The Excavation of the Crescent Beach Shipwreck (8SJ7136), Believed to be the Lumber Vessel Caroline Eddy Lost in 1880

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In November 2020, a nor’easter unearthed a section of articulated timbers on the beach south of St. Augustine near the Matanzas Inlet. LAMP researchers conducted a four-day assessment, confirming the site was a wooden shipwreck, likely 19th-century. When it was learned that the area was going to be deeply buried by a beach renourishment project, LAMP decided to conduct a full excavation of the hull remains in August 2021. With the help of over 80 volunteers, several feet of accumulated sand were removed by hand, exposing the port bow side of a ship, lying with the inboard side up and measuring 7.55 by 4.84 m. Hull analysis and historical research suggests this is a remnant of the 317-ton Caroline Eddy, a brig or brigantine built in Maine in 1862 as a Civil War supply ship and operating as a lumber vessel when wrecked by hurricane on 30 August 1880.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Maritime Research in Saint Augustine, Florida   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow