In early July a project funded by the National Park Service and the Institute of Maritime History will continue the investigation of an historic wooden shipwreck in Seal Cove, Maine. This project will be directed by Franklin H. Price, Senior Archaeologist with the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, and will be assisted by Steve Dilk, underwater archaeologist with the Georgia Historic Preservation Division. The project will be a continuation of work conducted in summer 2011, where Acadia National Park staff and volunteers created a site plan of the wreck as part of an informal archaeological field school. Situated in the intertidal zone, the site provides an opportunity to teach maritime archaeological methods to both Park staff and the general public. This year investigators will make archaeological drawings of each of the 28 frames in profile, and will provide these drawings, along with the site plan, to a local high school wood shop class. The class will make a model of the site and attempt to learn about the original hull design, allowing them to engage in experimental archaeology. With a field school and an experimental archaeology component, the outreach opportunities surrounding the project will give participants hands-on appreciation of Maine’s maritime heritage.
Preserving our maritime heritage