One of the most recent artifacts I have begun conserving is again an unexpected find. It is also a fitting item for the Storm Wreck as it is a microcosm of what has been found so far.
One of my job responsibilities is to perform public education while conserving objects. This typically means cleaning artifacts outside and interacting with visitors and answering their questions. Tuesday through Friday I usually work on concretions that either have multiple items within or larger pieces that will take some time.
On Saturdays, however, I try to work on artifacts that are visually interesting or recognizable to the general public. This is to try and engage them in discussion or at least make it easier to understand what I am doing during the conservation process.
A few weeks ago, I picked a concretion that would at least yield two artifacts the public would appreciate. In the X-ray there was a cannonball and a spoon clearly visible.
The third object was less evident, but appeared to be a small iron bar.
X-ray of artifact 14S 420.1
Although we have a few already conserved, I was primarily interested in the spoon because it has a higher probability for diagnostic information. I hoped that it would have either some maker’s marks or, like some of the others previously conserved, markings etched into the metal.
First, I removed the cannonball from the concretion. This was in order to lighten the load and for ease of handling. Cleaning the concretion off was a fairly straightforward process and the four-pound ball was set to the side.
Four pound cannonball
Next was the spoon. I took special care to clean around the perimeter and separate it from the rest of the concretion. When the spoon was out on its own, I was able to lightly remove the sediment from the surface using a combination of the airscribe and acid. After brushing off the loose material, I could make out patterns on the front and back of the spoon.
Spoon
On the top of the handle and the exterior bowl of the spoon was a design molded into the spoon during the manufacturing process. On the other side of the handle and the interior of the bowl were two designs etched into the metal at a later point. The spoon looks to be made out of a material called “Britannia” which is an alloy made of tin, antimony and copper. This spoon and others will be examined further in a future blog post.
Top of spoon handle
Reverse of top of spoon handle
The final artifact was, at first glance, somewhat of an afterthought for conservation.
Once I begin to clean a concretion I will completely conserve the items within. However, if it is an unidentifiable chunk of metal, broken or missing pieces, the artifact may be set to the side and stored in a passivating solution while higher priority objects are worked on. This is what I thought would happen.
Fortuitously, the last artifact in the concretion turned out to be much more interesting.
After carefully airscribing down to the surface of the cast iron, I could see that there was much more left than what appeared in the X-ray. I worked down the flat, right-angled, surfaces until I came across the section that looked to be missing or had a very weak signature in the X-ray. This area also ended up having cast iron remaining, but very little solid metal. I had to be extremely careful while air scribing at this point, as the cast iron left is very fragile.
Reefing hook
Blade of reefing hook
Once complete, though, I could identify the artifact potentially as a reefing hook or tool. The large blade is meant to fit into the gaps between ship planking and rip out old caulking material. It appears the square extensions on the shaft of the tool could either be a means to hammer the blade in or act as a fulcrum point to help rock the tool through the caulking.
If it is indeed a reefing hook, it is possible this was a tool for the ship itself, rather than part of the cargo, making it one of a handful of recovered artifacts that can be associated with the vessel.
On your next visit to the museum, make sure you stop by our artifact conservation area (just north of the lighthouse courtyard) to see the latest concretion we are airscribing!
Andrew Thomson is the Assistant Conservator for the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. He received his graduate degree and training from the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M.