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.
First of all I’ll mention a few corrections. It is actually pretty common for reporters working with archaeologists to get a few facts wrong, partly due to the technical details so important to archaeologists and partly due to the always rushed deadlines facing reporters.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you go read the article:
1. The University of Florida is not supervising or partnering with LAMP for this research, as was stated twice in the article. We do have one field school student who is a graduate of U.F., but other than that there are no ties to our friends over in Gainesville.
2. The research vessel Roper is on loan to LAMP by the Institute of Maritime History, not the “Institute of Maritime” as stated in the article.
3. My last name is spelled Meide, not Mead (one occurrence in article)
4. The drawing of the Jefferson Davis in the print version of this article actually depicted a topsail schooner, not a brig.
So . . . now go and read the article. Thanks to Marcia Lane and photographer Daron Dean for helping bring more attention to our field school and the maritime archaeology of our Nation’s oldest port!