Trying Out a Name: Using Whaling-related Artifacts to Ascertain a Ship’s Identity

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A team of archaeologists and marine scientists with Ships of Discovery investigated the remains of a wooden shipwreck off the island of Guam. Identified through a remote sensing survey, preliminary research suggested the site to be the wreck of the whaleship Asia, lost at Guam in 1856. Recent investigations at the site identified overwhelming evidence to support that theory and include industry specific material culture such as harpoons, a try pot, an abundance of brick, a tryworks knee, and other objects associated with the extraction and storage of whale oil. The unique artifact assemblage provides an opportunity to explore the shipboard whaling operations and lives of the ship’s crew. This paper provides an examination of the whaling artifacts recorded at the site and how they help to better understand the context of French whaling in the Pacific region in the mid-nineteenth century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• From Whalers to World War II: Guam Underwater Archaeology

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow