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| The Institute of Maritime History (IMH) is a non-profit 501(c) 3 corporation dedicated to research, preservation, and education in nautical archaeology and maritime history. |
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The latest news and notes from the field from the Institute of Maritime History.
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Plans have gelled for our week-long survey of the historic harbor at Lewes, Delaware, 29 September through 7 October.
With active support from the City of Lewes and University of Delaware, the Archaeological Society of Delaware, the Lewes Historical Society and IMH will reconnoiter the inner and outer harbor at Lewes, and the waters off Slaughter Beach, by sidescan, magnetometer, and divers. Approximately 20 people will participate.
The Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs has also asked us to visit a colonial wrecksite, believed to be the merchant ship Severn (foundered 1774), to obtain specific data for comparison with baseline data that were collected a few years ago.
We have almost finished work under the FY2007 grant from Maryland Historical Trust. We found several uncharted wrecks (some old, some new) and will finish mapping them during the next month or two. When those are done we will continue work wherever the Trust wants.
The project ran over time but under budget, with much more volunteer participation than we had planned or hoped. Thanks to all who joined in the effort!
During the first week of October we will recon the area around Lewes, Delaware, for the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, in cooperation and with the generous support of the Archaeological Society of Delaware. For a copy of the project plan, email david.howe@maritimehistory.org.
We filed our final report with the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. For a redacted copy of the report (without site coordinates) in Adobe, please email David.Howe@maritimehistory.org.
On 12 and 13 August 2006 we conducted reconnaissance by sidescan sonar and divers in the Potomac River, beginning at Piney Point. The report is available in PDF format: Download FIle
INA and IMH reconned the wreck of USS San Marcos (ex USS Texas, BB-2) off Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday, 6 August. The report is available in PDF format: Download file
IMH made a reconnaissance of the historic harbor area at New Castle, Delaware, on 16-22 July 2006 for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs. See the summary: Download the PDF file
This reconnaissance is scheduled for 16-22 July. For a copy of the research design please email david.howe@maritimehistory.org.
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.
SHIP Recon Report: 2006-04: Lower Potomac River
29 April: After several tries we finally got the mooring buoy on the U-1105 site for the summer season. Many thanks to the people who helped do the job!
30 April: We scanned ten potential sites in the lower Potomac, found structure at five of them, and dived two.
One is the steel barge we visited before. We thought she might be tank barge STC 410, which exploded at the Piney Point oil terminal on 20 December 1986. We measured the beam of the barge to be 42' 6", but the beam of STC 410 was reported by NTSB to be 60' 0". So we don't know who she is. But she is modern, and we do not plan to return.
The other site we dived is a wooden structure with significant relief. At first glance her scantlings seem too light to be a barge. We will return over the next few weeks and map it -- and investigate the other three sites we did not dive.
SHIP field schedule, 2006 (always subject to weather):
29 – 30 Apr U-1105: rig buoy, inspect
06 – 07 May scan and map, Potomac River
13 – 14 May scan and map, Potomac River
20 May – 11 Jun Roper: haul, repair, paint
17 – 18 Jun scan and map, Potomac River
24 – 25 Jun scan and map, Potomac River
08 – 09 Jul scan and map, Potomac River
15 – 16 Jul Roper to Delaware Bay
16 – 22 Jul scan and map, Delaware River
22 – 23 Jul Roper to Tall Timbers
05 – 06 Aug inspect U-1105
19 – 20 Aug scan and map, Potomac River
02 – 04 Sep scan and map, Potomac River
09 – 10 Sep inspect U-1105
23 – 24 Sep scan and map, Potomac River
30 Sep – 03 Oct scan and map, Potomac River
04 – 8 Oct scan and map, Potomac River
21 – 22 Oct scan and map, Potomac River
11 – 12 Nov U-1105: pull buoy for the winter
25 – 26 Nov scan and map, Potomac River
02 – 03 Dec scan and map, Potomac River
16 – 17 Dec scan and map, Potomac River
Contact Dave Howe for underway times and locations.
24 April. No joy yet in placing the mooring buoy on the U-1105 for the summer season. We were blown out last weekend by high winds and heavy seas.
We are looking into the acquisition of a houseboat as a "barracks barge" and floating work platform. to support a larger crew than Roper can sleep. Several cheap or free boats have been proposed. Stay tuned!
Two days, 12 dives, and no joy -- the river mud still has hold of the buoy chain despite our efforts on 15 and 16 April. There is no joy in Mudville.
But we WILL wrest the chain from the belly of the beast and deploy the buoy next weekend.
If we finish that on Saturday, 22 April, we will spend Sunday taking sidescan images of ten suspected sites down the Potomac, and physical measurements of two of them.
In July 2006, IMH will conduct an underwater reconnaissance of the historic harbor area at New Castle, Delaware.
We will work daily from Sunday, 16 July, through Saturday, 22 July, using our dive boat Roper, and a 14-foot skiff, and perhaps other vessels. We will employ various search methods, including sidescan sonar, divers, perhaps probing or excavation (if directed by the State), and perhaps a magnetometer, metal detector, sub-bottom profiler, and ground penetrating radar (if we can the obtain the use of that equipment). En route to and from New Castle we will also sidescan the area around Pea Patch Island to supplement the work we did there in November 2005.
We have also invited diving and non-diving members of the Archaeological Society of Delaware, the Delaware Marine Archaeological Society, the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society, and the New Castle Historical Society, to join us on the project. Space aboard the vessels is limited, so an early commitment will be appreciated. Interested individuals please contact david.howe@maritimehistory.org for details.
In July 2006 we plan to return to Delaware to conduct detailed reconnaissance of an historic anchorage area, using remote sensors and divers.
On 9 April we tried but failed to rig the U-1105 mooring buoy for the summer season. We will try again on 15 and 16 April, weather willing -- and this time we will succeed.
IMH Divers were out in force this weekend, putting in two days on the Lower Potomac River.
Continue reading "SHIP Recon Report: 06-3: Lower Potomac River" »
Good joy on Saturday. Went to look for two charted lumps below Ragged Point, and found each of them within a few minutes, right about where the chart says they are. I had looked for them with a fishfinder for two years without success. The chart says the southern one is an obstruction and the northern one is a wreck, while AWOIS does not list the southern one and calls the northern one an obstruction. Both of them look like oyster mesas to me: round and amorphous with nothing even vaguely cultural. Also confirmed the U-boat and puzzle pile are still there, and refined my GPS numbers slightly for the high points.
Continue reading "March 25-26 Field Work" »
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