Archaeological Research and Preservation of US Navy Ship and Aircraft Wrecks

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barry J. Bleichner.

The Sunken Military Craft Act (SMCA) defines vessels covered under the act as any "sunken warship, naval auxiliary, or other vessel that was owned or operated by a government on military noncommercial service when it sank."   While the definition clearly covers most ships commissioned by the U.S. Navy (USN), the status of non-USN vessels under the SMCA is less certain.  This presentation concentrates on the last class of defined vessels by examining the "owned and operated" and "military...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Brown.

The study of site formation processes is an important part of understanding and reconstructing the sequence of events relating to a shipwreck. On 17 February 1864, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank, after detonating a torpedo below Union blockader USS Housatonic. It came to rest approximately four nautical miles off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, in less than 10 m of water and was subsequently buried beneath roughly 1 m of sediment. By mapping the distribution of artifacts and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jorge Freire. Jorge Russo. Augusto Salgado. António Fialho. Frederico Dias.

The archaeological interpretations of the role that environment plays in the nature of the anthropogenic occupations on the coast, are currentely a thorough line of analysis on the Underwater Archaeological Chart of the Municipality of Cascais (ProCASC ).The main focus of our research have been divided into two categories that have direct impact on archaeological sites: a concern about the change in the coastal environment driven by man or nature, and, processes of adaptation and management of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexis Catsambis.

The U.S. Navy has recently sought to advance the management of its sunken military craft though internal planning initiatives, as well as the promulgation of revised federal regulations that establish a new permitting program for researchers wishing to investigate ship and aicraft wrecks under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy. Following multiple coordination phases within the Department, among federal agencies, and with members of the public, the revised regulations are now in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Chemello. Paul Mardikian.

In March 2013, U.S. Navy-trained dolphins found a torpedo during a training session off the coast of San Diego, California. The middle and after body sections of the torpedo were recovered and identified by the Naval History and Heritage Command Underwater Archaeology Branch as a Howell torpedo, one of three known to exist in the world. This presentation describes conservation efforts to preserve this complex technological object. Partial disassembly of the torpedo allowed for effective cleaning...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Chemello. Shanna L Daniel.

The Naval History & Heritage Command (NHHC) Archaeology & Conservation Laboratory, part of the NHHC Underwater Archaeology Branch, supports the Command's mission through the conservation, preservation and curation of archaeological material recovered from US Navy sunken military craft (SMC).  More than 7% of the Navy's archaeological artifact collection was returned to NHHC for treatment and management following unauthorized removal from US Navy SMC.  Unsanctioned and uncontrolled removal of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only George Schwarz.

During 2014 and 2015 NHHC's Underwater Archaeology Branch initiated several projects to document, study, and manage U.S. Navy sunken and terrestrial military craft. These projects consist of both research-driven surveys and basic assessments of new discoveries. This presentation highlights the Branch's current research initiatives, including the study of American Revolutionary War schooner Royal Savage, the suspected site of Commodore Perry's USS Revenge, the War of 1812 Chesapeake Flotilla...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Mardikian.

Deconcretion of the exterior of the H.L. Hunley submarine is in full swing with more than 1250 lbs. of marine deposits and corrosion removed. This presentation will provide an overview of the recent progress by conservators at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, SC. After a brief review of the project's major milestones, emphasis will be placed on the technical challenges of the deconcretion work including the lab setting requirements, the deconcretion plan, techniques of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard K. Wills. Andrew T. Pietruszka.

This paper will examine two recent underwater forensic archaeological efforts undertaken by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to address Second World War-era U.S. Naval aircraft wreck sites associated with unaccounted-for U.S. Military service members.  These efforts, in the Republic of Palau and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, serve as case studies that illustrate the intersection between the responsibility of site preservation, and the duty of personnel accounting via...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Brennan. Megan Lickliter-Mundon. Bruce Terrell.

USS Macon, the last large Navy airship, was lost along with the biplanes it carried off the coast of California in 1935. The wreck site was discovered in 1990, surveyed in 1991, 1992, and 2006, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Visuals of the preservation level of the crash site, especially the still partially fabric-covered wings of the biplanes, are incredibly valuable for public engagement with the site. At 1500 ft depth and protected by the Monterey Bay National...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael P Scafuri.

