From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2024

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology," at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Federal agencies, non-profits, and universities have recently undertaken multiple studies on the island of Guam to locate and document previously unrecorded underwater archaeological sites on federal and state submerged bottom lands. The island is the ancestral home of the CHamoru people, which has been occupied by Spain, Japan, or the United States since 1521, resulting in abundant cultural resources, ranging from indigenous sites of the CHamoru people to whaling shipwrecks and remnants of World War II’s amphibious invasion. This session focuses on the research, methodology, and results of these investigations.

Other Keywords
World War II • Guam • Whaling • Shipwreck • WWII • Remote Sensing • Analysis • Survey • Gis • Wrecks

Geographic Keywords
Pacific • Guam • Western Pacific • Northeast Florida • Alaska, Aleutian Islands • Europe/Pacific • The Marshall Islands • Hawaii, Pacific

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • Artillery and Anomalies: Marine Remote-sensing off Guam’s WWII Invasion Beaches (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Hanks.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In February 2023, a research team completed the first comprehensive and systematic marine remote-sensing survey of the WWII invasion beaches on Guam. The Asan and Agat units of War in the Pacific National Historic Park (WAPA) were forever changed in July 1944. The invasion beaches are not only the center of a WWII...

  • Asia and Les Baleiniers: A History of Jeremiah Winslow and French Efforts to Encourage a Whaling Industry out of Le Havre in the Early 19th Century (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Schuler.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2022, a team of archaeologists investigated a late 18th- century/early 19th-century wreck site located in Apra Harbor, Guam. The wreck is thought to represent those of the remains of the whaleship Asia, a French whaler that wrecked off the coast of Guam in 1856 and became famous as the backdrop of Dr. Felix Maynard...

  • The CHamoru People of Guam: Their overlooked World War II Experiences and Impacts Caused by the American Invasion (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only D. Blair Moore.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The CHamoru people of Guam have a long maritime tradition of utilizing the ocean and in particular the local reef systems to support their spiritual and physical health. During World War II, Guam was a strategic location for both sides of the war. When the Japanese seized the island in December 1941, they fortified the...

  • Expedition Asia: Investigations of a 19th Century Wooden Shipwreck in Apra Harbor, Guam (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremy R Borrelli. Jason T Raupp. Ryan Bradley.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 2019, divers performed an initial assessment of a wooden-hulled shipwreck located during remote sensing operations in Apra Harbor, Guam. Historical research into the area suggested the site might represent the remains of the whaleship Asia, lost at Guam in 1856. Identified as a potentially significant historic site,...

  • A Levels of War and GIS Approach to Analyzing the Battle of Roi-Namur (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dominic A Fargnoli.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This study seeks to combine a Levels of War approach and a Geographic Information Systems analysis to better understand the Battle of Roi-Namur that was part of Operation Flintlock of WWII. The Levels of War framework will be utilized to assign all components of the battle to its various levels which establishes a...

  • National Park Service Battlefield Survey of War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam: A Biogeographic and Maritime Cultural Landscape Exploration (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anne E. W. Nunn. Monique LaFrance Bartley.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The National Park Service Submerged Resources Center and Ocean and Coastal Resources Branch conducted a joint archaeological and ecological underwater battlefield survey in 2023 of War in the Pacific National Historical Park, funded by NOAA OER. Data collected during this study was used to conduct archaeological...

  • Searching for WWII Naval Heritage in the St. Johns River: the 2022 Survey at Green Cove Springs (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dorothy A Rowland.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Green Cove Springs was the site of a WWII naval airfield and housed over 300 ships from the mothballed Atlantic Fleet following the war. At least one F4F Wildcat plane wreck and one landing craft wreck were known to be at the bottom of the river adjacent to the air station. In 2022, the Lighthouse Archaeological...

  • Trying Out a Name: Using Whaling-related Artifacts to Ascertain a Ship’s Identity (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason T. Raupp. Jeremy Borrelli. Ryan Bradley. Will Nassif.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. A team of archaeologists and marine scientists with Ships of Discovery investigated the remains of a wooden shipwreck off the island of Guam. Identified through a remote sensing survey, preliminary research suggested the site to be the wreck of the whaleship Asia, lost at Guam in 1856. Recent investigations at the site...

  • The World War II Conflict Landscape of South Maui (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dominic Bush. Jason Raupp. Justin Dunnavant.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During World War II, the Hawaiian island of Maui served as the core of US naval aviation in the Pacific, while its beaches and offshore environment provided the ideal practice setting for amphibious combat. South Maui was transformed into a major military training sphere, succeeding periods of sustained, pre-Contact...

  • The Wreck and the Williwaw: Archival Identification of a World War II Shipwreck in the Aleutian Islands (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kendra A. Kennedy. Andrew B. Orr.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The history of World War II is replete with stories of famous maritime losses. Arizona, Royal Oak, Bismarck, Yamato – these names are etched into collective memory. But the losses of non-naval vessels are often less well known. This is especially true in distant theaters like the Aleutian Islands, which stretch for...