The Walker 1711 Project: A Multidisciplinary Investigation Where Archaeology Meets History and Oceanography for a Holistic Perspective on the Past

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "The Intersection Between Natural and Cultural Heritage and the Pressing Threats to Both", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The project Le naufrage de la flotte Walker (1711): Archéologie d’un lieu de mémoire maritime is bringing together scholars from history, archaeology, literature, oceanography and marine geology to unravel the circumstances surrounding the wreckage of Admiral Walker’s fleet in 1711 in the Saint-Lawrence estuary.

Among the projects undertaken is the analysis of the fleet ship logs. This paper addresses how their analysis provides environmental and historical information about the ships’ position within the fleet, the events’ sequence, and the meteorological and navigation conditions. Our approach exploits these data to lead archaeological campaigns in 2023 and 2024 that provide new data on the potential sites. The logbooks data are also used to understand the Saint-Lawrence estuary's 18th-century environmental conditions and evaluate the changes. This multidisciplinary collaboration provides a new vision where cultural and natural heritage can be considered, and where archaeology can play an active role with other sciences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Intersection Between Natural and Cultural Heritage and the Pressing Threats to Both   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow