- (December 2006) COLUMBUS. Ga. - "We are a naval museum without a ship...until you step inside." This is a big obstacle to getting more visitors to the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, according to museum Executive Director Bruce Smith.

(Once inside the museum, visitors can marvel at the impressively displayed 225-foot long wooden hull recovered from the ironclad CSS Jackson.)

The most frequent comment the museum staff hears from visitors is: "I never expected it was something like this." "I can't tell you how many people say this when they come to the museum," Smith remarked. He's confident they'll like what they see once they come inside, but attracting them in the first place is the issue.

The museum is about to embark on a project that it hopes will attract visitors - construction of a historic paddlewheel steamer with two 90-foot masts.

Other naval history museums have ships outside to serve as a magnet for visitors, such as Patriot's Point in Mount Pleasant, S.C., across the harbor from Charleston. They have the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and several smaller ships to attract attention. The sailing sloop USS Constellation in Baltimore, Md., which served in the Civil War, is a ship and floating museum rolled into one.

The museum is on Victory Drive in downtown Columbus, a heavily traveled thoroughfare, just six miles down the road from the Army's Fort Benning. "Thirty thousand cars daily drive by - we need something instantly recognizable," Smith emphasized. "There's nothing that says or gives a clue as to what's here."

The initial plan was to build a full-scale above the waterline replica of the ironclad CSS Atlanta by the highway. The hull at the waterline would be about 200 feet long. The casemate, which is what people would see from the highway, would be approximately 90 feet long and 12 feet high, with a smokestack and pilothouse on top.

Just to be sure he was on the right track, Smith contacted some marketing consultants in March 2005. "We spent $25,000 for a comprehensive market study," he recalled. "They used focus groups in Atlanta."

Apparently the cross-section of people in the focus groups saw the rectangular black structure with guns coming out of the sides and thought it was something else instead of a Civil War ironclad.

"They didn't get it," Smith said with bewilderment and exasperation. "They thought it was a fort."

Back to the drawing board for Smith. In December 2005 he unveiled the new concept for the ship. It is the wooden sidewheel steamer Water Witch, a ship that was a Union blockader until it was captured in a daring nighttime raid by Confederate sailors and marines on June 3, 1864.

The Water Witch was launched in 1851 and commissioner in the winter of 1852-53. In 1864 it was armed with a 30-pdr. rifled gun, a 12-pdr. rifled gun and two 12-pdr. smoothbores.

Smith lists the Water Witch's advantages:

"First, it has a Georgia story." Before it was captured, it was part of the Union blockade off the Georgia coast. After its capture, it was absorbed into the Confederate Navy's Savannah Squadron. The Confederates were dismayed, however, to learn that it's draft was too deep for it to get to Savannah. Eventually, like so many other Confederate warships, it was destroyed to prevent its capture by advancing Union forces.

"Second, it has a blood and thunder story." The sneak attack which resulted in its capture is quite a tale.

"Third, it has an African-American story." The pilot who led the Confederates to the ship was Moses Dallas, a local pilot and slave. One the Union men killed during the battle was a black sailor.

"The Water Witch will be an education and programming platform," Smith explained, with living history on the ship. The museum holds several living history events throughout the year where living historians explain the skills and life of a Civil War-era sailor. It also hosts a School of the Sailor Summer Camp for children.

The Water Witch will be a full-size replica of the exterior of the 158-foot long ship from the waterline to the top of the masts. The interior will not be recreated. The deck will have naval guns that can be fired.

The new Water Witch is not going to be a static display. The ship won't move, but its paddlewheels will turn in pools of water and smoke will belch from its smokestack.

The ship's other method of propulsion will be shown as well. "It will have 90-foot masts, with sails," Smith said. He made a survey of museum sites with masted ships and came to a surprising conclusion. "There was a 25 percent increase in visitation if you have sails up."

"Increasing visitation is one of our top priorities," Smith remarked. "The museum has to generate revenue."

An average of 28,000 paying visitors come to the museum each year, which is double the annual count before the museum moved into its new facilities in 2001. Prior to that it was known as the Confederate Naval Museum and was housed in an old, cramped, damp concrete building nearby.
We average more than $8 per visitor, which is big for a history museum," Smith noted.

The museum receives 20 percent of its funding from the city of Columbus, 20percent from annual contributions and 60 percent from "walk-ins," according to Smith.

The projected cost of the new Water Witch was $962,000. "We trimmed that down to $750,000 or less," Smith pointed out. "We have $250,000 in small donations. We will build in phases. Sometime this fall we will break ground." Construction time is estimated to be eight months.

The fundraising campaign, which began quietly in March, went into high gear this summer. Increasing levels of support for the construction of the Water Witch can be purchased, with a "deck plank" costing $100, a "pilothouse" for $250, a "sidewheel" for $500, "bow sprit" for $1,000 and "main mast" for $5,000 or more.

More than just drawing people to the museum, Smith sees the new Water Witch possibly becoming something bigger. "We hope it's going to be an icon for the city," he said. He wants it to be so common and recognizable that people will use it as a reference for giving driving directions, such as "Turn left at the first light after the big ship."

The replica Water Witch in 2006 will be the first full-sized warship built in Columbus since the ironclad CSS Jackson in 1864.

For more information or to contribute to the Water Witch Project, phone the museum at (800) 742-2811 or visit their website www.portcolumbus.org.

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