Terrestrial Survey for the Beeswax Wreck of the Oregon Coast

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Pacific Maritime History: Ships and Shipwrecks" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The recent discovery and subsequent recovery of ship timbers believed to belong to the Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos present new opportunities for archaeological survey on the Oregon coastline. The Maritime Archaeological Society, along with Oregon State Parks, has plans to conduct survey and phase one testing in areas surrounding the timber recovery site to retrieve more data on the timbers and the site formation processes. The Nehalem Valley Historical Society (Giesecke 2007) has published research on the beeswax wreck galleon, citing local awareness of timbers believed to comprise the galleon dating to as recently as the 1920s and 1930s in proximity to extant features that remain in use. Further terrestrial survey in these key target locations may assist in confirming the identity of the shipwreck and increase our knowledge of the diffusion of the ship’s cargo. While the Maritime Archaeological Society is simultaneously conducting remote underwater survey operations and intertidal zone investigation efforts, we believe that ethnography, oral history, and local knowledge present equally important opportunities to retrieve more information on this significant shipwreck whose cargo has inundated the beaches of northwestern Oregon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Pacific Maritime History: Ships and Shipwrecks   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36147.0