo" but did not return. Historians and scientists are still trying to figure out why it did not come back. Okay then, more tomorrow when we go to town and out to Ft. Sumter.

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Photos

Main house
Parts of it go back to the late 1600's.

Slave Quarters
Pretty nice eh?

Marilyn
Checking out the slave quarters. She thought they were nice too and could easily live there.

Marilyn
In the garden on the walking trail.

Marilyn
in front of main house.

Marilyn
out back of main house where it backs up to the water.

CSS Hunley Crew
These recreations were made from the remains of the crew.