Beginning in 2014, the conservation staff at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center (WLCC) in Charleston, South Carolina have been removing the marine concretion from the hull of the American Civil War submarine H. L. Hunley.  In parallel with this, the archaeological team has been documenting the condition of the hull, as well as the concretion layers and hull features revealed by the deconcretion process. This documentation has involved photography, direct measurements, and 3D...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joshua A. Daniel. Andy Sherrell. Ralph Wilbanks.

On 6 June 1944, Allied forces launched the largest amphibious assault in history. In the first 24 hours, over 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported 160,000 Allied troops in their attempt to land on a 50 mile stretch of beach in Normandy. Almost 70 years later, over the course of 27 days in July and August of 2013, a team of archaeologists, hydrographers, remote-sensing operators, divers, and industry representatives surveyed over 511 km2 off beaches in Normandy.  The team identified over 350...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen James. Gordon Watts.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, in partnership with the Georgia Ports Authority, is proposing to expand the Savannah Harbor navigation channel on the Savannah River.  As designed, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP) will consist of deepening and widening various portions of the harbor. Previous surveys identified the remains of the CSS Georgia, a Civil War ironclad-ram within the Area of Potential Effect, and as proposed, the SHEP would adversely affect this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Blair Atcheson.

The US Navy (USN) manages a collection of over 14,000 historic aircraft wrecks, a significant portion of which are terrestrial sites. In addition to planned research of terrestrial aircraft wreck sites, the Navy often receives notice from the public of a potential USN aircraft wreck and must determine how best to respond. Increasing notifications from the public have led to the development of various approaches to site management that take into account local public interest, property ownership...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bradley A. Krueger. Robert S. Neyland. Julie Schablitsky.

In 2010 and 2011, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), the Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), and the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) investigated a War of 1812 shipwreck (site 18PR226) in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The wreck, a relatively intact fully-decked vessel, is believed to have served in the Chesapeake Flotilla, a small fleet of gunboats and support craft commanded by Commodore Joshua Barney during the defense of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alicia Massey.

The new Sunken Military Craft Act regulations encouraged a reexamination of the Sunken Military Craft Inventory (SMCI). SMCI research is a dynamic process that continues to expand the management of sunken military craft overtime. The SMCI was challenged on 7 July 2014 when Nautilus Live discovered the USS Peterson (DD-969) in the Gulf of Mexico. The USS Peterson was a Navy sinking exercise (SINKEX) vessel that was intentionally sunk on 16 February 2004.  This discovery prompted detailed research...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James R Pruitt.

The study of submerged aircraft, while not new, is a relatively unexplored area of maritime archaeology. Receiving even less attention is the study of site formation processes as they apply to submerged aircraft wreck sites—what processes affected the site between the time it crashed and now? These studies are becoming increasingly important, especially for cultural resource managers who are responsible for managing submerged aircraft. This paper summarizes the results of a case study of a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tane Renata Casserley.

Situated just 16 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary protects the shipwreck of the famed Civil War ironclad, USS Monitor. In 2015, thirteen years after the turret was recovered, NOAA launched an expedition back to the Monitor to document the site. Using closed circuit rebreathers, NOAA and its partners are using the latest technology to assess the ironclad’s current state of preservation. This presentation will highlight NOAA’s efforts to protect...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert S Neyland.

Underwater archaeology was officially incorporated into the US Navy with the creation of a dedicated Branch (UAB) at Naval Historical Center, now Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in 1996. This presentation discusses the reasons that led to the creation of the Branch, the hurdles that had to be overcome and unique problems posed by Navy ship and aircraft wrecks, the UAB program's development and growth, and major achievements, as well as the outlook for the future. Prominent ship and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas J. Nelson-DeLong.

This paper examines and evaluates the material culture recovered from the suspected USS Scorpion, a War of 1812 flotilla ship that served in the Chesapeake Bay.The shipwreck is designated site 18PR226 and has previously been believed to be that of Jashua Barney's flag ship for the Chesapeake Flotilla. This paper uses a preposed model for material culture study developed from archaeologists E. M. Fleming's model for studying artifacts in an attempt to discover the function of the vessel. This...