The Keeper's Blog

Continued Work on the Shipwreck Offshore

2009-07-12T14:07:32Z

Dr. Sam Turner uses an underwater lift bag to lighten the load of a box of ballast stones. He will swim the stones over to the day's lifting station, directly under the dive boat, so that the rocks can be hauled to the surface by the crew waiting above. This photograph has been modified with Adobe Photoshop so that viewers can better see the diver and his equipment; if you'd like to see the original version, click below.]]> This original version of the photograph better approximates what our divers see in these murky waters. We still consider this good visibility, compared to conditions we often face on this wreck. The visibility often improves and worsens drastically throughout the day. Field School has been over for a few weeks now, but our field season continues. Most of the students have moved on, including Kaia Brown who stayed with us for two weeks additional work. Still remaining are students Chris Borlas (University of Florida) and Wendy Drennon (Florida State University). They are great divers and hard workers and don't let the traditional inter-state school rivalry interfere with getting good archaeology done on site! Also continuing to work with us is a graduate of our MARC (Maritime Archaeology Research Class) program that we maintain at the local high school, Pedro Menendez High. German foreign exchange student Florian Funk has been diving with us for about a week, though at the time of this writing he has flown home to Germany, with a solid dive education, a LAMP volunteer t-shirt, and a lot of great memories of working as an archaeologist on a St. Augustine shipwreck. We've had a few rain days which have occasionally forced us in early, but unless we face lightning we carry on with diving operations. At the start of the day on Thursday July 9th, LAMP Director Chuck Meide prepares to enter the water. If the visibility is decent, he will be taking measurements and making detailed drawings of the hull remains that have been exposed by excavating in Unit 3. This year we are digging a trench, composed of up to 9 units at this time, directly across the shipwreck. Once we dig all the way down to wooden hull timbers, we cover them with sandbags to protect the wood until the visibility is good enough to make a drawing or take photographs. Here is a brief video clip of Chuck drawing in Unit 3. He takes a measurement, say the width of a frame or rib, then scales the dimension down on his underwater paper and continuously adds to and modifies the drawing to create the most accurate reproduction of the hull as possible. Every tool mark and fastener hole is of interest to the archaeologist. This is a very detailed scaled drawing, and it usually takes hours to fully record a one meter square unit, especially if the visibility is poor. Chuck started this particular drawing days ago and finally finishes it today, after a 4 hour and 18 minute dive. This is the final drawing of hull remains in Unit 3. What is depicted here are four frames (frames are typically called "ribs" by landlubbers) which run from top to bottom of the drawing in this view. At the bottom right side of the picture there is a layer of ceiling planking, which covered the upper portions of the frames. The black circles are a type of wooden fastener, called a treenail, which were used to attach the upper ceiling planking and lower hull planking to the frames. They are basically hand-carved wooden dowels pounded into pre-drilled holes in the frames and planking. When exposed to seawater the treenails swell and make a watertight fit. On the left side, a large mass of metal has formed a concretion which obscures most of the frame which it sits on. Visible in the concretion are the impression of vertical wooden planks which used to form a bulkhead or wall at that point. What appears to be the keel is visible between two of the frames, suggesting that we are at the centerline of the vessel. Also apparent from this drawing is that this ship suffered a violent wrecking process: all of the frames but one display severe damage and were broken during the shipwreck. This damage is most apparent in the second from the left frame and the one furthest to the right. The breaking of the frames here also explains why there is a large amount of ceiling planking which is no longer in place within this unit. In Unit 5, by contrast, the entire bottom of the unit is covered in a smooth floor of ceiling planking, completely covering the frames beneath. Here is another video clip, this one showing Wendy using the hand-held suction dredge to excavate in Unit 5. She and LAMP archaeologist Brendan Burke were excavating in Unit 5 while Chuck was drawing in Unit 3. Wendy carefully digs with her ungloved hand, either fanning away or gently removing sediment by hand, and holds the dredge so that it sucks up the cloud of sediments she is displacing. The large corrugated hose on the right side of the video screen is the dredge intake hose. Water, shell, sand, and other objects (sometimes including crabs and fish) are sucked up through the intake hose and through the dredge head to be rushed down 50 feet or so of exhaust hose, where everything is collected in a mesh bag attached to the end of the exhaust hose. In this limited visibility, it is easy for the diver to miss small artifacts, such as tiny chips of coal, and with the mesh bag in place we won't lose any such artifacts. This is the bag of shell hash that is left over from Wendy's excavations in Unit 5. During the Field School we had our students sort through these bags on the way out to and back from the site (it is an hour long boat ride on the Roper) but now that we have lost most of our student labor we are saving the bags for volunteers to sort through back at the Lighthouse. If you are interested in helping us with our archaeological research and perhaps making the next big maritime discovery by volunteering to sort through dredge spoil, please send an email to our Volunteer Coordinator, Debe Thompson. In addition to the work of sorting through dredge spoil, there is archaeological paperwork to be completed as well. This is an excavation form that the divers fill out after dredging a unit. More paperwork! Wendy is labeling a plastic bag and filling out an artifact log sheet in the binder. Artifacts encountered during excavation are usually collected by the divers. All collected artifacts are carefully brought to the surface in clear plastic bags. Once back on the boat, individual artifacts are assigned artifact numbers and placed in a labeled bag. Inside the bag goes a separate labeled tag, just in case the sharpie writing wears off the outside of the bag. And each artifact is listed in the Field Artifact Catalogue so that we can keep track of everything. An example of a completed sheet from our Field Artifact Catalogue. It is vital for the ensuing archaeological analysis that we have good records of every artifact recovered from the site, with its exact provenience or specific location. Sam and Chris have a quick discussion before entering the water, planning their next dive. Underwater, the vis is still pretty good. Our trench is defined by two parallel yellow polypro lines, with PVC grid squares attached. The divers approach Unit 5 to continue excavations there. By the end of their dive they have fully uncovered what turns out to be an interesting feature, the remains of a wooden bulkhead fashioned of vertical, tongue-in-groove planking. A bulkhead is simply a wooden wall erected inside the hold of the ship, designed to compartmentalize the hold. This picture shows two of the bulkhead planks protruding up from the ceiling planking. Just the lowermost parts of these planks have survived, but enough is left to allow us to reconstruct how this bulkhead was situated in this part of the ship. A close-up view of the upper surviving edges of the bulkhead planks. They range in size from 4 to 4.5" wide. A similar close-up view of the bottom ends of the bulkhead planks. The bottom end of each bulkhead plank is nailed horizontally to a "nailer," which is a narrow timber fastened directly to the ceiling planking running the length of the bulkhead. The nailer is seen in this picture, on the right side and parallel to the yellow scale. This photograph was taken in Unit 4, where the planks are no longer in place or attached to the nailer. The nailer runs into and ends at a heavy stringer, or longitudinal strengthening timber, which also sits atop ceiling planking. This means that the bulkhead also probably ended at this point in Unit 4 (though closer inspection might show signs of the bulkhead on top of or on the other side of the stringer). On a previous day of diving, when we were excavating in Unit 4, divers found and carefully recovered a plank end which displayed tongue-in-groove construction. At the time we did not realize this was a bulkhead plank, and we were in fact not even sure if it was a part of the ship's structure or some item carried on board. But now it is apparent that this was another plank base from the bulkhead as it is virtually identical in size and form to what we have encountered in Unit 5. Here Brendan points out the tongue-in-groove shaping on the side edge of the plank fragment. In addition to excavating sediment and documenting artifacts and hull remains, another common task on this project is rock-moving. Excavators continuously remove rocks while they are digging, and place them into numbered lifting crates. These are weighted milk crates rigged with lifting handles of polypro line and window screen to prevent the loss of small artifacts that might be attached to stones. We often have many empty, full, and partially full boxes on the sea floor at any given time. On a regular basis we assign to a diver the task of moving these boxes from the excavation trench to the lifting station, set up directly under the boat. In this video clip Sam has attached a lift bag to a box of rocks, and partially inflated it so that the box of rocks is close to neutral buoyancy, which means it neither floats upwards or sinks downwards. At this point it is easy for a single diver to swim it towards its final destination. Sam is busy and soon the boxes begin to pile up on the deck of the Roper. Some of the individual stones are enormous, such as the one here in the center of the picture. Other paperwork filled out on a daily basis are the boat's daily log and the dive log, which is pictured here. On this day, we logged a total of 18 hours, 16 minutes of bottom time, not a bad day's work (especially for a day we had to leave the site early)!

