During the 2011 field season, a large artifact was uncovered just north of the various cannons found on a 1782 British Loyalist shipwreck in St. Augustine. While originally unsure of what the object was, the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) dive team was certain of a few things; it was big, heavy and made of lead. It was also unique to the other artifacts on the site and the decision was made to excavate and bring it [...]
Recently, one of our dedicated volunteers, Ed Coward, discovered something pretty fascinating. Ed comes in every Thursday to help out with artifact conservation, and he typically spends the day airscribing. This is one of our dirtiest jobs, but somehow Ed manages to stay pretty clean throughout the process as you can see in the photo. Airscribing is the process of removing concretion (build up of sand, shells, and sediment) from artifacts that have been recovered [...]
The Keeper’s House at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is currently undergoing a big change. This spring will see the opening of a new, large exhibit focusing on the underwater archaeology conducted by the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program staff. The new exhibit, called Wrecked!, will explain the process of finding, excavating, researching and conserving the 1782 British Loyalist shipwreck (known sometimes at the Storm Wreck) as well as displaying the numerous artifacts from the [...]
This letter, concerning the Storm Wreck vessel’s wrecking event, was written exactly 233 years before lighthouse archaeologists presented research on this wreck at the 49th annual SHA conference in Washington, D.C. On January 9, 1783, the commander of the British Royal Army in East Florida, Lieutenant Colonel Archibald McArthur, wrote a letter to the British Commander in Chief, Sir Guy Carleton, to inform him of the loss of the Rattlesnake, two victualing ships, [...]
New conservation projects have taken a short break as the archaeology staff prepares for the annual Society for Historical Archaeology conference in Washington D.C., January 5-10. The SHA conference is one of the largest meetings of the year and also one of the most pertinent to underwater archaeology. The research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP), will be presenting findings on the Storm Wreck. Staff archaeologists, conservators [...]
Over the last month, I have been working on the flintlock pistol (previously discussed here). After separating the other artifacts, I removed some of the concretion from the pistol itself. I did not want to take too much off or get too close to the surface of any artifact materials. Instead, we took the pistol back to get additional x-rays and see if there were any hidden surprises. Taking new x-rays of the pistol. [...]
As we do conservation of artifacts from the Storm Wreck, we try to identify and work on pieces that are either unique or may have some identification or information pertaining to the ship. Some of the items that have gone through or are currently undergoing conservation include a 4-pound cannon, a 9-pound carronade, dozens of cannonballs, numerous cast iron cauldrons, pewter plates, spoons and thousands of nails. These artifacts were all chosen because they had the [...]
On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, we will begin the final phase of conservation for the two large cannons from the Storm wreck. Removing concretion Lighthouse archaeologists excavated the guns in June, 2011, and brought them to the lighthouse. In the first phase of conservation, as much of the exterior concretion as possible was removed using hammers, chisels and air-scribes. This was to ensure no other artifacts were stuck inside the concretion, and if [...]
In the previous blog, X-rays of smaller artifacts from the 2015 Storm wreck field season were discussed. The smaller objects are taken to Monahan Chiropractic Medical Clinic to determine what is inside. The larger items, however, are brought to Flagler Hospital Imaging Center where they are able to accommodate the bigger and odder-shaped concretions. Nine such artifacts from several different field seasons and locations were recently taken to the Imaging Center to be X-rayed. While [...]
As the Summer 2015 surveys and excavation draws to a close, it is time for all the research, reporting and paperwork to begin. For conservation, that means documenting and X-raying the artifacts excavated during the fieldwork. This is done for a few reasons. First, we obviously want to know what was brought up. The concretions often do not resemble anything or give clues as to what the artifacts are. Second, we want to figure out what [...]
