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Seal Cove Shipwreck Project 2012

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.

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IMH and the U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico Receive ACHP Award for ‘Achievement in Historic Preservation’

In May 2011, IMH was honored with a historic preservation award from the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), as one of the partners who is working with the U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico to document archaeological sites associated with three Civil War Confederate camps and the CSS George Page, a side-wheel steamship. The ACHP notes that “these sites were involved in the Battle of the Potomac, a struggle by both sides to control navigation from the nation’s capital from immediately after Virginia’s secession in April 1861 until March 1862. Among the military highlights associated with this campaign to control the Potomac River were the first use of an aircraft carrier in history; first Medal of Honor presented to a Navy recipient for actions in the Civil War; first use of a floating anti-ship mine in American waters; and, the issuance by President Abraham Lincoln of General War Order 3 mandating immediate military action to relieve the Confederate blockade of Washington, D.C.” The sites are now listed to the National Register of Historic Places.

Others recognized in the ceremony were Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer; Joseph F. Balicki, associate director, cultural resources, John Milner Associates, Inc; Robb Hampton, director, National Public Lands Day, National Environmental Education Foundation; Carmelo Melendez, director of Facilities Division, Marine Corps Base Quantico (MCBQ); Bruce Frizzell, head, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Branch, MCBQ; Elizabeth Kimmerly, head, National Environmental Policy Act Coordination Section, MCBQ; and, John Haynes, base archaeologist, MCBQ. Bill Utley attended the award ceremony in Washington D.C. to receive the award for IMH.