or gaining advantage. After entering Cape Fear, Raleigh turned south, but soon ran hard aground on a bar known as "the Rip". As the tide went out, the now unsupported weight of the ironclad's armored casemate, cannon, and machinery bore down heavily on the aft section of her keel. Unable to sustain the added weight pressure, Raleigh "broke her back", resulting in a total loss of the new ironclad after serving just one week in the Confederate Navy. Salvage crews reclaimed her iron plating, both her Brooke rifles, both smoothbore cannon, and shipped her boilers to , then being repaired at Columbus, Georgia. In 1994 the wreck was investigated by the North Carolina State Underwater Archaeology Unit with help from students of East Carolina University. References Still, William N., Jr., Confederate Shipbuilding (1987). Raleigh (1864) Shipwrecks in rivers Shipwrecks of the American Civil War Ships built in Wilmington, North Carolina 1864 ships Torpedo boats of the Confederate States Navy Shipwrecks of the Carolina coast Maritime incidents in May 1864