Mystery Shipwrecks of the Great Barrier Reef: Copper Alloy Analyses

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Contextualizing Maritime Archaeology in Australasia" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Over 1000 ship and aircraft wrecks lie scattered across the Queensland coastline. While some are infamous, others are listed as unidentified sites, known only by association to the reefs they are located on. Within the Queensland State Maritime Archaeology Collection, housed at the Museum of Tropical Queensland are over 8,000 objects from approximately 28 shipwreck sites. Of these, at least 12 are mystery shipwrecks – we do not know which ships they were.

This paper reports the results of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analyses of copper alloy fastener and sheathing artefacts from these unidentified shipwrecks. The composition of copper, in comparison to other minerals, provides an estimate of the date they were made. Comparison of these dates with historical references narrowed down the potential identification of these shipwrecks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Contextualizing Maritime Archaeology in Australasia   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology