SHIP Recon Report 2006-4: Lower Potomac River
29 April: On our fourth attempt we finally got the mooring buoy on the U-1105 site for the summer season. Many thanks to everyone who worked on that job! They include Jonathan Edwardsen, Didier Follain-Grisell, Scott Hagedorn, Tim Jeffas, Andrew Larimore, Mark Little, Isabel Mack, Vinny Mallardi, Rich Mead, John Oldfield, Eric O'Neill, Kirk Pierce, Todd Plaia, Erik Rebeck, Michelle Ryan, Dimitri Savvas, Bob Speir, Emily Tai, and Ted White.
30 April: We side-scanned ten potential sites in the lower Potomac, found structure at four, and dived two of them.
One is an inverted steel barge we had visited before. We had thought she might be part of the tank barge STC 410 which exploded on 20 December 1986 at the Piney Point oil terminal, a few miles upriver. But we measured the barge's beam by tape at 42' 6", while the beam of STC 410 was reported by NTSB to be 60' 0". In any event she is modern, and we do not plan to return. The sidescan could see our divers working on her:
We filed state archaeological site forms on the barge, and on another site which is almost certainly part of the after deck of the STC 410 that was blown out into the river. That is the wreck we used for the FeOB work on 11 March.
The other site we dived this weekend is a wooden structure with significant relief. We first visited that site on 28 January (after looking for it for three years!). We will return and map it during the next few weeks. It looks like -- no, you can't say that about diving in the Potomac. It FEELS like the sides of a large wooden vessel, with frames, planking and ceiling.
We did not find structure at other suspected sites near Point Lookout, Piney Point, and St. George Island. We we did capture a fuzzy image of something near Piney Point as it was disappearing off the sonar screen, but by then we were running behind schedule and needed to get back so we did not investigate it further. We will return to it for more scanning and maybe diving.
Based on the s results of this weekend and 1-2 April, we plan to work on the following sites before 1 July:
SHIP # location found task
1374 Pt Lookout wreck map it!
1801 Pt Lookout wreck map it!
1359 Pt Lookout none rescan the area just to be sure
1361 Pt Lookout none "
1354 Pt Lookout none "
1353 Pt Lookout none "
1352 Pt Lookout none "
1345 St.George I none "
1334 Piney Point none "
1333 Piney Point none "
As soon as I can figure out how to do it, I will start posting sidescan images on this blog -- especially the one showing Kirk and Vinny on the belly of the barge.