BEVERLY — The USS New Hampshire was a wreck before it became a wreck.
The ship burned and sank during a training exercise on the Hudson River in 1921. The next year, its recovered hull was being towed to the Bay of Fundy to be dismantled for its copper and bronze fastenings when it again caught fire. It sank, for the final time, near Graves Island off Singing Beach in Manchester.
It might have been an inauspicious ending for the once-grand vessel, the last of the U.S. Navy's 74-gun battleships. But all these years later, the ship retains its allure for Norman "Dugie" Russell.
Russell, 72, began diving to the ship in 1961, drawn by the spikes and pins and sheeting that had been forged at Paul Revere's foundry in Canton and kept the 2,633-ton boat together.
After more than 200 dives, he put his quest on hold until 20 years ago, except for one aborted and nearly fatal attempt last year. But as he told an audience of about 40 people in a recent talk at the Beverly Public Library, he plans to go back again this summer.
"The lure of this ship, I can't let go," he said. "It became kind of an obsession for me."
Russell, a retired court officer from Beverly, has salvaged thousands of pounds of copper and brass and tons of timber from the New Hampshire over the years. He has crafted the material into hundreds of items — cribbage boards, coffee tables, lamps, clocks, mantelpieces, jewelry — and sold them to retailers and individuals.
Recovering the material from the ship was painstaking work. Operating in 42 feet of water, Russell would use a crowbar to dig spikes, nails and pins from the ship's timber. They were covered with "sea cement," a solidified ash that was difficult to remove. Russell devised a variety of methods to clean them, including scrubbing them with ketchup, Tabasco sauce and lemon juice.
He also found buttons from uniforms that had been left on the ship (no one died in either of the two sinkings). He still wears a U.S. Naval Militia belt buckle he found amid the wreckage.
To salvage the ship's live oak timber, he brought in a barge with chains and lifted 4 tons to the surface.
Russell called the remains of the USS Hampshire "a mass of little treasure." He described some of the bronze and copper fixtures, which melted into various shapes as the ship burned and sank, as "gorgeous clusters of sculptures."
Russell said he nearly died the last time he dove to the ship, in March 2010. But that won't stop him from trying again. He plans to try again in a month or so.
"Every time I dive down there I say, 'Hello, sweetheart, I'm back again,'" he said. "I just love being there."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by email at pleighton@salemnews.com.