Storms at Sea

2009-07-07T03:25:50Z

Ominous and rapidly-moving storm clouds drove LAMP researchers off the water today. Sudden storms have always been a hazard to St. Augustine mariners in modern times and in antiquity. ]]> Roper. Here volunteer diver Florian Funk waits with the gear for the Roper's imminent arrival. Florian is a German exchange student who recently attended LAMP's underwater archaeology MARC class at Pedro Menendez High School. He will be volunteering as a scientific diver for LAMP until he returns to Germany next week. Also on board the Roper today is Norine Carroll, Collections Manager and Associate Researcher at the University of West Florida's Archaeology Institute. She is visiting us today and is planning on conducting some working dives with us. Norine was one of the first researchers working for the initial St. Augustine shipwreck survey in the 1990s, and at that time she conducted many dives on this shipwreck. Survey work continues in St. Augustine waters! When the dive boat arrives on site, we stand off to let LAMP's survey vessel, the RV Desmond Valdes, continue running survey lanes across the area we will be diving shortly. In addition to diving operations, LAMP is conducting remote sensing survey in a variety of areas inshore and offshore. Part of this project entails running very tight lane spacings--5 meters apart--over most magnetic anomalies that have been previously recorded in St. Augustine waters. Survey equipment includes side scan sonar, magnetometer, and sub-bottom profiler. We wait patiently as we watch the Desi run back and forth with its equipment deployed in the water. Meanwhile, our divers prepare for the first dive of the day. From left to right are MARC student Florian Funk and Field School students Wendy Drennon and Chris Borlas. Wendy and Chris, along with Kaia Brown, are recent graduates of the Field School who have chosen to remain on the project into July and work as volunteers. As we move into position over the wreck and attach our stern mooring lines, we can't help but notice dark storm clouds gathering on the western horizon. A phone call to the Lighthouse gets us talking to a co-worker monitoring an online radar station. It looks like the storm will hit us soon. The clouds get more massive and darker as we weigh our options. Since we expect it to hit within 40 minutes we have delayed sending divers in the water. We feel that we can safely wait out the storm in the cabin of the Roper . . . But as the clouds get darker and more ominous, and the wind and seas intensifies rapidly, we decide there's no reason not to play it safe and cancel today's diving. The Desmond Valdes, a less protective haven than the Roper, has already pulled in their gear and headed home. Now that the decision has been made it is imperative to act quickly. The first thing to do is to free our stern mooring lines, so that we will swing on our bow anchor into the wind and not take the increasingly pounding seas broadside. Our crew has been seasoned over the last four weeks at sea. They work rapidly but deliberately to stow away equipment and other items for what will likely be a rough ride home. On the roof of the cabin, Chris hurriedly lashes down empty lift boxes and other items while the U.S. Lighthouse Service pennant whips in the wind. The final step before getting underway is to pull in the bow anchor, and feed the line into the anchor rope locker. Here Wendy, Florian, and Norine take charge. With that we are underway. We made it back to shore though we pulled all hands into the cabin when the lightning started. The bad news is that we got no work done on the shipwreck today, other than completing a survey project (which is a good accomplishment). The good news is that we all survived another storm at sea. Working on the open face of the Atlantic, here offshore America's oldest port, is not an easy endeavor. Sudden storms can wreck havoc with our vessels just as they did in the Age of Sail. We have successfully run away in order to survive to work another day.

Drowning in Social Media

2009-06-29T21:19:14Z

Just a quick note to say that I am back. I didn't realize how long it had been since I had blogged, and so I thought I would post a quick note. Sometime earlier in the year my kids convinced me to sign onto Facebook to keep in touch with them. Since then I have gotten in touch with folks I haven't heard from since high school. But the interesting thing is that lighthouse enthusiasts have started finding me as well. This was particularly true when I signed on with Twitter. I now tweet with fellow lighthouse folks from around the country. The St. Augustine Lighthouse also has it's own Facebook page. So if you are on FB or make a habit of tweeting, look for us as we would love to know what you are up to. Just keeping up with Twitter and Facebook is enough of a challenge for this old guy that I almost forgot about my blog. Well no more! I am back on it. You may also want to check out the Split Rock Lighthouse blog. My buddy Lee Radzak, Historic Site Manager at the station there, just started it a couple of months ago. Split Rock is already one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and then someone went and put a lighthouse there. I will do my best to get Lee on FB and Twitter as well, but things are a bit delayed up there in the wilds of Northern Minnesota, so we must be patient. You will want to check out some of his photos on their website as well.

I once was blind, but now I see . . .

