Navigating the Norlina - Mapping a Significant Shipwreck Site off Sonoma’s Treacherous Coast

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.

The remains of the steel-hulled tramp steamship Norlina, located offshore of Sonoma County, California, were recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places at the national level due to the site’s historical and archaeological significance. The vessel served as a cargo steamship between 1909 and 1926, including service during World War I. In 1926, while enroute from San Francisco to Puget Sound with the Garland Steamship Corporation, the vessel struck the jagged shoals south of Horseshoe Point and came to rest in Gerstle Cove. The vessel was heavily salvaged before breaking up and is now comprised of a dispersed debris scatter within Salt Point State Park and Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. This paper will focus on work done by volunteer divers from the Sonoma Coast Historic and Undersea Nautical Research Society to map Norlina’s remains and highlight research issues relevant to shipwreck sites along the rough northern California coast.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow