The pennant of the USLHS aboard Roper as we passed by the USS Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Read along here for an account of our recent trip to Baltimore to participate in the annual conference for the Society for Historic Archaeology. The conference theme was "By The Dawn's Early Light: Forging Identity, Securing Freedom, and Overcoming Conflict" As usual, LAMP brought all of its resources to bear and had a grand time presenting to, and learning from, other professionals in the field.

Continue reading "LAMP Heads Out to SHA 2012!" »

The Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) is pleased to announce our Summer 2011 Field School. This year the field school will be held from June 6 - July 1, 2011 at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, St. Augustine, Florida. This comprehensive 4-week practicum will focus on the continued excavation of an 18th century shipwreck. Discovered in 2009, excavations began on this wreck site began during the summer of 2010. Artifacts recovered from this site indicate that is is a late 18th century wreck of unknown origin. Recent discoveries include hardware and rigging components, navigational and carpentry tools, a series of cast-iron and copper cauldrons, a small flintlock pistol, four cannons, and the ship's bell. This summer’s activities will include mapping, recording, and excavating an area adjacent to the 2010 excavation units. Students will work alongside instructors to record and recover artifacts associated with this wreck, including the planned raising of at least one cannon.

Continue reading "6/6-7/1/2011: 2011 LAMP Underwater Archaeology Field School" »

Field School student Katie Kelly, of the University of Indianapolis, enters the water with a giant stride, to participate in the excavation of the 18th century Storm Wreck. Katie was presented with the 2010 David Switzer Young Pioneer Award, which is awarded to the field school student who best exemplifies the qualities of hard work, dedication, and teamwork.

This is the final installment of a three-part blog focusing on our 2010 summer field school activities. As usual, it has been very busy here during the post-fieldwork season, so its been a while before I've had a chance to get back and re-visit those great memories from the summer's fieldwork.

Part I of this blog focused on the initial training of our 2010 field school students, including intense zero-visibility diving training in the pool, and also on the initial preparatory work on the site of the Storm Wreck, an 18th century shipwreck discovered during the previous year's field school. Part II focused on the diving investigation of the Bayfront Ballast Pile, a site located in the harbor off St. Augustine's waterfront. We had switched focus to that site when we were faced with mechanical problems with our primary research vessel, Roper. Once the Roper was fully repaired, courtesy of Ring Power Marine Services, we were ready to return to the offshore ocean environment, to begin excavations on the Storm Wreck. After being away from this colonial period wrecksite for a week, excitement has built, and we are all eager to begin excavations and make discoveries . . .

Continue reading "LAMP's 2010 Field School a Success for Both Teachers and Students, Part III" »

LAMP research vessels anchored off the Castillo de San Marcos on St. Augustine's waterfront to investigate a ballast pile in the harbor as part of the 2010 Field School.

Things have been so busy around here lately because of our field season, I've been neglecting our blog! Here is the second installment regarding our 2010 Field School, which brought 9 new students and 4 returning students to our nation's oldest port to learn the basic techniques of maritime archaeology. In our first installment, I overviewed the training the students underwent before going into the field, and the initial stages of fieldwork on an offshore shipwreck. But mechanical troubles with the research vessel Roper led to a change in plans. For a week we switched from working offshore to a newly discovered site, possibly a shipwreck, in Matanzas Bay along St. Augustine's historic waterfront. Here are two of our secondary research vessels, RV Desmond Valdes and RV Nickerin, anchored over the approximate location of the Bayfront Ballast Pile off the 17th century fort Castillo de San Marcos.

Continue reading "LAMP's 2010 Field School a Success for Both Teachers and Students, Part II" »

Students and teachers from the 2010 Field School on board the research vessel Roper.

Things have been so busy during this year's field season that I've had no time whatsoever to blog about our activities! Last week we finished a great field school, which brought 9 students eager to learn, and 4 returning students from last year who served as supervisors, for what turned out to be one of our best field school experiences to date. I've picked out a bunch of great photos so everyone can see what our students were up to during the four-week long period from May 31 to June 25.

Continue reading "LAMP's 2010 Field School a Success for Both Teachers and Students, Part I" »

Field School students and volunteers prepare for diving operations during the 2009 Field School. Join us as we conduct maritime archaeology at the nation's oldest port!

Information on the upcoming 2011 Field School is now online! Click here for more information on our upcoming Field School, June 6 through July 1, 2011!