2009-06-25T03:30:26Z

LAMP Field School student Chris Borlas takes advantage of good visibility to use a line level and folding rule to measure the depth of an excavation unit underwater. For the past three weeks, it has been so dark and murky on the wreck site that trying to see an air gauge, compass reading, tape measure, hand signal, or line level has been completely fruitless. On the first day of diving this this week, LAMP staff and students alike were ecstatic to find that, with no warning, they could suddenly see on the shipwreck site. Visibility had been slowly improving over the past several weeks, so that divers could begin to see to a limited degree the site around them, instead of relying on groping in the dark. But all of the sudden the vis was great! We wasted no time and took advantage of these conditions while we had them. We've posted some underwater video from Tuesday so everyone following along can experience seeing the shipwreck as we do. Check it out below!]]> In this video clip, you can see several divers working on the site at once. The video pans along our trench, so that you can see our grid system that we use to keep track of where we are digging and what we are drawing. Remember, for most of the past three weeks we felt blindly along these lines, and felt but never saw our grids! It is easy to make out ballast stones, though many have been removed from the trench, and also exposed timbers from the hull buried beneath the ballast. The droning noise audible during some of this clip is the Air Line hookah--a low pressure gasoline-powered compressor on the surface feeding air down the yellow hoses to the divers. The divers still wear a tank on their back as a backup air source, but the hookah (unless it runs out of gas) can provide unlimited air for longer and safer dives. Towards the end of the clip, the camera pans out past the trench so the rest of the ballast pile is visible. Here is another clip showing some great visibility, also from a morning dive. The divers are again working in the trench, and you can see them leveling a line in order to measure the depth of the excavation unit. The string is anchored at a rebar firmly in place at the top of a large concretion, and we measure depth in centimeters below that arbitrary point. Excavators record the level of the center and four corners of each unit before starting to dig downwards, and record their current level at the end of a dive to keep track of how much we have excavated. In addition, all sediments dredged are run through a fine mesh screen, and accurate vertical measurements help us keep track of any artifacts that might have been sucked up the dredge without the divers' noticing. Another short clip showing divers working in the gridded excavation trench. There are some good shots of the hull timbers here, including a substantial longitudinal timber we believe to be a stringer. Its great to see all of these fish too--we have no idea if they have been swirling around us every day for the past four weeks as its been to dark to see them! The vis worsened by the end of the working day, however, as you can see here. This diver is mapping a unit, or making a detailed drawing of all exposed archaeological features within a one meter square area. The particulate matter in the water has dramatically increased, reducing visibility by a significant degree. It almost looks like the diver is making a drawing in a snowstorm! As far as visibility goes when diving off our Nation's oldest port . . . easy come, easy go. And finally an above-water shot, of Wendy entering the water from the Roper's swim platform. Stay tuned for more videos of divers working, coming soon!

LAMP Field School in the News

2009-06-23T01:07:16Z

This photo was taken by St. Augustine Record reporter Daron Dean when he visited our excavation site on Friday. Also on hand were a film crew from Pepe Productions, including a Flagler College intern (with camera) and the film's director (helping steady her) working on an upcoming documentary. We are always happy when our archaeological work gets local press attention, and last Sunday we were treated to a great front page story in the St. Augustine Record written by reporter Marcia Lane.]]> Roper is on loan to LAMP by the Institute of Maritime History, not the "Institute of Maritime" as stated in the article. 3. My last name is spelled Meide, not Mead (one occurrence in article) 4. The drawing of the Jefferson Davis in the print version of this article actually depicted a topsail schooner, not a brig. So . . . now go and read the article. Thanks to Marcia Lane and photographer Daron Dean for helping bring more attention to our field school and the maritime archaeology of our Nation's oldest port!

