Searching for WWII Naval Heritage in the St. Johns River: the 2022 Survey at Green Cove Springs

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.

Green Cove Springs was the site of a WWII naval airfield and housed over 300 ships from the mothballed Atlantic Fleet following the war. At least one F4F Wildcat plane wreck and one landing craft wreck were known to be at the bottom of the river adjacent to the air station. In 2022, the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP), research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, conducted a remote sensing and diving survey in an area encompassing most of the mothballed fleet moorings. This paper presents the results of the survey, which succeeded in identifying a previously unknown shipwreck and WWII-era material in the inky black waters of the St. Johns River.

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