The 2010 Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) Field School will be held May 31 - June 26, 2010 at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. This comprehensive 4-week field practicum will focus on the continued excavation of an unidentified 19th-century ballast pile to make a determination whether it represents the remains of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, lost on the St. Augustine bar in August 1861 after the most successful cruise of the entire war. We will also staging test excavations on a new unidentified shipwreck site discovered during last year's survey efforts.

Continue reading "5/31/10 - 6/26/10 Summer Field School 2010" »

SUMMER 2011 FIELD SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT AND INFORMATION -- CLICK HERE!

Every summer LAMP oversees an intense 4 week accredited field school open to both undergraduate and graduate students, providing an opportunity to participate in a marine survey and the excavation of one or more shipwreck or other maritime archaeological sites. In addition to methodological training and academic lectures, students get valuable real-world experience in all aspects of archaeological fieldwork, scientific diving and seamanship, and laboratory analysis.

More information on our upcoming and previous Field Schools are available through the following links.

Upcoming Summer 2011 Field School Announcement and Information

2010 LAMP Field School original announcement

2009 LAMP Field School original announcement

Click here to read all Field School-related blog posts, from 2007 to the present.

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!" »

Dr. Sam Turner uses an underwater lift bag to lighten the load of a box of ballast stones. He will swim the stones over to the day's lifting station, directly under the dive boat, so that the rocks can be hauled to the surface by the crew waiting above. This photograph has been modified with Adobe Photoshop so that viewers can better see the diver and his equipment; if you'd like to see the original version, click below.

Continue reading "Continued Work on the Shipwreck Offshore" »

Ominous and rapidly-moving storm clouds drove LAMP researchers off the water today. Sudden storms have always been a hazard to St. Augustine mariners in modern times and in antiquity.

Continue reading "Storms at Sea" »

LAMP Field School student Chris Borlas takes advantage of good visibility to use a line level and folding rule to measure the depth of an excavation unit underwater. For the past three weeks, it has been so dark and murky on the wreck site that trying to see an air gauge, compass reading, tape measure, hand signal, or line level has been completely fruitless.

On the first day of diving this this week, LAMP staff and students alike were ecstatic to find that, with no warning, they could suddenly see on the shipwreck site. Visibility had been slowly improving over the past several weeks, so that divers could begin to see to a limited degree the site around them, instead of relying on groping in the dark. But all of the sudden the vis was great! We wasted no time and took advantage of these conditions while we had them.

We've posted some underwater video from Tuesday so everyone following along can experience seeing the shipwreck as we do. Check it out below!

Continue reading "I once was blind, but now I see . . ." »

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" »

Graduate Student Supervisor Rachel Horlings, a PhD student from Syracuse University, launches herself into the water to dive on the wreck of an unknown sailing vessel. Students from all over the U.S. have traveled to America's oldest port to participate in the 2009 LAMP Field School. Our primary objective is to excavate this sunken ballast pile in an attempt to determine if it represents the remains of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis.

Continue reading "Field School Students Take the Plunge -- First Dives Offshore " »

Honora Sullivan-Chin, a student in the 2009 LAMP Field School, undergoes black-out mask zero visibility training under the supervision of Graduate Student Supervisor Kendra Kennedy. The first two days of Field School are an intensive training session to prepare them for the challenges on diving in zero- and low-visibility conditions on the wreck of an unknown sailing vessel offshore which might be the lost privateer and former slave ship Jefferson Davis.

Continue reading "Archaeology Boot Camp: the 2009 LAMP Field School Begins" »

R/V Roper, the research vessel of the Institute of Maritime History, is on loan to LAMP through the end of July. A crew of five IMH divers delivered this working dive boat from Maryland to St. Augustine in late May.

We had anticipated the arrival of the R/V Roper for months now, and in late May the day finally arrived. We had heard from our colleagues in the Chesapeake region about this vessel, about what a fantastic working dive boat she is, and finally we were going to find out for ourselves.

Continue reading "LAMP Field Season is Underway with the Arrival of the R/V Roper!" »

The 2011 LAMP Field School announcement is now online! Click here to learn about our upcoming summer field school, June 6-July 1, 2011.

UPDATE: The 2009 Field School was a great success! Click here to read the 2009 Field School blog posts!

Below is the original announcement for the 2009 Field School:

The 2009 Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) Field School will be held June 8-26, 2009 at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. This comprehensive 3-week field practicum will focus on the testing of an unidentified ballast pile to make a determination whether it represents the remains of the Confederate privateer Jefferson Davis, lost on the St. Augustine bar in August 1861 after the most successful cruise of the entire war. Alternate inshore sites will be investigated depending on conditions offshore.

Continue reading "6/8-6/26/2009: LAMP 2009 Summer Field School" »