The Devil’s Belt: Visualizing Nineteenth Century Shipping Losses off the Coast of Rhode Island

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Maritime Transportation, History, and War in the 19th-Century Americas" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

United States Schooner Revenge ran aground and sank in 1811 near Watch Hill, Rhode Island. At the eastern end of the Devil’s Belt, this area has a long history of wrecks, rescues, and salvage. In order to assess other cultural material likely to be present near Revenge, NHHC conducted a study of historic shipwrecks within sight of the Watch Hill Lighthouse. Building on a database compiled and published by James Jenney of the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association, and supplemented by Coast Guard and salvage records, a picture soon emerged of a small but dedicated maritime community on the periphery between major regional entrepôts. By visualizing the routes and final disposition of these incidents in animated form, researchers get a clearer picture of the accumulated impacts on the site, while the general public gains a better appreciation for the volume and character of maritime activity in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Maritime Transportation, History, and War in the 19th-Century Americas

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 163