Recording the Highbourne Cay Shipwreck: The Process of Documenting a 16th Century Shipwreck Before In Situ Conservation

Summary

The Highbourne Cay shipwreck in the Bahamas was discovered in the 1960s by three skin divers and partially salvaged shortly thereafter by the discoverers under a permit from the government of the Bahamas.  The metallic remains of the vessel’s armament were recovered at that time, and surviving hull structure was revealed underneath a ballast mound.  The site was periodically surveyed in subsequent decades, and in the summer of 2017 a field season was conducted to excavate and fully record the remains of the site.  The methods of artifact recording and the procedures for documenting the hull remains of the vessel will be presented.  Recording methods included both digital and analog techniques, which combined to produce detailed records for each artifact before they were returned to the wreck site.  

Cite this Record

Recording the Highbourne Cay Shipwreck: The Process of Documenting a 16th Century Shipwreck Before In Situ Conservation. Raphael M Franca, Nicholas C. Budsberg, Annaliese Dempsey. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441261)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 779