Early Encounters on a Western Frontier: The Search for Sv. Nikolai

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary protects the prolific marine resources of Washington State. While shipwrecks are only a small portion of the sanctuary’s cultural heritage, their evaluation nevertheless presents opportunities to better understand the colonization of the Pacific Northwest. Of the dozens of shipwrecks lost within the sanctuary boundary, one stands out due to its sociopolitical contexts: Sv. Nikolai. A survey vessel for the Russian American Company, Sv. Nikolai went ashore near modern La Push, WA in 1808. The Russian, English, and Aleut crew members survived the wrecking and spent the next two years on a tumultuous journey across the Olympic Peninsula. In 2023, a joint team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and East Carolina University conducted remote sensing and dive operations in hopes of identifying the loss location of Sv. Nikolai. This presentation addresses the findings of the 2023 field season.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow