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: