A Parrott shell, similar to the long shell at the left, was found at a construction site in Murrells Inlet, S.C. The shell still packed enough of a potential punch to evacuate a sheriff's office station. Associated Press

Ancient artillery creates clamor

MURRELLS INLET, S.C. - A rare Civil War artillery shell was found at a construction site and rattled some nerves when a worker brought it to a sheriff's substation.

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The Parrott shell, a large, oblong object that was fired from a cannon with a rifled bore, was found at a construction site where a subdivision is being built.

The worker, worried about what it was, brought it by truck Wednesday to a Georgetown County Sheriff's Office substation several days after finding it.

The building was evacuated for several hours until a State Law Enforcement Division bomb squad arrived, said sheriff's spokesman Bill Nichols.

The shell was taken to a remote area and detonated by the bomb squad, said state law enforcement Lt. Mike Brown.

He said the shell was too deteriorated to save for a museum display.

"When you get an ordnance that old, it can be very unstable," he said.

It's been years since the last Parrott round was found in South Carolina, said Fritz Hamer, the chief curator of the South Carolina State Museum.

Three Parrott guns and ammunition were found in Chester in 1986, he said.

The three cannons weighed about 1,000 pounds each and had ammunition jammed inside to prevent them from being fired.

If still filled with powder, the shell could have gone off even if it was left underground for more than a century, authorities said.

--From the Friday, July 23, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle