Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida," at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Founded by the Spanish on the northeast coast of Florida in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement and the oldest port in the United States. The year 2024 marked the 25th anniversary of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, or LAMP, which is the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. Since its inception, LAMP has focused on discovering and documenting a wide variety of maritime archaeological resources in and around the nation’s oldest port. Current research includes an upcoming shipwreck survey of St. Augustine’s “back door,” the Matanzas Inlet; using geospatial and geomorphological analysis to aid the search for early Spanish shipwrecks offshore; underwater investigations along the waterfront of Fort Mose, America’s first free African-American settlement (1752-1763); and the investigation of a beached shipwreck believed to be Caroline Eddy, a lumber brigantine lost in 1880. This session summarizes these varied research projects.

Other Keywords
geomorphology • Climate Change • Matanzas Inlet • Northeast Florida • Maritime History • Shipwrecks • African Diaspora • Geospatial • Rescue archaeology • 19th Century Ship Construction

Geographic Keywords
Florida • Northeast Florida • Southeast United States • Florida, United States • Saint Augustine / Northeast Florida Coast

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)

  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • The Excavation of the Crescent Beach Shipwreck (8SJ7136), Believed to be the Lumber Vessel Caroline Eddy Lost in 1880 (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chuck T Meide.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In November 2020, a nor’easter unearthed a section of articulated timbers on the beach south of St. Augustine near the Matanzas Inlet. LAMP researchers conducted a four-day assessment, confirming the site was a wooden shipwreck, likely 19th-century. When it was learned that the area was going to be deeply buried by a beach...

  • Exploring an Early Colonial Maritime Landscape through Geospatial and Geomorphological Analysis (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryce A. Peacher. Airielle R. Cathers.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Despite extensive research identifying over 150 historical vessels lost near St. Augustine, Florida, no shipwrecks from the First Spanish Period have been located, leaving a gap in maritime archaeological knowledge. This project aims to address this by focusing on these Spanish vessels, which were important to Spain's...

  • The History and Proposed Archaeological Survey of Saint Augustine’s Matanzas Inlet (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher M McCarron.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Saint Augustine’s southern inlet has a long and bloody maritime history, much of which has yet to be explored archaeologically. Despite being somewhat shallower than Saint Augustine’s primary inlet, the Matanzas Inlet has long served as a “back door” to the port, and never having been commercially dredged, its potential...

  • The King Street Boat: A Buried Late Nineteenth Century Craft on the St. Augustine Waterfront (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James P. Delgado. Samuel Turner. Geoffrey DuChemin.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Construction monitoring for a storm drain system on the historic waterfront of St. Augustine, Florida revealed the articulated remains of a small, flat-bottom "sharpie" that was apparently abandoned or lost on the now land-filled city front before 1886; it likely dates to the late 1860s or early 1870s. Working closely with...

  • Preserving History Underwater: Collaborative Archaeological Efforts and Insights into the African Diaspora at Fort Mose II Amid Environmental Challenges (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brittany C. Adams.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Fort Mose in St. Augustine, Florida, was established in the 18th century as a sanctuary for escaped enslaved Africans, marking the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in what is now the United States. Initial investigations began in the 1970s and have since expanded to encompass collaborative terrestrial and...