Vessels of the King's Shipyard: Examining Construction and Design

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The King's Shipyard Surveys, 2019: Submerged Cultural Heritage Near Fort Ticonderoga" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Only a handful of military vessels from the mid-eighteenth century have been excavated in North America. Not much is known about the building traditions and construction methodologies of this period, especially for the inland waterways. However, the King's Shipyard site offers a unique opportunity to compare four distinct hulls. The British brig Duke of Cumberland was raised in 1909, misidentified, put on display, and left to decay. Yet, photogrammetric techniques applied to surviving historical photographs recovered useful hull data. During the 1980s, archaeologists recorded the wreck of the British sloop Boscawen—the oldest vessel excavated in Lake Champlain. The 2019 survey examined construction features of two additional wrecks (a sloop and a flat-bottomed craft) which were possibly built by the French during the mid-eighteenth century. Comparisons among these vessels yield fascinating similarities and differences, illuminating various factors that influenced shipbuilding and design of the period and region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• The King's Shipyard Surveys, 2019: Submerged Cultural Heritage Near Fort Ticonderoga

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 443