I am sitting on the banks of the Puget Sound this evening, waiting for dinner, and enjoying the beautiful scenery of western Washington state. Under my feet is a pebble beach, a log for my butt, behind me is a well ordered row of woody cabins. In front of me is a mile wide stretch of water about 48 degrees but crystal clear and full of sea lions, otters, salmon, dungeness crabs, and gray whales. On the other side is Whidby Island, framed at times by the even more distant but majestic Olympic Mountains. Rising to over 12000 feet, their snowy crags are a reminder of the youthful vigor of the landscape, the restless Pacific Rim. Eagles chatter and whistle from the giant cedar trees and the lapping of the water are all that meets the ears.

No trip to Seattle would be complete without a shot of the Space Needle, but I thought I'd add the flair of the conference to this picture. Superposed on the Space Needle is the mainmast and rig for the schooner Lavengro, a beautiful 1920s Biloxi lugger now sailing Lake Union.

But that us not why I am here. LAMP sent me here to learn from the best institutions in the country who build wooden boats and train young people in solid math and science skills using a philosophy that 'boats build people', not the other way around. Groups from all over the country are here to share their success stories in programming and it has been an astounding success. How do I measure this success? The 80 or so participants who have participated this weekend have kept a remarkable energy going to blend ideas, come up with new ones, and refine existing concepts of how to make our young people better, smarter, and stronger. While we do many of these things at the Lighthouse Museum with our education programming, we are thinking about making the LAMP Boatworks more of a part of this. It has been a successful part of the museum and deserves to share its skills with a broader group.

Continue reading "Update from the Teaching With Small Boats Conference!" »

We blogged the other day about the impending arrival of the replica tallship Bounty. As of 1:00 pm yesterday, after two weeks at sea, the Bounty crossed through the Bridge of Lions and safely docked at the City Marina. Some of our Lighthouse volunteers, including Maurey Keiser, escorted the proud ship in with his own sailboat, some of us watched from the Bridge, and some of us witnessed the arrival with binoculars from the top of the tower. What an exciting day, and what a beautiful ship!

From the St. Augustine Record:

As the HMS Bounty made its way through the Bridge of Lions early Wednesday afternoon, the crowd of people on the bridge burst into applause. Hundreds of others, stationed all along the waterfront from the Castillo de San Marcos to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, waved and cheered the three-masted wooden vessel as boats of all shapes and types buzzed around the harbor, escorting the ship.

The Bounty will be open for tours Friday through Sunday. Tickets are available at the City Marina.This Saturday marks the 223rd anniversary of the original mutiny on the Bounty, which took place on April 28, 1789.

The St. Augustine Record compiled a great slideshow of the Bounty's arrival, and also this video below. Its great to see a historic sailing ship in our port, and to imagine how for centuries tall masts dotted our harbor like a forest on the water.

Tomorrow morning, sometime around 0800, the tall ship Bounty should be arriving off the St. Augustine Inlet and preparing to sail into Matanzas Bay. She is a replica of the well-known British naval vessel which saw the infamous mutiny against Captain Bligh in 1789. Drawing 13 feet of water, she will have to wait for the high tide in order to enter the harbor and cross under the Bridge of Lions and dock at the City Marina, where the public can tour her decks on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

From the St. Augustine Record:

The HMS Bounty, a replica of one of the most famous ships in the world, was built for the 1962 MGM movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard. The Bounty has also appeared in several other motion pictures over the years, including “Treasure Island,” and two of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies starring Johnny Depp.

The Bounty, which has just begun its 2012 East Coast tour, will come through the St. Augustine Inlet, possibly as early as Wednesday, and tie up at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, where she will be available to the public for tours Friday through Sunday.

Continue reading "The Bounty Comes to St. Augustine!" »

Diesel Engine Sales Company, or DESCO, one of the largest companies building shrimp trawlers in the world, became the widely recognized and successful Ring Power in 1962. Here are photographs of DESCO employees posing for their 1200th boat launching in the 1960s along with the present-day employees of Ring Power outside the company headquarters at St. John's County World Commerce Center.

Here at the First Light Maritime Society, we have long celebrated the rich history of the shrimping industry centered in St. Augustine (we even had a shrimping float in the Easter Parade one year!) Our port was known for its shrimp boat building, and the most successful of these companies by far was DESCO, or Diesel Engine Sales Company. This company became Ring Power in 1962, and we are pleased to congratulate them on turning 50 years old this year!

You can read more about the company's history and its maritime roots in the great front-page story in the St. Augustine Record. The founder of the company, L.C. "Ring" Ringhaver, worked his way up through the DESCO ranks to become sole owner, and subsequent founder of Ring Power. His youngest son, Randy Ringhaver, now serves as the chairman and president. Mr.Ringhaver is a strong supporter of our community's maritime heritage and the company has provided funding for, among many other community charities, our publication of an upcoming book on St. Augustine's shrimping history--Shrimp Boats Are Coming--written by our partner Ed Long. Another recent donation was made to the museum's collections, a compilation of DESCO company photographs.

