Impressive 9.75" long copper spike recovered from the warship USS New Hampshire, presented on a 12 x 9 wooden mount, which bears three affixed brass plates, one reading: “Paul Revere Spike, From Sunken Wreck, U.S.F. New Hampshire." The other two plates indicate that the spike was presented to Joe Gallant, “North Atlantic Scuba Pioneer,” by the Underwater Club of Boston in 1983. In fine condition.
This spike was wrought by the Paul Revere foundry between 1816-1818, and was found in the wreckage of the U.S.S. New Hampshire off of Half Way Rock near Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. The vessel, initially named the Alabama, was authorized by Congress in 1816 as a 74-gun ship of the line and laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Maine, in June 1819. Although ready in 1825, she remained on the stocks until 1863, when she was renamed (being a Union ship) as the USS New Hampshire and went to sea on June 15, 1864, as a storeship with the blockading fleets off the Southern Coasts. In 1905, she was renamed again as the Granite State and was used as the armory of the First Battalion of the New York Naval Militia.
