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Diamond-encrusted pieces pose mystery

BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier Staff

     In February 1864, before stepping into the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley for the last time, sub commander Lt. George Dixon stuck two valuable trinkets deep inside his pocket for safekeeping.
     They weren't items normally found with any fighting man. In fact, it was odd for anyone in the impoverished South to possess something this ornate. Both were made of the finest gold and covered in brilliant diamonds.
     One was possibly a man's pinky ring with nine diamonds, the other a decorative brooch with 37 diamonds. No one is sure what they meant to Dixon, but he carried them to his death.
     Last week, archaeologists excavating the submarine discovered the jewelry hidden in the sea muck that surrounded Dixon's body for nearly 140 years.
     Why Dixon possessed the jewelry is a mystery. It is not clear if they were meant for a man or a woman. It is possible the ring and brooch were his and that he simply had a flair for the ornate. Historians already suspect Dixon, in his 20s, liked the finer things in life, given the quality of the clothing he wore in the sub.
     "This man, George Dixon, was dressed for destiny," Hunley Commission Chairman Glenn McConnell said Wednesday at a news conference announcing the find. "It puts George Dixon in that category of one of the last cavaliers."
     But it could also be that one or both of the items were meant to be gifts for his girlfriend, Southern belle Queenie Bennett of Mobile, Ala.
     "If that's a female pin, he expected to see her again," McConnell said.
     Experts from the Smithsonian Institution are now researching19th-century jewelry habits to explore the possibilities.
     Jesse Woods of Barry's Jewelers in North Charleston, who has examined both pieces, doesn't think they were made by the same person, but said they probably were meant for the same person because of their similar style. "Both of them are showy," he said.
     The ring is made of gold, possibly 18 or 24 carat, and has nine diamonds - one half-carat diamond surrounded by eight smaller ones that total about half a carat. The diamonds are high quality. The cut is old mine. The diamonds could have come from anyplace. "From Russia to Africa," Woods said.
     The style is similar to today's ring known in the jewelry industry as a "Kentucky Colonel," Woods added, meaning it is something meant to be flashy and ornate. The ring appears to be of English origin and likely was imported. It's about a size six, which means it's probably a pinky ring - if it is a man's ring. There is also a cut mark in the band, indicating that it was sized to fit.
     The ring today would cost more than $1,500 retail, not including its historical value, Woods estimated.
     The gold brooch, which is about the size of a nickel, has 37 diamonds: one in the middle surrounded by six smaller ones, which are surrounded by 30 smaller diamonds. The brooch is about 2 carats and would cost about $3,000 today, Woods said.
     Officials are wary of making any statements about their significance until the items can be further studied.
     "It's important to note these were just excavated last week, so no scientific evaluation has begun," said Warren Lasch, chairman of Friends of the Hunley, at the conservation lab news conference.
     Though the excavation of the sub's interior is long finished, the ring and brooch were discovered this late in the project because much of Dixon's remains had to be "block-lifted" out of the sub in tight muddy bricks. The items were removed to a laboratory where the lighting is better and there is more room than in the confined quarters of the tiny submarine.
     Archaeologists are now sifting through more than 40 blocks looking for personal items, clothing and bone matter. Officials hope to bury all eight Hunley crewmen sometime next fall.
     Archaeologist Maria Jacobsen said the jewelry pieces were found wrapped between two layers of cloth as if for "safekeeping." They were resting beneath Dixon's right thigh bone, which meant they probably were kept in a jacket or maybe a pants pocket when the sub sailed for the last time.
     Because gold and diamonds don't corrode like other objects in a historical find, conservation is not a major concern. "From a conservation standpoint, it's very high-quality gold," Jacobsen said.
     Lasch said the plan is to put the items on display along with most everything else pulled from the sub. The discovery also comes as one of the sub's earlier stunning finds - Dixon's $20 Lady Liberty gold coin that stopped a bullet at the Battle of Shiloh and saved his life - goes on display this weekend for the first time as part of the tours at the Hunley lab in North Charleston.
     The hand-cranked submarine became the world's first successful attack sub on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, when it rammed a black powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic, 4 miles off Charleston Harbor. The sub never returned.

NOTE: By MisterGWP    Dr. E. Lee Spence discovered the Hunley in 1970 and will be credited as the first to find her. It was re-discovered in 1995 by a dive team funded by best-selling adventure-author Clive Cussler using Spence's coordinates and raised off the ocean floor in 2000.
    
 

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