Post on 26-Jun-2015
description
transcript
Christopher P. McCabe, M.A., RPA
and Stephen D. Dilk
The Lost Colonial Port of Sunbury, Georgia: Preliminary Investigations
Detail of a 1774 Coastal Georgia Map
A Partnership:
GCUAFS in Savannah HPD Archaeology Services Unit
East Carolina UniversityGeorgia Southern University
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
OCGA 12-3-80 et seq.
“The state archeologist shall have such duties in conducting and supervising the surveillance, protection, preservation, survey, and recovery of submerged cultural resources… and the exclusive right to regulate the investigating, surveying, and recovery of all such submerged cultural resources...”
It is considered illegal for any person to “...intentionally deface, injure, destroy, displace, or remove any underwater cultural resources or portion thereof in any manner not in accordance with a permit issued by the state archaeologist...”
Georgia's OCGA Mandates
Georgia Statewide Shipwreck Inventory (GSSI)
An Ongoing Multi-faceted Research Project
- NAHRGIS
• an interactive web-based registry and GIS database cataloging information about the natural, archaeological, and historic resources of Georgia.
- NHPA Section 106 Projects
- GCUAFS & HPD Report Libraries
- Private Research & Local Knowledge
- Graduate Student Projects
R/V Whaler R/V SkIO Explorer
GSSI St. Catherine’s Sound Survey
• Merchant and Fishing vessels
• Civil War-era shipwrecks
• Colonial Port of Sunbury, GA
1865 U.S. Coast Survey of St. Catherine’s Sound
Location of Sunbury, Georgia(Georgia State Map Collection &,
Georgia Humanities Council; amended).
1774 Coastal Georgia Map(National Archives Kew, Catalogue#: MPG1\20)
Detail of recent LIDAR image
Sunbury, GA
Town Plan of Sunbury (C. C. Jones Jr. 1878 redraft)
• Second largest port-of-entry in colonial Georgia
• Raw material exports
• Atlantic World trading
• Demographic influences (Bermudians, African Slaves, etc.)
Maritime Perspectives of Colonial Sunbury
Large Compass timber at Ft. Morris Historic Site
Colonial Port of Sunbury, GA
View from Ft. Morris looking east
• Shipping records, cargo manifests
Broad events leading to the decline of Sunbury
• Revolutionary War
• Hurricanes
• Economic shifts in post-war period
• Relative quickness of decline leads to unique archaeological landscape
Maritime significance during the Revolutionary War
• Base for privateering
• Base for preemptive naval strikes against British East Florida (3 failed attempts)
• Last American port-of-entry in Georgia after the fall of Savannah
Maritime Defense of Sunbury
“Two Rebel Galleys”
The Vigilant Man of War, with the Comet
Galley, the Keppel Armed Brig, and the
Greenwich Armed Sloop, followed by the
Transports in Three Divisions, in the Order
established for a Descent, proceeded up the
[Savannah] River with the Tide at Noon; about
Four o'Clock in the Evening the Vigilant opened
the Reach to Gerridoe's Plantation, and was
cannonaded by Two Rebel Galleys, who retired
before any of their Buliets had reached her; a
single Shot from the Vigilant quickened their
Retreat.
Copy of a Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell
to Lord George Germain dated Savannah, January 16,
1779. (The London Gazette).
Example of an Armed Galley
(Howard I. Chapelle, The History of
American Sailing Ships. 1935.)
Muster List of Galley Scourge (National Archives, Kew: ADM 36\10427)
• Active defense to passive defense
Submerged remains as evidence of struggle
• Remote sensing survey initiated to investigate Sunbury’s maritime remains
• An effort to better understand the rise and fall of Port Sunbury. • Side-scan sonar and magnetometer surveys initiated in Summer 2009• 164 submerged targets of interest to date.
“Screen grab” of coverage area to date
Side-scan sonar and magnetometer towfish.
Lamotte’s Wharf (south), Site SI-2
• Low tide visual search of Sunbury’s north/south waterfront.
• Remains of wharf site at Lot 1: suspected Lamotte’s Wharf (south).
• Ballast piles and piling remnants suggest two other wharf sites further north, possibly “Darling & Company” and “Lamotte’s Wharf (north)
Lamotte’s Wharf (south) SI-2
• 119 wooden piling remnants to date
SI-2 Artifacts
Liquor bottle-neck manufactured c. 1755
SI-2 Artifact Sampling
• Combed Staffordshire slipware (1670-1795)• Utilitarian glazed redware• Refined lead glaze earthenware• British brown saltglazed stoneware • Creamware cup base • Possible French faience • All date to the Sunbury’s active period
Sunbury Fieldwork 2010
• Continued side-scan and magnetometer surveys & enhanced site monitoring
• Groundtruth submerged targets (dive ops)
• Search for suspected Quarantine Station
• Public Interpretation at Ft. Morris Historic Site Museum
Thank You!
Georgia Coastal Underwater Archaeology Field Stationc/o Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
10 Ocean Science CircleSavannah, GA 31411
(912) 598-3346
For further information, please contact Christopher McCabe or Stephen Dilk at the: