Surveying the Damage

The Civil War in Middlesex Exhibit Room suffered mostly water damage. The most valuable artifacts were saved. All of the exhibits were destroyed.

The Museum entrance was drenched with water and sooty debris.

The John A. Coe Memorial Library was devastated by the water to put out the fire. John’s portrait, the model of his boat Mistress Quickly were undamaged. The John Barber prints of the boat were slightly damp. The books, however, will likely be a total loss due to the smoke damage. An assessment is going on now.

The Chesapeake Boatbuilding Room–the tools in the display case were saved. Wet insulation and drywall protected items near the floor from the flames.

The Log Boatbuilding and F.D. Crockett Restoration exhibits were completely destroyed, and the models that remained were badly damaged

The Museum hallway

The W.A. John’s Pavillion and the rear half of the Museum were completely burned. The boats were completely destroyed.

The model of the Old Point, the F.D. Crockett’s sister log deck boat, was severely water damaged.

Models and other salvaged artifacts and equipment were placed in the classroom building.

Ship models from the Model Room sustained major damage

Click on the first picture for a slide show—

These pictures are by Marge Goettle, who is in charge of the John A. Coe Library.  At some point in the future she will need help to salvage the many scrapbooks of the museum’s own history. The damage is overwhelming, but so many people are moving forward. Help will be needed, even if not right at this minute.  If you wish to volunteer to help, please email the museum with your contact information and the area in which you feel you can help (Library, office support, clean-up, grounds–you can be creative in your suggestions). Phones are working, but the office is overwhelmed with setting up new equipment–we had a donation of a new printer to help David Moran get started and they are working on setting up a used computer to get systems online.

Contact:    Deltaville Maritime Museum,  P.O. Box 466,  Deltaville, VA  23043                      804-776-7200                                  museumpark@verizon.net

About these ads