Building a better mousetrap
(What happens if I short this?…)
Launching a towfish
Brendan and Dawn rigging out the Klein towfish from the crane Brendan built on Roper‘s aft deck.
Mount Vernon project
IMH and LAMP (the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum) finished the first Phase 1 underwater reconnaissance at Mount Vernon on Saturday, May 1. In eight days of work we ran approximately 240 miles of search lanes, and found two definite sites and several possible sites. One site is an old wooden vessel with stone ballast. We achieved the initial goal of thoroughly scanning the waters near the estate. We will need to return for further investigation and assessment of the finds. We hope to do after the hydrilla dies off in the fall.
A full report of the project will be submitted to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the Maryland Historical Trust, and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Profound thanks to Brendan Burke of LAMP for many days of hard work preparing Roper and for maintaining the highest level of professionalism, to Dan Lynberg and Dawn Cheshaek for providing their boats and skills, to John Dowdle and Bill Toti for organizing and managing the project, to all the IMH volunteers who participated — and especially to Dr Esther White and her superb staff for their support, guidance, and the opportunity and means to investigate those historic waters.
IMH boats at Mount Vernon
Dan Lynberg’s Reflections and Dave Howe’s Roper at Mount Vernon, during a quiet moment between scanning runs.
Mount Vernon project
We started scanning at Mount Vernon on Saturday, 24 April. In the first two days we found more wrecks and other anomalies than we can ground-truth and assess in the week remaining on the schedule, so we will just have to go back again. We also found more than 30 sites in the Potmac on the trip there.
Crew for the first weekend included Brendan Burke of LAMP, Ron Grayson of the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources, and the following IMH stalwarts: Dawn Chesaek, Isabel Mack, John and Cynthia Dowdle, Bill and Karen Toti, Nick Cianflone, Dan Lynberg, Kirk Pierce, and Dave Howe.
Boats include Dan’s 26-foot catamaran “Reflections,” Dawn’s 17-foot Mako, and good old “Roper” sporting new paint, a derrick for handling towfish &c., and a clean fuel tank, thanks to many hours of hard work by Brendan, Dawn, Isabel, Kirk, Kirk Esco, Mike Nowotny, Erik Rebeck, and others. Thank you all!!
Roper haul
She cannot begin to compete with the amount of work Gypsy needs, but Roper has new zincs and new paint from keel to rail, and she is ready to go back in the water, thanks to hard work by Dawn, Brenda, John and Erik. She will be pretty for the Mount Vernon project. Chores still to do include cleaning the fuel tank; touching a few rust spots with the weklder; painting the mast, pilothouse, decks, and engine room bilge; installing the new alternator; and checking the engine alignment and valve lash.
2010 plans (2)
The Maryland Historical Trust will survey several submerged battlefields in the Chesapeake this year. under a grant from the National Park Service’s ABPP (American Battlefields Protection Program). The Trust will need volunteers for that work — divers, boat drivers, and researchers. If you are interested please email david.howe@maritimehistory.org.
2010 plans cut back
The Maryland legislature voted on 3/26 not to fund any non-capital historic grants this year, so our plans for SHIP in Maryland will be curtailed. We have at least 226 sites to assess in Maryland waters. Many of them are fairly close to our home port at Tall Timbers, so we will stay very busy.
On the bright side, the lack of Maryland funding will free up a lot of time for reconnaissance in Virginia and Delaware if we get funding from those states, plus at least one field school — maybe two, if enough people want it.
Roper will be in Florida throughout June, as planned.
Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference – corrected program
The conference program linked on my earlier post was wrong. Sorry! The corrected program is attached as a pdf file. Thanks to Bill Utley for catching the error.