The most recent project at the LAMP Boatworks. Foreground left is the Chaisson dory tender, a 17' spritsail skiff to right, and a 1760s ship's yawl in the background.

A quick update, since I’ve been remiss in sending one for a while. I hope this finds you all in kindred spirits and enjoying this fine weather. Things around the boatworks have been heating up this spring and continue to simmer at a solid pace.

Continue reading "LAMP Boatworks Update" »

Congratulations to Kathy Fleming, the Executive Director of the First Light Maritime Society, the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, and LAMP, for her appointment by Florida's Governor to serve on the Florida Historical Commission! This is a great honor, and great news for maritime heritage fans in Florida. Way to go Kathy!

On Thursday, 22 March, an event was held at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, north of the Lighthouse on the mainland in St. Augustine. It was a celebration of the start of a new boat construction project. LAMP is supporting this project by providing our partners at the St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation and the Fountain of Youth with data from our archaeological and historical research into the traditional Spanish boat known as a Chalupa. Many of the volunteer boatbuilders from LAMP Boatworks will be participating in the project, and several of them along with LAMP's Dr. Sam Turner are spearheading the project.

The program was a great success and you can read more about it in the St. Augustine Record.

What: 20th Annual Lighthouse Festival
When: Saturday, March 17, 2012, from 11 am to 6 pm
Where: St. Augustine Lighthouse
Highlights: Free admission, food, drink, pony rides, bouncy house, live entertainment, archaeology tables with artifact displays, boatbuilding and other crafts for kids, 5K run, and more!

Check out the First Coast News Report by Clicking the Video Above. The embedded video has been giving us problems, so if you cannot see it above click here to go directly to the First Coast News story and video

[UPDATED: As of Thursday, February 23, 2012, Spain has taken custody of the coins and other artifacts salvaged from the Spanish warship Mercedes wreck site from treasure hunting firm Odyssey in Tampa, Florida. Click here for English translation. Click here for Original Story in Spanish.]

[UPDATED: On Friday, February 24, at 12:30, the planes departed the U.S. with the coins and other artifacts on board, bound for their original 1804 destination, Spain. Click here for the story.]

Yesterday we received a call from Jessica Clark, First Coast News TV reporter, asking us how we felt about the recent court ruling regarding the treasure hunting company, Odyssey Marine, who had salvaged some 17 tons of silver coins from the 1804 wreck of the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes. This was a controversial action, as Odyssey is a commercial treasure hunting company who does not operate to internationally accepted archaeological standards. Spain had pressed in U.S. courts for the return of all recovered objects, insisting that as a Spanish military vessel a salvor had no legal right to take anything from the Mercedes without prior approval from the Spanish government, and a Federal Judge agreed with them. What's more, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Odyssey's appeal, so the ruling is final, and Spain's cultural property must be returned to them, where it will not be sold but will go on display in one or more museums. As I write this, Spain is preparing to send a fleet of military aircraft to Tampa to repatriate the coins.

Click on the above video embed to see the First Coast News story, or click here to read the written version and check out a slideshow of artifacts recovered from our ongoing excavation of the Storm Wreck.

Continue reading "LAMP Reacts to Odyssey Treasure Hunting Ruling (UPDATED)" »

The Apple Jack is one of the last wooden-hulled shrimp boats to have been built here in St. Augustine, by the famous DESCO shipyard. Until recently, Apple Jack could be seen out shrimping local waters, but circumstances have lead to the end of its shrimping career. Normally this would mean her equipment would be stripped and sold off, and her hull broken up. As a representative of the thriving shrimp trawler-building industry that was so important to St. Augustine during much of the 20th century, and one of the last working St. Augustine-built boats to ply St. Augustine waters, this is a historical vessel and one that is well worth preserving.

On 30 January the St. Augustine Record reported that a local group wanted to convert the hull of the Apple Jack into a replica of a 16th century caravel to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's landing on the Florida coast (just a little to the north of us here in St. Augustine). It has been reported that a 20th century trawler hull is virtually identical to that of a 16th century caravel; nautical archaeologists specializing in 16th century Iberian ship construction would certainly disagree, given the evolution of the caravel form and rig in the 15th and 16th centuries and the ancestry of the St. Augustine trawler which can be traced to Greek boatbuilders emigrated to Florida in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That debate is academic, of course, and what may be true is that any effort to prevent the immediate destruction of the Apple Jack may provide a respite necessary to eventually restore her. Original equipment from the Apple Jack is already being removed and auctioned off, diluting her historical integrity, so the window of saving her is limited. Conversion of the Apple Jack into a modern interpretation of a caravel would entail some significant structural changes, further diluting her original historical integrity, but the group spearheading this effort hopes to eventually convert the hull back and fully restore the historic shrimp boat after the 500th anniversary celebration. A more recent story, in the 20 February edition of the Record, has followed up on this project, and stated that plans are for the fully restored Apple Jack to "be on display at the St. Augustine Lighthouse."

This was an inaccurate statement. It is not that we are not interested in seeing the Apple Jack fully restored and on display to the public, but this kind of commitment is a serious undertaking that requires significant resources to do properly, and we can't responsibly agree to such a commitment without ensuring we are able to follow through.

Below the fold is a statement from our Executive Director, recently sent to the St. Augustine Record, to clarify our position on the proposed restoration of the Apple Jack, and its proposed temporary conversion to a caravel.

Continue reading "The Apple Jack and the Caravel (and a Clarification)" »

Dr. David C. Switzer, 1934-2012

Dr. David Switzer, professor emeritus at Plymouth State University, passed away this past weekend at his home in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Dr. Switzer was, and will always be, a true friend of each one of us here at LAMP. His warm smile and energy made his students and peers feel at ease during field work, lab work, or in the classroom. At the same time, he was constantly teaching, handing down knowledge in the manner of a true scholar. From his native Maine to the Falkland Islands, and even the Mediterranean, Dr. Switzer led expeditions that trained generations of today's maritime archaeologists. He was a research associate/instructor here at LAMP but moreover a good friend and fellow scholar.

Continue reading "LAMP Mourns the Passing of a Friend" »

Jacksonville.com published a nice piece about our behind the scenes tours here at the Museum. If you haven't take one of the tours, they are well worth it. See how the museum works, how we are learning about our past from artifacts buried in the seafloor, and learn about the many things which go on behind the veil to keep our history alive and exciting. Even if you have visited the lighthouse before, or recently, come back for this experience. Visit our webpage too, for more information on how to get involved, for more on our other tours and opportunities, and learn how to contribute to our museum. Read on for more information!

CLICK HERE for the link.

Many thanks to Dan Scanlan for this nice article!

LAMP Boatworks chief boatbuilder Maury Keiser (right) and St. Augustine resident Roy Jaeger pose in front of the Galveztown's erect frames in Malaga, Spain.

From the Houston Chronicle:

GALVESTON - A visit from a replica of an 18th-century brig built from oak trees felled by Hurricane Ike is being delayed more than a year because of a complete redesign based on newly discovered documents.

Construction of the Galveztown in the Nereo Shipyard on the Spanish coast was halted because the architect found more details about the original design of the ship sailed by the Spanish governor of colonial Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, who mapped Galveston Bay and became the namesake of the island.

A keel designed for a 68-foot on-deck length had already been laid last year when naval architect Francisco Fernandez announced that he had learned that the original on-deck length was 56 feet, a full 12-feet shorter than originally thought.

Fernandez, reached by phone in Madrid, said he discovered the original dimensions by piecing together information from documents in the United States, Spain and Great Britain.

Continue reading "Galveztown replica ship in the news!" »

The two cannons raised by LAMP archaeologists this summer, a 4-pounder cannon and a 9-pounder carronade, were revealed to the public last Friday.

The St. Augustine Record ran a great front page story on our cannons and our special Unveiling Event:

Archaeologists unveiled two centuries-old cannons, one with a very important inscription, at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum Friday night.

“It’s been hidden away for centuries,” said archaeologist Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Progam (LAMP), as he awaited the unveiling. “It hasn’t been touched for centuries.”

The cannons rested under a tent Friday night in the courtyard under the towering St. Augustine Lighthouse. They were unveiled amid a crowd historians, archaeologists, professors and others at an invitation-only event.

The cannon unveiling was a resounding success! Over a hundred people attended as we pulled back the sheets to reveal for the first time our two guns, cleaned of concretion. While the long gun did not feature any inscriptions, the carronade has proved to be a really unique piece. Its right trunnion bore the year the gun was cast, 1780, and the mark "9 P," which stands for 9-pounder (meaning this gun fired a cannon ball weighing 9 lbs). As it turns out, we now believe this is the second-earliest surviving carronade in the world (only one known carronade pre-dates it, in the collection of the Tower of London). It may also be the only surviving 9-pounder carronade, according to at least one source we have found. This carronade seems truly unique for a number of reasons--some of its features are very rare and reflect the fact that it is a very early example of what at the time was a new and high-tech weapon.

The story also made it into the Florida Times-Union, click here to read more about it.

Check out CNN's top three shipwreck news stories for the year--our raising of two cannons from the late 1700s Storm Wreck made the top three list on the "Gotta Watch" section of CNN's "This Just In" news blog! Click here to watch the CNN coverage of our cannon raising, or to see footage of the other two stories!

On Monday there was a great story in the St. Augustine Record announcing the debut of our documentary "The Search for the Jefferson Davis" at this year's Orlando Film Festival, which will be held on October 19-23. The documentary, produced by Pepe Productions whose director and crew came and filmed our archaeological team in June 2009, is an exciting glimpse into what goes into an archaeological search for a historic shipwreck of national significance. You can read more about the Jefferson Davis, and our ongoing search for her (the most successful privateer of the Civil War), here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The debut screening will coincide with National Archaeology Day, celebrated in both the U.S. and Canada.

We are really proud of the documentary and looking forward to its first public viewing. For those interested in seeing it at the Festival, the documentary will be shown at 2:10 p.m. Oct. 22 in Theatre 12 at Cinema City, Orlando, Florida.

Click here to see more information on the documentary debut posted on American Institute of Archaeology's National Archaeology Day Events webpage.

St. Augustine's City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt, on right, oversees a local volunteer during excavations of a newly discovered site believed to be one of the settlement's early wooden forts.

St. Augustine's City Archaeologist, Carl Halbirt is a great friend and colleague, and one of the most productive and knowledgeable archaeologists I've had the pleasure of working with. Congratulations to him on one of his greatest discoveries: the apparent remains of one of St. Augustine's early wooden forts, dating perhaps to the late 1500s. This story made a big splash when it hit the front page of the St. Augustine Record the other day, and rightly so. If this site does indeed prove to be what we think it is, it will be one of the most significant finds ever made in this most archaeologically significant of American cities.

St. Augustine City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt and his team believe they are on the verge of a major discovery connected to the city's colonial Spanish history.

Since January, Halbirt has been digging on a parcel in the back of the Spanish Quarter hoping that the site may be where once stood one of the nine Spanish wooden forts that preceded the Castillo de San Marcos, the 17th-century coquina fort that sits in majestic silence across the road.

"Although it's mostly conjecture at this point, this could be one of the most significant archaeological finds we've made in St. Augustine," Halbirt said. "To date, we've never found any physical evidence of any of the wooden forts that we know the Spanish built here before the Castillo."

Continue reading "Early Spanish Fort Discovered by City Archaeologist!" »

The Fyddeye Guide to America's Maritime History has recently announced its list of the top nine best lighthouse climbs in America. Not that anyone here was surprised, but our St. Augustine Lighthouse was included in this list of the best of the best! The Fyddeye Guide is a comprehensive directory for tall ships, lighthouses, historic warships, maritime museums, and other attractions that preserve, protect, and interpret our nation's maritime history. Thanks to the Fyddeye editors for recognizing our beautiful lighthouse and our unparalleled visitor experience, itself a testament to the hard work of our dedicated Lighthouse team.

Follow this link to see what eight other lighthouses made the cut!

LAMP used the research vessel Roper, on loan from the Institute of Maritime History, during its June field school, when a team of archaeologists, college students, and volunteers excavated an 18th century shipwreck and raised two cannons.

A few weeks ago, while on the research vessel Roper while conducting shipwreck survey offshore the Matanzas Inlet, I participated in a phone interview with a writer from St. Augustine Underground. She had wanted to write an article on archaeology and treasure hunting in St. Augustine. I immediately saw red flags when I first heard this, as the confusion between these two contradictory practices is a common misunderstanding among members of the public. Underwater archaeology is very different from treasure hunting. The former involves systematic scientific investigations of shipwrecks or other maritime sites to seek knowledge about the past, while the latter is concerned with salvaging shipwrecks in search of materials that can be sold for a profit. Careful recording, documentation, and forensic analyses--procedures which cost time and money and prevent archaeology from being a profitable venture in a commercial sense--ensure that as a site is literally destroyed through excavation, scientists can maximize the amount of knowledge gained which can be received in no other way. Over the last few decades treasure hunting in Florida has, alas, resulted in the loss of a vast amount of knowledge that could have been saved, if archaeology had been conducted.

“The objects to us aren’t as valuable as the context,” he said. “Treasure hunters typically don’t give a damn about this. They care about the shiny stuff.”

For archeologists, the sole purpose of finding artifacts is to learn more about the people who used them. They are strongly against the selling of any artifacts no matter if it’s gold coins or a chipped dinner plate. Archeologists are after information, not objects.

On the other hand, it’s common knowledge that treasure hunters are in the business to make a profit or simply grow their personal collection. And they are frowned upon by archeologists.

“Treasure hunters are typically not interested in information,” Meide said. “They’re interested in stuff.”

Continue reading "The Wealth of Knowledge" »

One hundred and fifty years ago today, African-American steward William Tillman on the schooner SJ Waring, which had been captured by the infamous Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, single-handedly retook his ship, becoming one of the first noted black heroes of the Civil War. This story was highlighted in the St. Augustine Record today, and it one of many told in the recently released documentary film The Search for the Jefferson Davis, which follows the research of LAMP archaeologists as they seek out the historical stories and physical remains of this ship, lost off the coast of St. Augustine 150 years ago.

St. Augustine Record:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Union's first black hero of the Civil War wasn't one of the African-American soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, famously depicted in the 1989 film "Glory," but rather a merchant ship's cook who took up arms to prevent being sold into slavery after a Confederate raider captured his vessel.

At least that's the reckoning of some historians and a pair of upstate New York-based documentary producers who have included William Tillman's story in their new film on the short-but-prolific wartime record of the brig Jefferson Davis, a Southern privateer that seized several Union ships in the opening months of the war.

"He certainly ranks among the top half-dozen African-American heroes of the Civil War as far as I'm concerned," said Gerald Henig, professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay, in the San Francisco Bay area.

The entire article is worth a read, and if you think that's a great story wait until you see the documentary. It is available for sale in the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum gift shop, and its really an excellent show.

UPDATED: Since this original blog posting, another great article on this story came out in the New York Times. Here's an excerpt below, and click the link to the original article, its a good one.

Tillman’s heroic action struck a responsive chord among a Northern population that was reeling from the news of the Union defeat at Bull Run on the same day the Waring arrived in New York. The New-York Tribune wrote, “To this colored man was the nation indebted for the first vindication of its honor on the sea.” Another publication reported that the achievement drew “unstinted praise from all parties, even those who are usually awkward in any other vernacular than derision of the colored man.” At Barnum’s Museum Tillman was the center of an “attractive gaze to daily increasing thousands” and “pictorials vied with each other in portraying his features, and in graphic delineations of the scene on board the brig.” Several months later the federal government awarded Tillman the sum of $6,000 ($154,000 in 2011 dollars) as prize-money for the capture of the schooner.

In late May LAMP Director Chuck Meide accompanied FPAN Northeast's Director Sarah Miller and Outreach Coordinator Amber Grafft-Weiss to assist teaching the Heritage Awareness Diver seminar sponsored by the State of Florida, FPAN, and NOAA. The story was picked up by the Historic City News:

In their latest adventure, Sarah and Amber suited up for submerged resources training as part of a Heritage Awareness Diving Seminar aimed at providing dive instructors with all the information, tools, and resources needed to teach heritage awareness as a specialty course.

Accompanying the students was Chuck Meide, a local underwater and maritime archaeologist who currently serves as director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program; the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.

Continue reading "LAMP partners with FPAN for Heritage Awareness Diver Seminar" »

A great story recently appeared in Jacksonville Magazine thanks to writer Alison Trinidad, who interviewed LAMP staff and our colleague at the Center for Historical Archaeology Dr. John De Bry. The article focuses on the 1565 loss of Ribault's French fleet, which had made the initial attempt to colonize the First Coast. The destruction of Ribault's ships by hurricane paved the way for Pedro Menendez' successful and permanent settlement at St. Augustine. These shipwrecks thus played a pivotal role in American history, and as we approach the 450th anniversary of their loss, their discovery would be the holy grail of maritime archaeology in Northeast Florida:

"This is an event that changed the course of history," says John de Bry, an Indialantic-based historian and archaeologist working on the search. If the Spanish had not successfully colonized, we might be living in a different Florida."

"Its a timely topic," adds Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse's research arm, known as LAMP. "We know that the fleet was scattered south of St. Augustine to as far as Cape Canaveral. That's a huge area to cover. It would take years and years to search, but it would be nice to by 2015."

LAMP, or Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, routinely conducts shipwreck surveys near and around the nation's oldest port, but the search for Ribault's sunken fleet would take them into uncharted waters. "All our work here has been done and focused in St. Augustine," Meide says. "We're used to day trips. Logistically, its quite different for us."

Continue reading "LAMP's Search for Shipwrecks Highlighted in Jacksonville Magazine" »

If you haven't ever seen it, the "What is it???" Wednesday is a great weekly posting on The Dirt on Public Archaeology blog maintained by our regional FPAN center. FPAN stands for the Florida Public Archaeology Network, and they are great partners of ours here in Northeast Florida. An artifact recovered by LAMP from the Storm Wreck is highlighted in this week's feature, check it out here!

Maybe you will be the one to answer the age-old question: "What is it???" (and win an FPAN t-shirt!)

Pier 17 Marine, Inc. has been supplying boaters in Jacksonville and the south for many decades. Their community service and neighborliness has been a mark of their service to the area and as everyone who has shopped there knows, friendliness and good customer service is their trademark. Boaters also know too, that if they have an obscure part that needs replacing and have exhausted all other resources, Pier 17 will have it. Cynthia Seagrave, owner of Pier 17 has an annual sale, ranging from 48%-84% discounts throughout the store. The sale starts on April 4th and runs through the 8th. A nautical flea market is hosted on Saturday and is in the parking lot for Pier 17 Marine, so be sure to go and see good deals, both old and new!

Each year, Pier 17 Marine selects a nonprofit to support for each day of the sale. This year, the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum/LAMP has been selected as the sponsored nonprofit for Saturday!! We are very excited, and grateful to have been gifted such a nice opportunity. Thank you Pier 17 Marine!! We will have a display table set up for the event as well as the Susan skiff on display, our most recently completed LAMP Boatworks boat. Be sure to get your tickets to take a chance in our drawing to win this handsome little wooden boat.

Pier 17 Marine is located at 4619 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville. It is right beside the Rt. 17 Ortega River Bridge, and adjacent to Sadler Point Marina. See you there!

LAMP Archaeological Conservator Starr Cox prepares a concretion for CAT scanning at the Flagler Hospital Imaging Center.

Our most recent discovery, that of a flintlock pistol from the 18th century Storm Wreck, generated a lot of attention in the local and regional media. This weekend, another story came out in the Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville's newspaper. In addition to the print story, the Times-Union has put together a video which is available through the link above, or else by clicking below to see the rest of this blog entry.

Continue reading "Flintlock Pistol Discovery Gets More Press--with Video!" »

We have gotten some great press lately regarding our recent discovery of a flintlock pistol from the Storm Wreck, discovered and excavated by LAMP archaeologists off St. Augustine. The wreck dates to the colonial era, to perhaps between 1740 and 1780, a period of time which spans both the First Spanish and British Periods of Florida's history.

The local newspaper, the St. Augustine Record, ran a story in this morning's paper, on the front page below the fold:

"We were yelling," said Chuck Meide, archaeological director for the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program. "It was one of those moments. A moment of discovery."

The discovery was a gentleman's pocket pistol concealed in a concretion, a concrete-like mass that forms around metal artifacts as they rust in the water.

"Our eyes were instantly drawn to (the pistol)," Meide said. The pistol was one of several items that ended "stuck" together. Other artifacts included a large iron spike, lots of small lead shot known as bird shot ("really, really tiny"), an iron hook, two ring-like objects and a disk of metal.

Continue reading "Discovery of Flintlock Pistol in the News!" »

LAMP archaeologist Brendan Burke has just published an article on St. Augustine's shrimping and shrimp boat building heritage in Florida Scuba News:.

Plodding up and down the coast with their outstretched arms, the shrimp trawler has become a seaside icon throughout the southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Painters, poets, writers, and musicians have recorded shrimp trawlers to feed our nostalgic interest in harvesting the sea, but little has been done to record the history of shrimping, the boats, and the families who built and operated them.

St. Augustine doesn’t claim to be the birthplace of modern shrimping. Fernandina, Florida, has that title, but for much of the 20th century St. Augustine was the shrimp boat capital of the country.

Click here to read the entire article at Florida Scuba News. Its a short piece and a great read, well worth it!

For those of you who haven't heard, LAMP archaeologists yesterday raised a cauldron from an 18th century shipwreck off St. Augustine. It came up without any problems and is a fine artifact in great shape which promises to reveal many more secrets. We invited a lot of press to cover the event, and they all did a great job with some great stories. First Coast News (TV12) did a great story on the raising of the cauldron, to watch it click the link above.

Links to more news stories and videos are below . . .

Continue reading "Great Press Coverage for Cauldron Raising!" »

We've gotten lots of great press regarding our recent exciting discovery of a colonial period shipwreck, nicknamed the "Storm Wreck." The video above is by Jessica Clark of First Coast News.

Vic Micolucci WJXT 4 News4Jax also did a great story! In addition to video they have a slideshow at the same link.

Dee Registre of Action News Jax (TV 47) also ran a fabulous story on the Saturday evening newscast.

In print media, the St. Augustine Record ran the story as the as the front-page headline.

Daytona Beach News-Journal

The story was also picked up by AOL News and various other media groups.

We believe the Storm Wreck dates to the 1700s, based on the limited types of artifacts recovered by Lighthouse archaeologists to date. Stay tuned to hear more about our discoveries on this exciting wreck, which is only the second colonial-era shipwreck ever discovered in the waters of Northeast Florida, and possibly the oldest.

SMITHSONIAN, LIGHTHOUSE AFFILIATION A PERFECT MATCH
Posted on StAugustine.com: June 11, 2010 - 12:12am
St. Augustine Record Editorial

The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum is a newly accepted partner of the Smithsonian. That simple statement leads a news release about the Lighthouse's newest affiliation.

