Georgetown, SC and Rice!

We spent today in Georgetown, because for the next few days there won’t be much to go see. 

We went to the Rice Museum where the Brown’s Ferry Vessel remnants are located.  It sank in the 18th century in Black River carrying 25 tons of bricks made on a plantation. Artifacts, including green glass English wine bottles, oars, millstones, iron pots, a straight razor and smoking pipes made of gourds.  The items enabled historians to date the time of its sinking to between 1730 and 1740. This period is about 50 years earlier than previous American shipbuilding discoveries.

Model of Brown’s Ferry Vessel 

The ribs are made from cypress trees by the water that were plentiful here in South Carolina.  The planks on the sides were hewn by ax and are all the same thickness.  I’m not sure how you do that with an ax. 

Remnants of Brown's Ferry Vessel

We also learned about rice growing in South Carolina.  The planters bought 40,000 acres of land along the fresh waterways.  Enslaved people from Africa used their skills to get the rice crop growing, since rice was a big part of their diet in Africa.  First they had to remove the cypress trees, which was not an easy task.  The cypress tree roots are all interconnected and they support each other.  So it was difficult to take down just one tree.  

While the rice crop was getting established, planters relied on indigo as their cash crop, so that they had money coming in.   Our docent told us that once rice was established,  the planters were making buckets of money, in the millions.  That was truly amazing back in the mid-1800’s.  

Rice crops along the waterfronts

Planters grew indigo as the cash crop while waiting for rice crops to get established.

The museum is housed in an old general store, so they had many items that were used in the store.

Take a look at this cash register.  The pictures are the front and back of it. Do you notice anything about it?  It seems to me that the cash drawer is backwards, right?  Do you know why? Answer ~ it took 2 employees to open the cash register.  One on each side, so theft was more difficult.

Back of the cash register.  Why is the drawer there?

Model of the trunk dock.  These were used to control the amount of water going to the rice fields.  

This clock tower is the symbol of Georgetown and owned by the rice museum.  They told us to unhook the chain and go in to see the inside of it.

We found another authentic Mexican restaurant.  These are tacos.

Notice the pilings this afternoon.  They’re taller with the tide out.

Pilings at the marina yesterday.