Institute of Maritime History

Thanks to editors Cynthia Loden-Dowdle, Isabel Mack, and Kirk Pierce, and contributors Susan Langley, Joyce Steinmetz, Bill Utley, and Brendan Burke. The nesletter is attached as a pdf file.

The weather has finally broken in Southern Maryland and it was warm enough this weekend to get some work done!

The ice in the bilges finally melted completely, letting me pump out all the water.  Unfortunately, two out of three old pumps didn't survive the winter ice.  The important engine-room pump made it, though!

IMH will partner with the Maryland Historical Trust, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, and the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program to conduct the first known underwater survey at Mount Vernon.  Details are in the attached pdf file.

20 - 21 Feb      SHIP Md            scan & map
27 - 28 Feb      "                        "
6 Mar - 11 Apr  Roper                haul, fix, sand and paint
Sat., 13 Mar     Crownsville MD  Maryland Archaeology Workshop

BlizzardNo work on the boat this week-- you may have heard we had a touch of "wintry-mix" in these parts. I've gotten down to the point where things need to melt before I can go further.

So what does a boat restorer do when he's not restoring the boat? He thinks about restoring the boat!

snowonthebowThe beautiful weather last weekend made it an absolute joy to work on the boat... NOT! More like an scene from Ice Station Zebra. By Sunday morning, we had almost a foot of snow in the boatyard, with 2 foot drifts here and there. True to form, they're predicting a second foot-plus snowfall for this coming weekend. More fun!

The Boat:  "Gypsy", a 41' fiberglass motorsailer, built sometime in the 1970s.  Currently "on the hard" at Tall Timbers Marina in Maryland, and has been for the better part of 20 years.  This picture was taken in August, 2009.

The February issue just came out and has a cover article about IMH and the U-1105.

2010 will be a busy year, with a lot of reconnaissance for the Maryland Historical Trust, and ground-truthing the sites we found in 2007 and 2009 in the Delaware for the Delaware Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs and the Archaeological Society of Delaware, and mapping the Quantico Creek site for the Marine Corps base, and perhaps doing some reconnaissance for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in several rivers, and perhaps helping MHT survey some battlefield sites -- plus giving Roper her biennial bottom paint, adding a small derrick to lift ballast stones at the St.

HMAP invites papers for the conference, Oceans Past III: Stories from the sea - history of marine animal populations and their exploitation. The conference will take place at Synge Lecture Hall, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 18‐20 November 2010.