Harrisburg gives up its warship

[jeff of pa]

Remains of the Royal Savage, a ship commanded by Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War, stored in a Harrisburg garage in 2009


HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The City of Harrisburg is giving up its battleship.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse says he’s turning over the artifacts of the Royal Savage, a ship once commanded by Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War, to the U.S. Navy for restoration.
The Royal Savage, a two-masted schooner, was the flagship of Arnold’s fleet. Taken from the British in battle, was run aground on the shore of Lake Champlain, then captured and burned by British troops during the Battle of Valcour.in 1776.
The wreck was recovered in 1934.
Harrisburg has owned the ship for nearly two decades. Former Mayor Stephen Reed purchased it for $42,500 in 1996 and wanted to display it in the National Civil War Museum.
Pieces of the ship’s unburnt hull, however, have been stored in a city-owned garage. The timber – along with silverware, tools and other items recovered from the wreck – were not sold when Harrisburg auctioned thousands of Wild West and other artifacts purchased by Reed.
The Navy is expected to turn it into a traveling exhibit


Revolutionary War ship handed back to Navy for Independence Day | Daily Mail Online

 

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[jeff of pa]

this may be the reason Harrisburg Got rid of the Ship all of a sudden
Jun 2, 2015
Agents raid Harrisburg home of former mayor Stephen Reed










Like Ahab with his white whale, ex-Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed has long been obsessed with historical artifacts, a vexation that played a key role in his political undoing and now appears to be part of criminal investigation into his time in office.

For much of his 28 years as mayor, a visit to Reed's dimly-lit City Hall office meant two things: Encountering a thick haze of cigarette smoke and being surrounded by a bevy of Civil War, Native American and Old West artifacts, which were crammed into both the mayor's conference room and his private quarters.
Reed made no secret of his obsession for all things Civil War, Native American and Western. Yet, the multi-million-dollar artifact collections he amassed using public funds from the Harrisburg Authority, the city's bond-making and utility-owning arm, were conducted largely behind the scenes, if not in total secrecy.
It became no secret that Reed also possessed a more modest private collection of artifacts, which he kept at his Cumberland Street rowhome. On Tuesday, nearly a dozen investigators raided Reed's midtown home and could be seen taking away saddles, a totem pole, what looked like a stuffed fox, a whiskey barrel and assorted other items, Eric Veronikis reported.