Field School Students Take the Plunge -- First Dives Offshore

2009-06-20T22:12:37Z

Graduate Student Supervisor Rachel Horlings, a PhD student from Syracuse University, launches herself into the water to dive on the wreck of an unknown sailing vessel. Students from all over the U.S. have traveled to America's oldest port to participate in the 2009 LAMP Field School. Our primary objective is to excavate this sunken ballast pile in an attempt to determine if it represents the remains of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis. ]]> "boot camp" the fieldwork begins. "In the field," which in our case means in the waters offshore St. Augustine, is where they will learn archaeology by doing archaeology. Each morning begins at 6:00am when the entire crew meets at LAMP on the grounds of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. The first task is to load all of the gear that we need into trucks. Here LAMP volunteer and Field School student John "Tank" Brunswick helps load the truck with tanks--his specialty. We usually have two separate teams go out every day--a survey team to search for undiscovered shipwrecks, and a diving team to dive on and excavate the particular shipwreck site we are currently interested in. While the tanks, dive gear, and other safety and archaeological equipment is loaded onto trucks at LAMP, we send a two-person team to go fetch the Roper, our diving vessel. Roper is kept at a private dock owned by local residents Bill Hutcherson and his family. They have generously allowed us to use their dock, which would cost us in the neighborhood of $1000 per month at a marina. Their dock is very close to the public dock at the Lighthouse boat ramp, which is where all of the students, gear, and boats meet for loading each morning. Here is the view of Salt Run looking south from the public dock, with Roper on its way. One of the nice things about waking up so early are the sights which we normally sleep through. Here are some great early morning images of the Lighthouse taken from the boat ramp. Once the Roper has arrived at the Lighthouse boat ramp dock, the loading begins--tanks, bags of dive gear, dredge pumps, dredge hose, the crew box full of archaeological supplies, jugs of water, line, buoys, all are passed over the gunwale in a mostly well-coordinated effort. With lots of students in the field school there are many hands and the loading goes relatively fast. Some items, like this 40' length of dredge hose, are large and unwieldy . . . . . . which can lead to some interesting maneuvers on the dock and boat. Once all the gear is loaded, Roper departs the dock. It doesn't take long for the students to find one of the more enjoyable places to stow themselves away for the hour-long ride to the site. From left to right is Kaia Brown, Megan Staley, Honora Sullivan-Chin, Wendy Drennon, Chris Borlas, and Shelly Gray. Visible inside the cabin at the helm is Sam Turner, LAMP Director of Archaeology and our captain for the day. Because the survey team is not going out today, due to a problem with our sub-bottom profiler, we have requested that LAMP's newest vessel, the recently donated RV Desmond Valdes, join us for an hour or two to help us set our three-point anchoring system (and to bring us some extra fuel for the dredge motor, which we forgot to load). In a three-point mooring system, we are anchored by our bow anchor as usual, but also use one anchor of the port stern and one off the starboard stern. Three anchors holds us pretty well in one place, despite winds and tides which change throughout the day. This is critical when we have hoses (hookah hoses, dredge hose, water pump hose) from the boat going down to the divers below. We direct the Desmond Valdes to take and anchor out and guide them as they position it for us in an appropriate spot. Each of the students gets a "fam dive" on the site. This is a familiarization dive, necessary in order to orient themselves to what is a new site in dark, low-visibility conditions. Here Shelly prepares to enter the water for a dive. Sam is assisting her on the swim platform, while Chuck (who is serving as Dive Supervisor for the day of diving) and Kaia (who is acting as Timekeeper) look on. The site we are diving on is unique in that it is the final resting place of two individual shipwrecks. The more prominent of these is a massive steamship, with its boiler, engine, and propeller protruding up from the seafloor. In addition, there is a small ballast pile located just west of the boiler. This pile of rocks, and the wooden timbers preserved beneath it, is all that survives of a sailing ship of unknown date and identity. It is this vessel which we are postulating may be the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, lost in 1861 on the "North Breakers." The North Breakers were located just north of the 19th century channel entrance and these two wrecks (undoubtedly along with many others) lie within the right spot. In 2007 LAMP and Flinders University investigated this double shipwreck site and you can read more about it here. This year's strategy will focus on a meter-wide excavation trench that will cut across the ballast pile from one side of the hull to the other. We have laid in a gridded trench which will served as a guideline for our excavating divers and we plan to first remove exposed ballast from each 1 meter by 1 meter unit, and then excavate sediments using a suction dredge. We are not the only ones interested in this shipwreck site. A sea turtle has been hanging out with us for a few field days. On the other hand, maybe he's more interested in us than the wreck, and he does seem to like to inspect our anchor line in the water. Notice that in addition to the barnacles on his back, he has a wad of mud on his head. Like our divers, his activity on the bottom sends up plumes of mud visible to us on the surface. Also like our divers, activity that stirs up the mud fluff layer on the bottom decreases our visibility, which doesn't seem to bother him at all. The vast amount of mud on our site and the surrounding seafloor is a by-product of the extraordinary torrential rains we suffered through in May of this year. They flushed an immense quantity of mud from the inland waterways out through the inlet. Honora waiting for her buddy on the surface before her next dive. Wendy is serving as safety diver for this dive. As such she is ready to enter the water at a moment's notice if the Dive Supervisor commands her to do so. We follow strict scientific diving safety guidelines on every LAMP project. On the subsequent dive, Wendy switches from safety diver to working diver. The visibility has steadily improved over the first three diving days of the field school. Today it is what we would consider exceptional, though only on top of the boiler and steam engine, which are of course higher above the muddy bottom. On a site like this, whenever you have a bit of visibility it is important to take advantage of it to check your air gauge. Over these first three days, our student divers have successfully oriented themselves to the wreck site, learned to deal with a low visibility working situation, recorded a profile or cross-section shape of the ballast pile directly along our excavation trench, and have begun to remove ballast stones from the trench. Things have also been busy on the surface. Since we will soon be dredging we want to deploy and troubleshoot our dredge. Here the dredge hose is being lowered into the water. This dredge is powered by a 9 horsepower water pump. This particular dredge system, along with a second powered by an 18 horsepower pump, is on long-term loan to LAMP by the Archaeological Research Cooperative. Maintenance on machinery that operates seasonally in a salt water environment is always problematic, which is why we are so excited that upon assembling the various hoses and running the motor that everything works! Another motor that will be droning on for much of our time offshore is the hookah. This is a low-pressure compressor that can send air down to 1 to 5 divers at a time via a long flexible hose and standard scuba regulator. Our system is an Air Line by Joe Sink and as a rugged, reliable hookah for working divers we find it to be a fine system. One great advantage of the hookah for our divers is that even in the low visibility waters where gauges cannot be read, air management becomes much less critical, as each diver has an unlimited source of air as long as the hookah is running. If the hookah fails or runs out of gas, the diver simply switches to a scuba tank on his or her back. A potential disadvantage of the hookah is that the divers are tethered to a fixed point and are therefore less mobile. This is not necessarily a disadvantage if your divers are meant to be in one spot the entire dive such as during an excavation, and the tether also means that they are directly connected to the boat (a nice benefit when in low vis waters). On the other hand, this system does entail lots of hoses in the water, which can always constitute an entanglement hazard. It is usually easiest to have two divers in the water on hookah, and any additional divers working on scuba. A multitude of hoses and lines in the water, along with the constant loud drone of machinery on the surface, are simply occupational hazards for the underwater archaeologist. Tending a line in this picture is veteran science diver Steve Resler, an underwater videographer from Pepe Productions here to help shoot a documentary on our search for the Jefferson Davis. Another task that occupies our divers for the first few days of diving is the making of ballast lift boxes. We construct these by lining a standard milk crate with window screen, attaching a lead weight to the bottom to prevent them from floating when empty, and attaching two polypro line lift handles. These are used by divers on the bottom to fill with ballast stones recovered from a particular unit in our excavation trench. Once a diver has completely filled a crate with ballast stones on the seafloor, he or she uses a lift bag (like the one pictured here behind Rachel) to help move the heavy box. A full box of rocks might weigh between 70 and 90 lbs or so. The diver attaches the empty lift bag, and slowly fills it with air. Too much air may cause the bag to skyrocket dangerously to the surface, so this is a delicate operation, and our lift bags have dump valves so it is easy to vent air from the bag if it is providing too much lift. When the bag and rock box are close to neutral buoyancy, the diver swims it along a travel line on the seafloor to the pre-arranged lift station. This is directly below the side of the Roper at which we have attached a line and pulley to the mast, so its position changes slightly every day and has to be re-established each morning. A buoy has been dropped here, and the lifting line along with empty boxes can be attached to the buoy line and thus dropped down to the divers so that it lands at the same spot each time. The diver deflates and disengages the lift bag, attaches the box of rocks to the dropped lifting line, and then signals with two mighty tugs on the buoy that another load of rocks is ready to be hauled up. This is a view looking up at the buoy line and lifting line from below (not on the bottom where it is too dark to see, but from mid-way in the water column). Up above, Megan and Sam haul on the pulley line . . . . . . while Tank and LAMP Archaeologist and Logistical Coordinator Brendan Burke haul the box up . . . . . . and over the gunwale. Each box of rocks is tagged so that we can keep track of which meter square unit it was retrieved from. We will be transporting all ballast stones back to LAMP headquarters where they will be counted and weighed. A sample will be taken of these for analysis, and then the vast majority will be used to re-bury the site when we are finished with our excavation and need to fill in the trench. At the end of our first week of diving, we have a special treat lined up for our students. We have been invited by fellow archaeologist Mike Murray for a special field school cruise aboard the schooner Momentum, docked here in St. Augustine. What a fabulous way to spend a Friday evening! The students have a chance to learn the ropes or just enjoy a beverage, dinner, and the sunset over the water. What a great way to end the first week of Field School!

