IMH News

David Howe on WAMU

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:58:14 -0500

IMH Secretary David Howe and Marine Archaeologist and Author Donald Shomette are interviewed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show at WAMU radio in Washington, D.C.

WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio - The Kojo Nnamdi Show for Thursday December 13, 2007

Lewes plan, 29 Sep - 7 Oct

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:40:53 -0500

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.

15 August 2007: SHIP in Maryland and Delaware

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:15:50 -0500

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.

New Castle DE, final report

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:31:31 -0500

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.

SHIP Field Report: Potomac River and Piney Point

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 10:20:08 -0500

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

IMH and INA survey battleship wreck

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 10:14:06 -0500

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

Achill Island Field Report 14: Odds and Ends: Curragh pens, anchor stock recording, and snorkeling Dooagh pier, 12-15 July 2006

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:34:33 -0500

The forecast is calling for heavy seas for this week, precluding any diving, so over the next few days we are working on several alternative tasks. One ongoing objective is to continue recording the curragh pens at Dooagh pier. We would like to finish an overall plan depicting all 20 pens, the coastline, and pier itself.

Achill Island Field Report 16: Two Shipwrecks Under Two Lighthouses, 17-18 July 2006

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:58:12 -0500

Our final team member has arrived. Dr. Sam Turner is the Director of Archaeology for LAMP (Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program) and also the President of IMH (Institute for Maritime History), two of the institutions sponsoring this research project. He flew in from Florida last night to work with us for our final two weeks on Achill.

Field Summary Report for New Castle, Deleware

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 16:04:57 -0500

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

Achill Island Field Report 15: First dive on the Jenny shipwreck, 16 July 2006

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:45:14 -0500

The Norwegian sailing bark Jenny was lost at Achill Beg Island on route to Hamburg, Germany from Morant Bay, Jamaica, on 13 January 1894. She had a cargo of logwood and a crew of ten men, all of whom survived the wrecking.

Achill Island Field Report 13: Arrival of Norine and Mapping the Westport Quay Wreck, 9-11 July 2006

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:11:20 -0500

Another crewmember has arrived on the 9th of July. Norine Carroll is a volunteer who I have worked with on a number of shipwreck projects since 1997. She currently works in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., and has agreed to come for two weeks to work with us. Norine is an archaeological conservator, which means her specialty is the treatment and stabilization of artifacts, and she is also an accomplished diver and archaeologist as well. Norine has worked on a wide variety of shipwrecks in Turkey, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Texas, and elsewhere. Norine was also one of the first participants in the original St. Augustine Shipwreck Survey, a project in Florida that led to the formation of LAMP, one of the research institutes sponsoring the Achill Island Maritime Archaeology Project.

Achill Island Field Report 12: Mapping Curragh Pens at Dooagh Pier, 7-9 July 2006

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:39:02 -0500

As in other colonial settings, indigenous and vernacular watercraft, notably the skin-clad curragh and wooden-planked yawl, played a central role in long-standing maritime lifeways and practices on Achill. Curraghs are the famed skin or canvas boats used for centuries along the western seaboard of Ireland. Curragh designs vary from island to island and coast to coast. In 1936 an Achill curragh from the village of Keel was recorded by the British maritime historian James Hornell.

Achill Island Field Report 11: Recording the Anchor of the Sceptre, 3-4 July 2006

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:59:43 -0500

Last year we discovered that an anchor had been raised from the seafloor around Saddle Head by some Achill fishermen in the late 1960s. We successfully tracked it down and got a look at it, but didn’t have time to fully record it. This is one of our objectives this year.

Achill Island Field Report 10: Recording the Steering Assembly on the Successful Trawler Wreck, 2-3 July 2006

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:36:30 -0500

Last year we spend a significant amount of time recording the wreckage of the Successful, a late 19th/early 20th century fishing trawler (see Field Report 4). It is a very complex shipwreck, and we were unable to fully document it in one field season. The fact that we can only work on the wreck at low tide makes this task even more challenging. This year, we have re-visited the wreck and cleared it of a year’s growth of kelp and seaweed, in order to continue its documentation.

Achill Island Field Report 9: Arrival of Kevin and Lecture in Westport, 28-29 June 2006

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:24:34 -0500

On the 28th I’m driving to Westport to pick up Kevin Cullen, an archaeology graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is Irish-born, but emigrated to America when he was young, and it has been eight years since he’s been back to Ireland. He is also a diver, and will be participating in the project through the end of July.