Raising the USS Cairo from its watery grave required a car crash and a quiz show, the famous historian who helped find the ironclad told a crowd Friday night at Vicksburg National Military Park.
About 100 people packed the auditorium of the park Visitor Center to view a film on the life of historian Ed Bearss and pick the brain of the 91-year-old who began his National Park service career at VNMP. Most of the questions focused on Bearss’ work with the USS Cairo, which he, Don Jacks and Warren Grabau discovered in the Yazoo River in 1956.
“A neighbor of mine owed me a favor. Her boyfriend, who was not married to her, was Bart Tully. Bart Tully was bringing her home and touched the accelerator and crashed his car into the rear of my car,” Bearss explained in his booming, gravely voice.
Tully told Bearss not to report the crash and that if he ever needed a favor just let him know.
“Bart, who owned Anderson-Tully, had some very valuable equipment,” Bearss said.
Bearss cashed in his favor to borrow equipment from Anderson-Tully to help raise the ironclad that sunk in the Yazoo River in December 1862.
A $20,000 donation came in from a cigarette distribution company, and Bearss won the other $20,000 use in the project on a television quiz show.
“The Vicksburg Chamber of Commerce sponsored me to go on a quiz show,” he said.
On Veterans Day 1956, Bearss, Jacks and Grabau set out with a World War II military compass in search of the Cairo.
“It changed its reading 180 degrees, so that indicated that something large, something that had a lot of iron was down there,” Bearss said.
The ship could be raised without much fuss from the government because no one had been killed in the naval mine explosion that sank the Cairo on Dec. 12, 1862.
“The Navy views vessels where men lost their lives as tombs. You would have a hell of a problem if you ever tried to raise the Tecumseh down in Mobile Bay because the Navy would view it as a tomb,” Bearss said.
Raising the Cairo was just one of Bearss’ many achievements detailed in the film “American Journey: The Life and Times of Ed Bearss.” Bearss was raised in rural Montana, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II where he was wounded at Cape Gloucester’s infamous Suicide Creek.
After the war, he graduated from Georgetown University and went to work for the National Park Service at Vicksburg National Military Park in 1955. He worked here for nine years before becoming Chief Historian for the park service.
He retired from the park service in 1995 and still leads private tours about 250 days out of the year.
“I came to Ed about four years ago and asked him if he would be interested in a documentary on his life. He looked at me strangely for about five seconds and said, ‘Well, let’s do it,’” said David Currey, director and producer of the film.
Production of the film took about two years and premiered in June at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
“We spent probably in total about two years and about 30 hours total just interviewing Ed alone about his life,” Currey said.
Copies of the film are available for sale at Vicksburg National Military Park.