Just saying Smithsonian and the Lighthouse Museum in the same sentence elevates our landmark attraction to almost rare air. For sure, it allows the Lighthouse access to Smithsonian museum artifacts and exhibit pieces that very few would see unless they traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Museum Director Kathy Fleming said the affiliation has been a museum goal for years. It's an honor to join such a prestigious group -- one of only 13 in Florida and one of 160-plus museums and cultural organizations in 40 states, Panama and Puerto Rico since its establishment in 1996. The benefit of access to the Smithsonian's collections is certainly enough of a draw but added to that is the opportunity for bringing Smithsonian educational programming to our community.

Continue reading "Smithsonian has a new Maritime Partner" »

SAD CHAPTER FOR GALVESTON BENEFITS HISTORY PROJECT
By Harvey Rice
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 8, 2010, 9:22PM

GALVESTON — Sam Turner had no idea where he was going to get enough live oak to supply Spanish shipwrights building a replica of the 1779 brig Galveztown, named after Galveston, Texas.

Then Hurricane Ike swamped the city Sept. 13, 2008, killing an estimated 40,000 trees with salt water.

“This project got kicked off in May 2008, and Ike hit in September, and the connection was made that there is a lot of wood there,” said Turner, archeology director for the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum in St. Augustine, Fla.

Continue reading "International Partnership Gets Help from Galveston" »

Read the full story and view John Pemberton's great photos.

Kathleen McCormick, Director of Collections and Conservation and TV celebrity!

A week or two ago a production crew from Platforms, the Life-Lifting News Program for Women, came to visit the Lighthouse and conducted interviews with Chuck Meide, LAMP Director, and Kathleen McCormick, Director of Collections and Conservation. They're pretty good--check them out at the links below:

Platforms interview with Chuck Meide

Platforms interview with Kathleen McCormick

Thanks to Shivaun Palmer and the rest of the Platforms crew!

LAMP Boatworks chief boatbuilder Maury Keiser (right) and St. Augustine resident Roy Jaeger pose in front of the Galveztown's erect frames in Malaga, Spain.

One of our more exciting international partnerships is that with the Astilleros Nereo, a shipyard and maritime museum in Malaga, Spain. The shipyard is building a full-size replica of the Revolutionary War ship Galveztown, which played a critical role in the battle that switched Florida from British to Spanish control at the end of the Revolution. LAMP archaeologists provided archaeological data to inform the Malaga shipwrights as they designed the vessel, and our volunteers at LAMP Boatworks are just beginning to build one of two yawls, or ship's boats, to accompany the Galveztown on her goodwill American tour which is scheduled to begin with the trans-Atlantic voyage to St. Augustine.

LAMP's chief boatwright, Maury Keiser, headed to Spain on holiday this week and made it a point to visit the Astilleros Nereo shipyard. While there, he got a first-hand look at the Galveztown on the stocks, and got some great press as well.

Continue reading "LAMP Boatwright Visits Galveztown Under Construction in Malaga, Spain" »

The replica Nina after arrival to St. Augustine.

Remember the arrival of the Nina and Pinta here in St. Augustine on May 9th? Judyth Piazza and her radio show The American Perspective on the Student Operated Press (theSOP.com) interviewed LAMP's Brendan Burke that day and the interview has recently posted. Click the link below to follow to theSOP.com's website and listen!

CLICK HERE

Congratulations to our friend and colleague Carl Halbirt, the City Archaeologist of St. Augustine, for a successful dig in the Plaza!

Back on July 25, Kathy Fleming (Executive Director of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum) and myself woke up pretty early on a Saturday to join Matt Jeffs, a local radio celebrity on 1240 AM WFOY whose morning show Airborne with Matt Jeffs is really fun to listen to. He has all kinds of interesting speakers from the St. Augustine region, and at least once a month he has on a local archaeologist. Apparently Kathy and I have faces that were built for radio, because not only is this broadcast out on the airwaves, but via a webcam it is broadcast on the internet. We talked about all of the great programs at the Lighthouse and gave an update on the shipwreck LAMP was excavating over the summer months, complete with a bucket full of wet artifacts . . . you can watch the whole thing below!

Continue reading "Radio show highlights Lighthouse & LAMP!" »

SonarWiz.MAP + SBP software image showing one of the North Beach Railroad abutments along the Tolomato River and debris associated with its destruction during the mid-20th century.

LAMP archaeologist Brendan Burke just published an article in the July/August 2009 International Ocean Systems Magazine, "the Magazine for Ocean Professionals" (volume 13, number 4). The title of the article is Wreck Protection: Using Sonar Mosaics to Protect U.S. Cultural Heritage, and you can read it online by clicking here. Congratulations Brendan, for producing a great article that will spread news of LAMP's work here in St. Augustine to our colleagues in the broader marine science industry.

This photo was taken by St. Augustine Record reporter Daron Dean when he visited our excavation site on Friday. Also on hand were a film crew from Pepe Productions, including a Flagler College intern (with camera) and the film's director (helping steady her) working on an upcoming documentary.

