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Welcome to the Underwater Archaeology Homepage from UnderwaterArchaeology.com! |
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Shipwrecks and Sunken Ships Water covers nearly 3 quarters of the Earth's surface. The story of humanity's attempts to cross it are told by the remains of the vessels they used and the artifacts they left behind, on the beds of our creeks, streams and rivers, and in the ice-cold depths of the oceans.
A water craft may sink for many reasons:- In pre-history North America, for example, a canoe may have been swept downstream during a rainfall, only to be later buried in the mud along the bank and preserved for millennia. Some ships have foundered in storms, others have been destroyed during wars, and still others have become victims of fire. All in all, some experts believe there may be over 3 million undiscovered shipwrecks worldwide, with possibly over 65,000 thousand undiscovered wrecks in the waters of North American alone. It is the job of underwater archaeologists to find them and bring their secrets out! The RMS Titanic Few shipwrecks have captured the public imagination as much as the story of the Titanic. On April 10th 1912, the RMS Titanic left Southampton England on her maiden voyage, destined for New York City. She was touted as "unsinkable," and the safest ship ever built. In fact, she was thought to be so safe that she carried only a small number of lifeboats, just in case she came upon another ship in need! Her passenger list contained a mixture of both elite first class passengers, as well as a large contingent of immigrants packed into lower levels. Four days after launch, she struck an iceberg with a glancing blow and slowly sank, taking with her over 1500 people to their deaths. The discovery of this legendary shipwreck was the subject of a special investigation by Dr. Robert Ballard that spanned more than a decade. It is an example of how modern technologies are making it possible for scientists and researchers to probe deeper and deeper into the ocean, in some cases discovering shipwrecks that have waited for centuries. Sophisticated sonar can be used to find anomalies on the ocean floor. Remotely operated vehicles (ROV's) are then sent down to get a closer look. Today, these ROV's can descend deeper than ever before. The Hunley On February 17th, 1864, the Confederate submarine HL Hunley was sent on a secret mission to attack and destroy a Union Naval ship called the USS Housatonic,- anchored just outside of Charleston Harbor. Under the cover of darkness, the crew of the Hunley glided the sub just beneath the surface of the water towards the Housatonic and rammed a torpedo into the ships side, lodging it there. Then they backed away with a rope attached to the torpedo. After backing away a short distance the crew of the Hunley detonated the torpedo, and as the Housatonic burned and slowly sank, the name of the Hunley was etched into history forever. She had become the first submarine to successfully attack and destroy an enemy warship. But what happened next is a mystery. The ship and crew of the Hunley apparently surfaced to signal their comrads that the mission was a success, but that was the last ever seen of them. They never made it back to shore. What caused the sub to sink? Was it damaged during the explosion? The precise location of the sub remained a mystery,- that is, until recently. The subject of an investigation by the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), the Hunley has been re-discovered, raised, and is currently under a process of conservation and study, as researchers seek to unravel the mysteries inside! Reconstructing events from past wars are just one of the tasks undertaken by underwater archaeologists all over the world. Queen Anne's Revenge The discovery of Queen Anne's Revenge is one of the most recent shipwreck discoveries to excite the public imagination. In November 1717, English pirates captured the French slave-ship La Concorde near the island of Martinique. Led by Edward Teach, (the notorious Blackbeard), the pirates made the La Concorde the flagship of their fleet and renamed the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge. After spending the winter seizing ships and terrorizing the Caribbean, Blackbeard's fleet consisting of Queen Anne's Revenge and three smaller sloops blockaded the port of Charleston in May 1718. After continuing up the coast, Blackbeard lost his flagship while attempting to enter Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina and then five months later he was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke, on the North Carolina outer banks. After the discovery of the Queen Anne's Revenge off the coast of North Carolina, archaeologists began the careful process of studying the wreck, conserving and authenticating the discovery through artifacts, examination of cannons, and preservation of the site for future study. The chief obstacle researchers face in discovering and exploring this wreck is limited visibility. Located in relatively shallow, choppy water, off the North Carolina coast, this wreck falls easily within the limits of scuba diving. But the limited visibility available in the murky waters of North Carolina provide a perfect example of the diverse conditions that underwater archaeologists must learn to face in their work. Artifacts and Conservation By studying the artifacts left on the beds of our oceans and lakes archaeologists can learn much about the seafaring people who left them there. But the excavation and handling of artifacts requires skilled professionals. Sea water, for example, contains tiny microorganisms and wood-eating worms that can completely devour the hull of any wooden ship that lies exposed for years. In many cases, such as in the fate of ancient Phoenician cargo ships, often the only trace of the wreck is a pile of amphoras left in a pile where the cargo hold used to be, the wooden hull of the ship vanished without a trace. (The hulls of wooden ships in salt-free ice-cold northern lakes often fare much better.) Other wooden artifacts, such as civil-war era muskets for example, may be intact but left extremely brittle due to exposure and saturation of salts. In these cases, chemical treatments or careful handling and submersion in fresh water may be required to leach out the salts. Gold coins recovered from Spanish Galleons require special cleaning and handling, and indeed the treatment needs for different artifact types vary according to their material, requiring different equipment, chemicals, and methods. It is through this careful handling and study of artifacts that we learn about the trade routes of our ancestors, their economy and trade, what kind of cargo they carried, what kinds of medicines they used and what their level of medical knowledge was, and what kind of navigational instruments they carried. From their navigational instruments we can get detailed knowledge of their ancient understanding of the stars, and their understanding of the universe. And it is through underwater archaeology and the study of shipwrecks and sunken ships that much of this knowledge is made possible today.
Interesting links for further reading:
TheTitanic:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/titanic/background.html The Queen Anne's
Revenge:
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/qar/ The Hunley:
http://www.hunley.org/ Ancient Phoenician
Shipwreck:
http://phoenicia.org/wreck.html The Monitor National
Marine Sanctuary:
http://monitor.noaa.gov/
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