Archaeology Boot Camp: the 2009 LAMP Field School Begins

2009-06-14T14:43:36Z

Honora Sullivan-Chin, a student in the 2009 LAMP Field School, undergoes black-out mask zero visibility training under the supervision of Graduate Student Supervisor Kendra Kennedy. The first two days of Field School are an intensive training session to prepare them for the challenges on diving in zero- and low-visibility conditions on the wreck of an unknown sailing vessel offshore which might be the lost privateer and former slave ship Jefferson Davis.]]> recruiting announcements went out months ago. Those who signed up started filtering in last weekend--college students from all over the U.S.; from Florida, New York, Kansas, Minnesota, Chicago, and Connecticut. Our team of Graduate Student Supervisors--Kendra Kennedy and Bill Neal from University of West Florida, and Rachel Horlings from Syracuse University--had been prepping the Field House, shopping for groceries, and making scheduled student pick-ups at the Jacksonville Airport, under the coordination of LAMP archaeologist and conservator Christine Mavrick. Out on the water these divers and the remaining LAMP staff have been diving the site of an unknown ballast pile, laying in excavation trench gridlines and travel lines to aid with navigation in zero-visibility conditions. On shore we have been troubleshooting dredges, configuring equipment, and assembling a comprehensive course reader. The 2009 Field School is about to begin! On Monday, all students and staff assemble at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum for the first day of Field School. We meet in the Gallery for an orientation session. Chuck Meide, Director of LAMP, greets the students and introduces them to the facilities and operating procedures they will be using while working in St. Augustine. Pictured from left to right, back row: Shelly Gray (U. Connecticut), Chris Borlas (U. Florida), Dr. Sam Turner (Director of Archaeology, LAMP). Front row: Megan Staley (U. Kansas), Honora Sullivan-Chin (Syracuse U.), Kaia Brown (U. Minnesota), and Wendy Drennon (Florida State U.). Not pictured are John "Tank" Brunswick, a LAMP volunteer and local nurse who is also taking the field school, and Samantha Shockly, whose trimester schedule at U. Chicago will prevent her from attending the first week of field school. After a classroom orientation, which includes an overview of our Emergency Plan and Operations and Diving Plan, the students are broken up into groups, where they rotate through four stations to learn the basics of underwater mapping, compass navigation, knot tying, and remote sensing survey. At the mapping station, Supervisor Rachel Horlings shows Chris and Shelly the basics of recording within a mapping grid or drawing frame. Equipped with a folding rule and clipboard with waterproof paper, Chris and Shelly get busy recording the mock artifacts within this one meter by one meter unit. The top of the Lighthouse gives a great view of this exercise. In addition to mapping with a grid, the students learn how to take offset measurements from a baseline. Both of these techniques will be used on the ballast pile site offshore. At the knot-tying station, Dr. Sam Turner demonstrates how to tie off a line to a cleat while Tank, Kaia, and Wendy observe. At the remote sensing station, Graduate Supervisor Kendra Kennedy teaches the basics of GPS navigation, side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and magnetometer use to Honora and Megan. After these exercises are complete, the students move to the local dive shop, Sea Hunt Scuba, for the swimming and snorkelling skills evaluation that is required by LAMP diving standards. Afterwards they get a lecture introducing them to the basic methods and theory of underwater and maritime archaeology by LAMP Director Chuck Meide. Then its on to the Field House to clean up and enjoy a barbecue with students and staff. The following day we are back at the Sea Hunt Scuba pool for a scuba skills checkout. The students review all of the basic skills, such as mask-clearing, regulator recovery, buddy breathing, octopus breathing, BC ditch and don, and a controlled emergency ascent. In addition they master some of the more difficult skills including buddy breathing without a mask and the full rescue of an unconscious diver, including towing and rescue breaths at the surface. But by far the most challenging drill is the black-out mask obstacle course. Visibility on the shipwreck site is often very limited, but with the torrential amount of rain that northeast Florida experienced in May and early June our site has been covered with a massive amount of mud flushed into the sea from our extensive inland waterways. Visibility has been total zero on the bottom. Some days the vis gets better a few feet up from the bottom, but some days the diver has to ascend 10 feet just to read his or her air gauge. Working dives in these conditions are challenging, but can be mastered with the proper training. Because of this we have taken the time to set up a very challenging underwater obstacle course. While the students were at lunch, Chuck laid out a continuous zig-zagging line from a cave diver's reel throughout the entire bottom of the pool. At some points this line ascends up to a ladder and back to the pool bottom, and up to the shallow end and back to the deep end. Then all manner of objects are laid along the cave line: barrels, large mock ship timbers made of fiberglass, rubber vats, PVC grids, floats rising up off the bottom, numerous bungee cords, and lots of loose and tight line. One long polypro line crosses the entire pool bottom, creating an entaglement hazard that cuts across most segments of the guideline. Here is one segment of the course where the guideline goes through a grid square and into and then out of a large plastic barrel. This arrangement proved to be one of the more challenging aspects of the obstacle course. Two students run the course at the same time. Each starts out with their masks completely covered in duct tape at a floating buoy on the surface, and without the ability to see they make a descent to the bottom where the guideline is tied off. Their goal is to run the entire course, disentangling themselves whenever necessary, and reach the end of the guideline where they ascend a second buoy. At some point the two divers will run into and grope their way past each other. Because of the numerous entanglement hazards that have been purposely placed in their path, each diver has a "guardian angel" staff diver who accompanies them closely during the course. They keep an eye on the blind divers but offer no assistance without a pre-arranged "I'm hopelessly stuck" hand signal. In addition to these two tenders, several other staff divers are in the water to constantly re-set the guidelines and other objects as they get dragged or moved around by the blind divers. Their other goal is to purposely entangle the blind divers by hooking bungee cords to their equipment throughout the dive. Here, a bungee cord anchored to the bottom has been attached to Honora's BC as she swam by. She's not going anywhere until she realizes she's caught and resolves the problem. It doesn't take her long to do so. After realizing she is caught in something, she follows the standard scuba diver's plan of action--stop, breathe, think, act--and removes the offending entanglement. Chris has been taught to swim with one hand on the guideline and one hand in front of his head so as not to run into any objects that might cause injury in an underwater no-vis scenario. Here his guideline enters a space that his body cannot fit into. He feels around the object and eventually picks up the guideline as it comes out the other side, and continues with the course. Kaia is following her guideline and runs into a tight polypro line stretched just a foot or so off the bottom. But she feels it in time and avoids it by rotating her tank valve (a notorious entrangler) to one side and swimming under the line. At times things can get pretty confusing down there, but all of our students are able to solve any problems they encounter with minimal confusion. Here Megan takes off her entire BC, tank, and regulator kit because her tank valve was hopelessly entangled. After removing the entanglement, she puts her gear back on and continues in the right direction. LAMP archaeologist and archaeological conservator Christine Mavrick giving hand signals that only some can see. At the end of the day, our students feel like they have been run through the gauntlet and come out better divers at the other end. After one more evening lecture and briefing, Archaeology Boot Camp (Fin Camp?) is over. Tomorrow we will be in the field, diving in low visibility for real, where the wrecks are made of iron and wood and stone and covered in sea urchins and stone crabs. The staff are pleased with our students--they have all demonstrated excellent diving skills, and kept their cool under pressure in a stressful situation. The students are confident and eager to get to the real thing. Stay tuned for the continuing story of the 2009 Field School and the search for the Jefferson Davis offshore . . .

LAMP Field Season is Underway with the Arrival of the R/V Roper!

2009-06-11T02:52:09Z

R/V Roper, the research vessel of the Institute of Maritime History, is on loan to LAMP through the end of July. A crew of five IMH divers delivered this working dive boat from Maryland to St. Augustine in late May. We had anticipated the arrival of the R/V Roper for months now, and in late May the day finally arrived. We had heard from our colleagues in the Chesapeake region about this vessel, about what a fantastic working dive boat she is, and finally we were going to find out for ourselves. ]]> Roper is nothing short of fabulous. Well, she may not be all that pretty to look at, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all, and for a crew in need of a hardy, robust, well-laid-out and well-equipped working dive boat, the Roper is the belle of the ball. After the Roper's arrival, we went out for a day of diving on our field season shipwreck site, the Steamship and Ballast Pile wrecks. Joining us were the Roper's crew of five avocational archaeological divers, used to the cold, dark murky waters of the Chesapeake Bay or Potomac River. Before visiting divers enter the water, they have to fill out a lot of paperwork--an occupational hazard for scientific divers. Pictured here are IMH divers Kirk Pierce and Isabel Mack, and LAMP volunteer diver and medical officer Tank Brunswick. Under all this equipment is IMH diver Dan Lynberg. Like most of the IMH diving research team, Dan has the equipment, training, and experience to conduct zero visibility dives. That is a good thing considering the seven days straight of rain we just had the previous week--it has ushered in unprecedented amounts of mud to the water, reducing visibility to zero on the bottom and a significant portion of the water column. If these IMH divers were expecting warm, clear Florida waters, they were in for a surprise! At least it was warm (by their standards, at least, as it is still a little chilly for us Floridians). And as it turned out, they felt right at home in the black vis, declaring it worse or as bad as anything back home and clamoring for a second dive. In the background is IMH diver and Roper mate Dawn Cheshaek. On the left is Dave Howe, owner and operator of the Roper and IMH's most active Board member. He is talking shop with Dr. Sam Turner, LAMP Director of Archaeology who also happens to be IMH's President. IMH is based in Kensington, Maryland, and they work mostly in the Chesapeake region. But for the next few days they will be working with LAMP offshore America's Oldest Port. Dave Howe is a longstanding diver and avocational archaeologist. He is also an old-school diver. He is the only one of all the IMH and LAMP divers to completely eschew a wetsuit, preferring to dive in his jeans and shirt! After the first day of diving with the IMH crew, we need to refuel Roper. So instead of turning back into Salt Run we continue in to Matanzas Harbor. Here the Roper passes the Castillo, the 17th-18th century Spanish fortification that has guarded St. Augustine and the inlet for centuries. On the way, we are overtaken by LAMP Archaeologist and Logistical Coordinator Brendan Burke in the R/V Desmond Valdes, out on a sea trial after recent repairs. This fabulous offshore diving vessel, a 23' Grady White, was recently donated to LAMP by the Desmond Valdes family and is named in his honor. We bid Brendan farewell and head towards Daryl Poli's Marine Supply and Oil on the San Sebastian River. This is the traditional working waterfront of St. Augustine, where hundreds of shrimp boats were docked, serviced, built, and worked. Roper started her life as as shrimpboat, built in North Carolina in 1991. On the following day, a Saturday, we welcome to the Roper students from the Pedro Menendez High School MARC diving and archaeology class. These students need their final checkout dive in order to be certified. All are strong students who have been through many weeks of scuba training. The visibility on the bottom consists of a sizable layer of liquid mud, slowly settling and consolidating on the bottom as time goes by without more rain. It is a good thing that our new divers are well-trained, and we safely lead each student on a tour of the wreck sites. They all thoroughly enjoy the dive, despite the low vis. It will be a dive to remember. LAMP Director and NAUI instructor Chuck Meide leads four of the eight students on a dive to familiarize themselfves with the wrecks of a 19th century steamboat and an unknown sailing vessel--which might, just might, turn out to be the Jefferson Davis . . . Unfortunately the stay of the Roper's crew is far too short, and while we had Kirk for two extra days they have all headed home. While they were here our primary objective was to familiarize ourselves with this vessel since we will be using her extensively for the next two months. We finished checkout dives for our high school archaeology students, and spent a lot of time diving on our site preparing it for the upcoming excavation and field school students. We also conducted some remote sensing survey from the vessel, which is another of her primary functions back home. This is a lot of boat, and she will make a big difference in our field season, which is just getting started. Stay tuned for more updates from our fieldwork and field school, which at the time of this writing is underway and going strong!

6/8-6/26/2009: LAMP 2009 Summer Field School

2009-06-09T02:16:37Z

UPDATE: The 2009 Field School is currently underway! Click here to read the ongoing Field School blog posts from staff and students! The 2009 Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) Field School will be held June 8-26, 2009 at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. This comprehensive 3-week field practicum will focus on the testing of an unidentified ballast pile to make a determination whether it represents the remains of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, lost on the St. Augustine bar in August 1861 after the most successful cruise of the entire war. Alternate inshore sites will be investigated depending on conditions offshore. ]]> Requirements: · Students must be scuba-certified and qualify as a scientific diver through AAUS (American Academy of Underwater Sciences) or a similar institution, or else qualify as a scientific-diver-in-training through LAMP’s scientific diver program. These requirements include a specific medical exam to be completed prior to field school, and a swim test to be conducted upon arrival. More information and downloads of the medical exam form and other required paperwork are available here. · Students must have DAN diving accident insurance or an equivalent policy. · Students must hold current CPR and First Aid certifications. · Reimbursement for DAN insurance and the scientific diver medical examination (up to $100.00 each) may be available with receipt. Sponsors This field practicum is supported by the following universities: Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia Plymouth State University, Plymouth, New Hampshire Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida Additional partnering institutions: Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) The Institute of Maritime History (IMH) Housing LAMP maintains a field house on five acres of rural property just outside St. Augustine. Expect field bunkhouse/dormitory-type conditions though the house is furnished with air conditioning, two bathrooms, and a fully-operational kitchen. Some students may wish to camp on the land around the field house; if so they should bring their own tent/gear. Meals will be communal and prepared each day by the field school participants on a rotating basis. The budget for purchasing food is derived from the field school fee charged to all students. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Download the official flier promoting the 2009 summer field school! _______________________________________________________________________________________ Online Application Forms Download the application package by clicking here Please download the application package, which consists of three one-page forms in a single Microsoft Word document. You may complete the forms digitally or else print them out and complete by hand. When finished, please send to Dr. Sam Turner by email or fax or regular mail: Dr. Sam Turner Director of Archaeology, LAMP 81 Lighthouse Avenue St. Augustine, Florida 32080 USA Fax: 904-808-1248 Phone: 904-829-0745 If you have any other questions, please email Dr. Turner at sturner@staugustinelighthouse.com. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Field school research vessels include LAMP's newly refurbished RV Island Fever, and the Institute of Maritime History's RV Roper, pictured below: Diver recording the mystery ballast pile during the 2007 field school.

The Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of Florida

2009-05-21T17:14:41Z

The year 2013 will be the 500th anniversary of the discovery of Florida and the North American mainland. To prepare for this anniversary as well as to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the failed colonial attempt at Pensacola and the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, the State of Florida has launched a website called Viva Florida. One of the principal purposes of the website is to inform and educate the general public about the unique and ancient cultural heritage found in Florida. Long before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, St. Augustine was an active frontier port in Spain’s vast American empire. A section of the website devoted to education contains three video lectures by experts in the fields of history and nautical archaeology. The first lecture is by Dr. Wes Singeltary of the Florida Department of State. The second is by Richard Brosnaham, Executive Director of West Florida Preservation, Inc. The final lecture is presented by Dr. Sam Turner, the Director of Archaeology at LAMP at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum who discusses the life of Juan Ponce de León and his voyage of discovery to Florida in 1513. To see the website follow the link below. http://www.vivaflorida.org To see the lectures click on Education in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen.

Meet the R/V Desmond Valdes

2009-05-21T14:53:43Z

R/V Desmond Valdes under way. On March 1st I was given an address and a location to go look at a boat. First off, I’m always going to look at boats but this one was special. It was being donated to the Lighthouse and I had been tasked with finding out more about it. After pulling into the storage lot and taking a quick gander, my eyes settled on a very nice Grady White over against the back fence that I identified as the donor vessel. Approaching more closely I noticed that a much larger and beefier Grady White next to the first one. My eyes had to re-adjust a bit as I realized that this larger boat was, in fact, our subject.]]> John Valdes and Associates Inc., to discuss the possible donation of a boat. Mr. Valdes’ company is a contracting firm focusing on renovations to historic structures and houses and most recently completed the renovation of one of Henry Flagler’s fountains as a donation to the city. Many other historic and attractive buildings around town have also been renovated by the Valdes family, such as the Villa Rosa or the Casa Blanca Bed and Breakfast. Nonetheless, the company, like LAMP, pays particular attention to history and helps to preserve it for our beautiful city. John Valdes’ interest in local history brought his company and LAMP together. The family has a particular interest in the region’s history and John is well aware of St. Augustine’s maritime past. He thought that a boat that he had purchased about nine years ago along with his brother, Desmond Valdes, could help us in our mission to complete maritime survey and archaeological diving. And so the donation was made. The boat is a 1989 Grady White Gulfstream 232. She is powered with twin 140hp Johnson outboards and has a beam of 9.5’. Overall, the boat is 29.3’ in length, including the bow pulpit and engine platform mounted to the transom. First day back in the water, beginning sea trials. Grady White, one of the oldest boat manufacturers still in business, began building boats in Greenville, North Carolina in 1959. Their characteristic look, seaworthiness, and dependability has grown quite a following of fans and generated a reputation for being well-founded and safe. In production since the late 1970s, the Gulfstream 232 is well laid out for offshore fisherman and scientist alike. Her roomy cabin can easily be streamlined to hold survey equipment, dive gear, or other sundry storage. The walkaround area, while not excessively wide for the feet, does offer good handholds and railings to stabilize yourself. The factory hard-top over the helm had been extended by the Valdes family to cover most of the work deck and the rails for this provide great handholds for working around the transom. When we first picked up the Valdes it was taken to the field house for temporary storage and to asses what it needed to get seaworthy. There was a bunch of old gas in the two tanks which needed to come out, the whole boat needed a good cleaning, but overall there was nothing too big to tackle that would keep her from the water for long. After some initial survey, we moved the boat to St. Augustine Marine Center where Bill Parmer (of Rapid Marine Repair, Inc) began to get her mechanically sound. The only semi-major repair was replacing a steering arm on the starboard engine. The original one had electrolyzed down to a bare shadow of its original self and was prone to snapping. Otherwise, both engines got their carburetors rebuilt, were compression tested, some hydraulic lines were replaced, and a general tune up was performed. Taking her out for a test! Her first sea trial was on April 30th. Cpt. Dick Orsini, Cpt. Rob Mitchell, LAMP volunteers ‘Tank’ Brunswick, and Christine Fredericks were on hand. We put the boat through her paces and each of our volunteer captains got a chance to familiarize themselves with the boat. Our route for the trials was out Salt Run, to the St. Augustine sea buoy, back into town under the Bridge of Lions, and then back to the Lighthouse boat ramp. Not exactly the longest and most strenuous course but long enough for each of the drivers to get a turn at the helm. The next step was to have the LAMP logo and vessel’s name printed up. Vinyl Decals by Randy Minnix donated their services and prepared some really nice lettering for the name and decals with both the LAMP and Lighthouse logos. A folding flag pole was also rigged to provide a place to fly the alpha flag, dive flag, and lighthouse pennant. When Nina and Pinta arrived in St. Augustine the Valdes got her first opportunity to shine and perform. Desmond Valdes II joined us for the day’s event and we loaded members of the press onboard at the City Marina for a quick jaunt up to Fish Island Marina where the caravels were docked. When the caravels departed for their one mile run to City Docks the Valdes was on hand as a chase boat and to act as a platform for photographers. Desmond Valdes II at the helm (L to R), LAMP Director Chuck Meide, me, Cpt. Rob Mitchell. Since then, weather has prevented survey but as soon as the current northeaster clears away we’ll be back out on the water. Steve Schuyler, who has a dock on Salt Run, has been most generous in letting us keep the boat at his dock. Many thanks Steve! Despite the wet start to the field season we are gearing up for a busy and exciting one. Keep posted as we move into field mode and summer practicum gets under way! As she looked this morning, dejected in the rain and itching to get back out. The feeling is mutual!

