Siding repair in Isle of Palms, SC

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) — As beach days return to the Lowcountry, a delicate balancing act is underway on the Isle of Palms, where efforts to combat coastal erosion must contend with Civil War history resting just offshore.

About a mile out in murky Atlantic waters lie the remains of ships sunk more than 160 years ago. They were part of the Union Navy’s effort to choke off Charleston during the Civil War. Today, those same wrecks are shaping how engineers restore the island’s eroding shoreline.

In a quiet basement lab at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, toothbrushes, teacups, ceramics, bullets and even bones sit carefully cataloged in boxes.

They are artifacts recovered from blockade runners and vessels connected to what became known as the First and Second Stone Fleets.

“During the Civil War, the Union Navy instituted a blockade of Southern ports. In South Carolina, that really manifested in Charleston trying to prevent blockade runners from coming in,” James Spirek, state underwater archaeologist, said. “The blockade runners are bringing military goods and then also commercial goods, consumer goods to the South and to keep the army going.”

To strengthen the blockade, the Union purchased aging whaling and merchant vessels, filled them with stone, and deliberately sank them in key shipping channels leading into Charleston Harbor. The first fleet obstructed the main ship channel. When runners adapted, a second wave of ships was sunk off what is now the Isle of Palms.

“It was an obstacle course,” Spirek said.

Smugglers still tried to slip through the shallow beach channels. Some didn’t make it.

“The Georgiana, in this case, it’s spotted and it’s chased by the Union by and the blockade was, you know, firing heavy cannons at it. And so apparently it did disable the vessel. And then the captain, the Georgiana, wrecked onto a shoal.”

A year later, another ship, the Mary Bowers, wrecked onto the Georgiana. On sonar scans, the two form an X on the seafloor.

“And so we, you know, like to say that X truly marks the spot,” Spirek said.

Divers who first documented the wrecks in the 1960s described murky water and cargo seemingly frozen in time. When archaeologists returned decades later, visibility remained limited, sometimes only a few feet.

But even in dark water, history is visible.

“There’s still information out there and it’s amazing what can be preserved,” Spirek said.

He calls the wrecks “nonrenewable resources.”

“We’re not going to get, hopefully, another American Civil War,” Spirek said. “So these things are never going to be made or anything of that nature. So that’s why we look to preserve them.”

While history rests offshore, erosion is eating away at the island’s shoreline. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Isle of Palms are planning a major beach renourishment project expected to begin this summer, with an estimated cost of $30 million.

“If we don’t restore the beaches, the erosion starts to threaten the critical infrastructure: homes, buildings, parking areas, public use areas. And then we end up with a lot of storm damage,” Steven Traynum, president of Coastal Science and Engineering, said.

Beach renourishment involves dredging sand from offshore and pumping it onto the shoreline. But not just any sand will do.

“Beach sand has to be a certain character. It’s got a certain grain size, certain color or certain texture. And we try it when we’re doing dredging projects and beach restoration. We’re trying to match the native sand as much as we possibly can,” Traynum said.

Some of the best beach-quality sand sits near the historic wreck sites.

“We’re trying to avoid the, the most critical area where we know most of the wrecks are, even though there’s some really good sand there,” Traynum said.

Removing too much sand near a wreck could destabilize it. Changing currents could scour away protective sediment, exposing fragile wood hulls to faster deterioration. To prevent that, archaeologists and engineers establish buffer zones, essentially invisible circles around known shipwrecks and magnetic anomalies.

“If it’s a known shipwreck where you know what the ship is, we put a very large buffer around that because we don’t want to get anywhere close,” Traynum explained.

Spirek says the process is rooted in federal law when federal funding is involved, requiring consultation and cultural resource surveys before dredging begins. If something significant is found, work can be adjusted.

For engineers, it’s about stewardship as much as construction.

“The worst thing we want to see is a historic artifact come through that dredge pipe,” Traynum said.

Ironically, ships once sunk to blockade Charleston are still influencing the coastline today.

Spirek notes that in previous debates over renourishment, headlines joked that the Stone Fleet was “still blockading” the coast.

More than 160 years later, the obstruction is no longer military; it’s historical.

“It’s really just a balance. I don’t see why we need to just blow through shipwrecks just because they’re in the way,” Spirek said.

Above water, waves continue their slow work of reshaping the shoreline. Below, wooden hulls rest in sand and shadow, remnants of a naval battlefield few beachgoers will ever see. The challenge for the Isle of Palms is not choosing between beach and history: it’s protecting both.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCIV) — On the Isle of Palms, concerns among the community are growing over firefighter and paramedic staffing.