We are always happy when our archaeological work gets local press attention, and last Sunday we were treated to a great front page story in the St. Augustine Record written by reporter Marcia Lane.

Continue reading "LAMP Field School in the News" »

Friday was an exciting day! LAMP archaeologists joined a team of St. Johns County scientists to recover a 20-ft long, 100-year old historic dugout canoe from the alligator pit at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The boat had been sitting on the ground, exposed to the elements and to the activity of large alligators (one of which made her nest against the boat) for several years. We visited the boat the Monday before, and observed that it was clearly suffering heavy deterioration, which is why Alligator Farm officials were happy to trade it to the St. Augustine Lighthouse in return for another boat, a historic flatboat replica made by the volunteers at LAMP Boatworks.

Continue reading "LAMP Archaeologists Rescue 100-year old Alligator Farm Logboat" »

In September, I got a phone call from Dr. Roger Smith, Florida's state underwater archaeologist. He asked if we could go take a look at a recently reported wreck site, and put us in touch with retired meteorologist and avocational historian Dan Smith (no relation). Mr. Smith has conducted an immense amount of research related to a late 19th century steamboat called the Alligator, which indicates the sternwheeler was lost on the east side of Crescent Lake, south of us in Flagler County. A trip to the wreck site proved that it was a very interesting wreck, not only to us but to several news agencies.

Continue reading "Hunt for the Alligator Makes the News" »

The Fortuna II, a 65' long shrimp boat owned by the Versaggi family, came to grief on this stretch of Ponte Vedra Beach during a fierce north wind and "mountainous seas" in 1938. LAMP archaeologists recently discovered the remains of a shipwreck here, and our working hypothesis is that probably the wreckage is all that is left of this 38-ton shrimping vessel.

Many of you saw that LAMP was in the news two weeks ago for our most recent shipwreck discovery. At the time we thought the wreck could date to as early as the 1800s, though as is often the case more investigation was needed in order to gain some more clues and firm up the wreck's identity. In this case, further investigation did the trick, but in the library, not in the surf.

Continue reading "Mystery Shipwreck Identified" »

LAMP recently confirmed the discovery of a shipwreck on the coast of Ponte Vedra Beach, north of St. Augustine. A local surfer, also a Fish and Wildlife Officer who we have gotten to know from our time spent on the water, came across an unknown object in the surf. After having talked to LAMP archaeologists about the importance of protecting shipwrecks in state waters, he thought this just might be a wreck--and after a recent visit we confirmed it!

When we visited the wreck again today, Jessica Clark of Jacksonville's Channel 12 First Coast News came out to do a great story. In this heavy surf, its a terrible challenge to locate and inspect the exposed sections of wreckage, as you can see in the video (check out the scene where Sam is totally wiped out by a wave!) All in all, a great day of scientific inquiry, and a great day on the beach!

Anastasia Park rangers and LAMP archaeologists carefully remove sand from around a shipwrecked keel timber before removing it from the beach for preservation in the laboratory. Photo courtesy of the St. Augustine Record

Last Thursday a great article appeared in the local paper, the St. Augustine Record.

The wooden keel of a 19th century merchant ship that wrecked on a St. Johns County beach nearly 200 years ago was recovered Wednesday, according to marine archaeologists.

Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program, said the heavily weathered keel was first recorded on Anastasia State Park in 2004, but Florida Park Service personnel reported recently that a piece of the keel had been sawn off by an unknown person.

LAMP stepped in to ensure there was no further damage to the relic.

Continue reading "In the News: LAMP Keelhauling gets Good Press!" »

The First Coast of Florida, in addition to being the first U.S. coast to be settled by Europeans, was the first coast to foster a commercial shrimping industry. Spreading from Fernandina to St. Augustine in the early 20th century, following the expansion of the railroad built by capitalist Henry Flagler, the nascent commercial shrimping and shrimpboat-building industries were dominated by a number of innovative families of Mediterranean descent--including the Versaggi, the Poli, the Salvadore, and the Xynides families.

1947 photograph of the shrimp boat Silent Night cruising before the 17th century Spanish fortification Castillo de San Marcos, taken during the annual blessing of the fleet celebration. Image courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection, State Library and Archives of Florida.

Continue reading "St. Augustine Shrimping Heritage in the News" »

Since the start of this years fieldwork (July 1), LAMP archaeologists have been working hard to implement the inaugural season of the First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project. This major program of research and public archaeology was made possible by a Special Category historical preservation grant from the State of Florida's Division of Historical Resources. Part of our mission is to spread the word about our work and the rich maritime history of Florida's First Coast, and one of the most effective ways to do this is through widespread media exposure. With the help of Beau, the Lighthouse's public relations expert, we have received some great press lately.

Continue reading "LAMP Research Gets Good Press!" »