5/06 - 5/17/09 Columbus Ships in St. Augustine

2009-05-12T04:43:54Z

What: Historically accurate replicas of the Nina and the Pinta, open to the public for tours Where: St. Augustine City Marina When: 9am-6pm, May 6th - May 17th, 2009 Who: These two replica ships are operated by the Columbus Foundation, and were brought to St. Augustine with the help of LAMP and the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum How much: Admission for adults is $7, children older than 4 are $5, and senior citizens are $6. A guided group rate of $3 per person is also available for groups of 15 or more. A portion of each admission goes to the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.

Dive Training for Students at Pedro Menendez High

2009-04-30T06:53:00Z

High school students (L to R) Drew, Matt, Florian, and Danielle learn the scuba diving and the basics of underwater archaeology in the MARC class. LAMP staff regularly teaches a Maritime Archaeology Research Class (MARC) at Pedro Menendez High School. In addition to learning the basics of maritime history, archaeology, and marine science, select students undergo scuba training and certification. All dive training is overseen by Chuck Meide, LAMP Director and a NAUI scuba instructor.]]> Sea Hunt Scuba, St. Augustine's premier dive shop. Sea Hunt Scuba maintains a training pool which is all deep end and perfect for teaching scuba. Despite the intense training sessions, these kids know how to have fun. Here Drew and Matt show off for the camera. Danielle is the only girl in the class this semester. She is a strong diver and can keep up with any of the guys. Florian is an exchange student from Germany. He is on the swim team and is very good in the water, a natural scuba diver. Here is a video clip of our student divers during a pool training session. Our volunteer John "Tank" Brunswick is undergoing Divemaster training at LAMP, and he helps oversee the students during our pool sessions. Here is is participating in a black-out mask drill. His view obstructed by duct tape, Tank is following a line laid out on the pool bottom in a zig-zag obstacle course. Each of the students has also done this drill, to prepare them for dives in low-visibility waters. They will be diving with us on a historic shipwreck site in late May, where they will undoubtedly learn to appreciate this low-vis training. The students must also participate in five open water dives, and demonstrate to their instructor that they have mastered all of the basic required skills of scuba. We staged our first three checkout dives successfully last Saturday at Alexander Spring in the Ocala National Forest. Even with only four student divers, we need a considerable amount of gear. Here is some of the scuba equipment stowed on a tarp. In the background is Alexander Spring. Congratulations to our student divers for completing their first three dives! From left to right, LAMP archaeologist Brendan Burke, student diver Danielle, LAMP volunteer Tank, LAMP Director Chuck Meide, and student divers Drew, Matt, and Florian. Stay tuned for more pictures of our young explorers from their next open water dives, on a shipwreck site offshore St. Augustine. To see more pictures from previous semesters of the MARC scuba class, click here (to see lots of underwater photos of Alexander Spring) and here (to see ocean checkouts).

Take a Virtual Dive on Florida's "Museums in the Sea"

2009-04-16T13:55:33Z

I thought that folks would be interested in the new webpage produced by the State of Florida, Museums in the Sea. This is a really neat interactive website which allows visitors to explore the history, archaeology, and marine life associated with Florida's eleven different Underwater Archaeology Preserves. These are all shipwrecks off Florida's coastlines which are historically significant and also suitable dive sites for locals and visitors to dive. With the new website, now non-divers can explore them as well!]]> wreck of the dredge Florida as possible nomination. I'll leave you all with the latest press release from the State of Florida's Bureau of Archaeological Research announcing the Museums in the Sea webpage: Florida Department of State Kurt S. Browning Secretary of State For Immediate Release April 15, 2009 "MUSEUMS IN THE SEA" PROVIDES VIRTUAL DIVE ONTO FLORIDA'S UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRESERVES Tallahassee, FL - Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning today announced the completion of the "Museums in the Sea" project, presenting extensive online resources and information about Florida's 11 Underwater Archaeological Preserves. Visitors to the online site at www.museumsinthesea.com can choose a shipwreck, take a guided underwater tour of the site, watch a narrated history of the vessel, and observe the marine life that lives in the wreckage. "Museums in the Sea" provides detailed Web tours of Florida's 11 Underwater Archaeological Preserves," said Secretary Browning. "This is another way in which we can share Florida's unique maritime heritage with the world. Now everyone who has access to the Internet can virtually visit Florida's living museums in the sea." Florida's Underwater Archaeological Preserves combine heritage, ecological and recreational tourism opportunities at 11 shipwreck locations around the state. The program began in 1987 in response to sites that were nominated by local waterfront communities. Since then, the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research has established the 11 shipwreck parks throughout the state that have become popular attractions for snorkelers and divers. Each section of the "Museums in the Sea" Web site has photographs and text to accompany the videos, and visitors may download and print the Underwater Preserve brochures and underwater guides. "Museums in the Sea" provides educators with new research material for students, who can use their computers to learn about Florida's maritime history and marine biology, and see environmental changes that can occur to shipwrecks over time. The interactive Web site was created by the Bureau of Archaeological Research Underwater Archaeology Team and the Florida Center for Interactive Media, with funding assistance from the Department of Environmental Protection, Coastal Management Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. # # # Visit "Museums in the Sea" www.museumsinthesea.com

Easter Parade!! Keeping Our Shrimping Heritage Alive in America's Oldest Port

2009-04-14T01:22:39Z

For the first time ever, LAMP and the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum hosted a float in the annual St. Augustine Easter Parade! Our theme was Shrimping in Our Nation's Oldest Port, and to this end we towed a wooden boat with classic lines rigged in a manner reminiscent of traditional shrimp trawlers of the 1920s and 30s, the dawn of the shrimping era in St. Augustine. Not only did we have a great time, we proved a big hit with the crowd! Join us below to see some pictures of this really fun day. You never know what LAMP and the Lighthouse will be doing to keep our maritime heritage alive in America's oldest port! ]]> Florida Photographic Collection, State Library and Archives of Florida. To see some other LAMPost blog entries related to St. Augustine's shrimping industry, click here or here.