The wife of an Isle of Palms paramedic is sounding the alarm about coverage during medical emergencies. She claims that if the city doesn't make changes soon, there could be serious consequences during emergencies when lives are on the line.

"We lost quite a few firefighters last year," said Danielle Murphy, whose husband has been a firefighter for more than a decade.

READ MORE | "Continued seawall dispute on Isle of Palms raises environmental concerns."

According to her, when he joined the Isle of Palms Fire Department, his starting salary was low. She believes that pay is the reason for staffing shortages.

There are currently six firefighter-paramedics employed, according to the Isle of Palms city website.

Murphy, however, contends they are down to three and two more may be leaving soon for better-paying jobs.

"We have three paramedics left and that is for two different fire stations," she said.

Isle of Palms said it has three open paramedic positions. They could not confirm the current salary for those employees.

Murphy has asked the Isle of Palms City Council to reconsider its budget, but has not found much success, she said.

City officials declined to comment on the matter.

Paramedics are crucial in providing critical care that EMTs can't.

READ MORE | "Isle of the Palms weighing funding options to renourish beach."

There was a four-day stretch with no paramedics working at the fire department, Murphy said.

"This is dire and people can die," she said. "The council has constantly brushed this off."

Isle of Palms officials officals hope the current wage and competition will attract more firefighter-paramedics, they said.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) — The City of Isle of Palms is bringing back one of their committees after a four-year hiatus.

The committee had its last meeting in 2022, ceasing to meet again after the city restructured its committee system. The City Council introduced workshops as a replacement to go over projects and finances in an additional meeting before voting.

Now, the council has asked the Ways and Means Committee to return so they can have a meeting strictly for finances.

“Our codes allow us some flexibility to rework our workshops and spend more time on the financial aspect of it as opposed to some of the projects or items needing approval,” Isle of Palms Mayor Philip Pounds said. “So, we’ll take those items for approval straight to a council meeting as opposed to stopping at a workshop and having some conversation.”

The committee would once again replace the workshops, meaning councilmembers would only see projects one time before voting.

Pounds believes the city has been successful with the workshop format, but said he received feedback from the council, who asked for a change.

Because of this, it’s coming back in April to give council more time to focus on project finances, such as drainage, beach restoration and road improvements.

“You know from a financial standpoint, we look at it every month,” Pounds said. ”We look at our results every month. We look at our cash position every month, but I’m very comfortable with where we sit from a budget in a reporting standpoint.”

The city has already started to restructure their meeting for a smooth transition.

The city hopes that adding back the Ways and Means committee could potentially streamline project financing, but they plan to continue to evaluate the process.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) — A property owner on the Isle of Palms has appealed a judge’s order to remove a seawall he built, leading to new legal battles after years of controversy.

All parties involved filed appeals following a Dec. 30, 2025, decision by Judge Ralph King Anderson III ordering the removal of the man-made structure as it violates state coastal protection law.

The case has since been transferred to the Court of Appeals. Property owner Rom Reddy, the Coastal Conservation League, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services all submitted appeals.

Reddy also filed a motion to stay, which would allow the wall to remain in place until the Court of Appeals issues a final decision.

The seawall first sparked controversy in 2024 over erosion concerns and questions about how to properly protect homes while preserving the environment.

The original court order included a detailed timeline and corrective action requirements for removing the structure and restoring the beach. However, it declined to reinstate the $289,000 civil penalty originally assessed by the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. Both the department and the law project are seeking that penalty in their appeals.

Lori Cary-Kothera, the chief conservation officer at the Coastal Conservation League, said in a statement that illegal seawalls offer an illusion of protection while guaranteeing long-term destruction.

“They harden one slice of shoreline at the cost of the living, dynamic beach system that actually provides natural storm protection,” Cary-Kothera said. “Enforcement of the beach regulations is critical.”

Reddy said he would not have needed to build the seawall if there had been more protection and restoration of the sand dunes when asked back in 2024.

“Our appeal is focused on ensuring that the full legal framework and evidentiary record supporting that outcome are accurately and completely addressed on review, including the Coastal Tidelands and Wetlands Act’s protections for natural beach dynamics and the enforcement authority the law provides, so that the full range of remedies necessary to protect South Carolina’s coast is preserved,” Leslie Lenhardt, the law project’s senior attorney, said.

Environmental advocacy groups say this type of seawall would only bring further erosion to beaches and go against state law. They said it also blocks public beach access.

ISLE OF PALMS — Although two Civil War-era shipwrecks that sit a mile off the coast of the barrier island aren’t a new discovery, they present another hurdle for the city as the start date for work on a large-scale renourishment project approaches.

It hasn't been smooth sailing for the Isle of Palms as the city prepares for the $32 million project.

City leaders are already facing a $10 million funding gap for the work, and they hope to avoid dipping into tourism accounts to fill it.

Project leaders with Coastal Science and Engineering, the city’s contracted firm leading the renourishment work, say they’re facing new challenges, too, with updated restrictions from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service around turtle and seabird nesting season that could impact when and where construction takes place.

On top of all that, the city’s coastal engineers in charge of the upcoming beach renourishment must maneuver around the wreckage sites to access the necessary 1.7 million cubic yards of sand offshore.

Shipwrecks the result of Union blockade

The wreckage is what remains of an attempt by Union powers to block Confederate ships from running the Charleston Harbor during the Civil War called the Stone Fleets.

In the early 1860s, Union forces bought dozens of former whaling and merchant ships, weighed them down with heavy stone and granite and scuttled them — sinking them intentionally in a checkerboard pattern.

James Spirek, an underwater archaeologist with the University of South Carolina’s Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, surveyed the wreckage of the Stone Fleet in 2013.

“These obstructions were intended to frustrate the passage of blockade runners bringing war material and other sundry products from Europe and returning laden with cotton, rice and naval stores,” Spirek wrote in a 2013 survey report about the Stone Fleet.

The hope was that the scuttled ships would bolster the small number of vessels tasked with enforcing the blockade, according to reports from the Maritime Research Division at USC.

Thirteen of those vessels were sunk as part of the Second Stone Fleet, their masts stripped down and some set ablaze as they sank.

These ships were meant to block the entrance to the harbor and cut off access as ships tried to make their way through Maffitt’s Channel, the channel into the harbor near Sullivan’s Island.

The strategy was ultimately regarded as ineffective. Quick-shifting sands and strong tides destroyed many of the sunken ships.

“The ships broke apart and pieces washed ashore, a new channel supposedly scoured out, and blockade runners bypassed the obstructions with minimal diversion,” Spirek wrote in his 2013 survey report.

But some Confederate ships succumbed to the blockade and the Stone Fleet.

In 1863, a 205-foot-long Scottish-built ship called the Georgiana was spotted by the Union blockaders. The ship would have had to navigate the Second Stone Fleet while trying to quietly slip into the harbor unnoticed — an attempt that ended in Union gunfire.

The sinking of the Georgiana was reported as a “disaster” in the Charleston Mercury, the newspaper that wrote of the incident in 1863.

The captain ran the ship aground on the Isle of Palms, then called Long Island Beach, to evade capture, the paper reported. It was further destroyed by Union forces and stripped of its contents, which consisted of ammunition, rifles and battle axes.

About a year later, another blockade runner called the Mary Bowers hit the remains of the Georgiana. Sonar images show the ships are situated in the shape of an ‘X,’ with the Mary Bowers sitting on top of the Georgiana, roughly five feet below the surface at low tide.

Wreckage presents a new challenge

Today the two ships, along with remnants of the Second Stone Fleet, are also situated within an ideal borrow site for the island’s beach renourishment projects. Renourishment is completed with the use of long pipes, which take sediment from offshore and pump the material onto the beach.

The sand here is compatible with the Isle of Palms shores, and there’s plenty of it — enough to last 30 or 40 years, city council learned last summer.

The shipwrecks are valuable cultural resources and regarded as such by the State Historic Preservation Office. But their location—smack dab in the middle of a plethora of fresh sand for the deeply eroded island—means crews will need to work around them in order to dredge sand.

It’s an issue that engineers ran into while gearing up for the 2018 renourishment on the island. But additional research into the shipwrecks, and advancements of sonar imaging, have helped get a clearer picture of the wreckage.

These advances allow crews to get closer to the shipwrecks and retrieve the necessary 1.7 million cubic yards of sand offshore for the upcoming renourishment work.

“It's a cultural resource, and so we're working with (the State Historic Preservation Office) to avoid those areas. Previously ... that whole area was off limits,” Patrick Barrineau, a coastal science with CSE, told city council last summer. “It frees us up from a lot of previous restrictions that we've experienced off IOP.”

Project leaders anticipate work could start on June 1 or earlier, with construction ending in the winter.

In this timeframe, the city will more than likely have to juggle the beach-wide construction while managing peak tourist season — another hoop for the Isle of Palms to jump through as the island tries to recover from widespread erosion.