Ed Bearss admits it and says his talk was on, "How not to salvage a ship."

BTW, just got a used copy of the NPS booklet, "The Story of a Civil War Gunboat: U.S.S. Cairo." It includes an account of her raising by Harold Peterson as well as a narrative by one who was aboard her, Virgil Carrington Jones. Jones is silent about Selfridge & the uniforms and gunports.