Roper status

Roper has finished her spring haul-out.  Major work included plumbing the fuel, water, and exhaust lines for the diesel generator, and adding an anchor windlass and roller, a new Furuno 500 autopilot, and one more antenna for an AirMar flux-gate compass and GPS for the autopilot.  Profound thanks to the energetic and capable Brendan Burke of the St Augustine Lighthouse & Museum; to IMH stalwarts Cynthia Loden Dowdle, Isabel Mack, Dawn Cheshaek, Kebret Andarge, John Dowdle, Kirk Pierce, and David Wright; and to Rick Meatyard and his gallant crew at Tall Timbers Marina.

Sea trials on 4 May were combined with a trip to the U-1105.  Tom Edwards, Craig Goheen, and Tim Manville dived to inspect the buoy chain and rig a floating ball on the conning tower for divers.  The site is officially open for the season.

On 11 May, Dawn, Dan, and I will get Roper underway for her usual summer field school and fieldwork at St Augustine, stopping in Georgia for a week to scan for sites for Chris McCabe of the state Department of Natural Resources.  After she comes home in August we plan to spend all September, all October, and half of November mapping approximarely 90 sites in the Potomac for the Maryland Historical Trust and US Marine Corps Base Quantico.

For information about the field school please visit http://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/LAMP/On_the_Job_Training/Field_School.  For information about the Potomac project use the “contact” button above, or email david.howe@maritimehistory.org.