{"id":1088,"date":"2013-07-25T17:31:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T17:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/cma\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2013-07-25T17:31:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T17:31:21","slug":"17th-century-english-ship-remains-found-in-st-marys-city-maryland-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/2013\/07\/25\/17th-century-english-ship-remains-found-in-st-marys-city-maryland-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"17th-century English ship remains found in St. Mary’s City, Maryland, USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hsmcCROP\"<\/p>\n

Ship Remains Identified in the St. Mary\u2019s River<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Working and pleasure boats have plied Maryland waters for centuries. \u00a0No one knows how many wrecked or abandoned ships lay hidden In Maryland\u2019s rivers and bays. \u00a0One suspected underwater site that was first mapped in 1994 gave up some of its secrets this summer. \u00a0\u00a0Scott Tucker, archaeologist and doctoral candidate from University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, has been exploring what may be the remains of a ship in the St. Mary\u2019s River, with the Maryland state museum, Historic St. Mary\u2019s City.<\/p>\n

Ten feet beneath the surface, Tucker and a crew of volunteer divers found a heavy concentration of stones in an oval-shaped area that was over 50 feet long. \u00a0\u201cThe shape suggested that the site is the remains of a ship. \u00a0Now we know the stacked, rounded cobble stones were used as ballast, since there is an order to them.\u00a0 The larger cobbles tend to be at the top of the ballast, helping to fix the smaller stones in place below,\u201d Tucker reports. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cYou can see where they were placed side by side by someone over 300 years ago.\u00a0 And these stones are unique. \u00a0They are not typical of Maryland.\u00a0 Instead, we found a possible source on the North Devon coast of England, a geological feature called the Northam Pebble Ridge.\u201d \u00a0The size of the ballast distribution suggests a ship of roughly 100-120 tonne burden, an average sized ship for trans-Atlantic trade during this period.<\/p>\n

The archaeologists were not totally surprised to find that no timbers or ship architecture were uncovered, given the harsh environment of the small test areas, but the few artifacts that were recovered offer more clues about the site. \u00a0Tobacco pipes and Dutch red bricks excavated in the 1990s suggested the remains might date to the latter half of the 17th century. \u00a0 \u201cThis year we found a ceramic fragment in between the ballast stones that\u00a0is part of a North Devon Sgraffito jug.\u00a0 Tucker said, \u201cThe decoration is distinctive and dates it to 1650-1700, supporting our initial dating of the vessel.\u00a0 It was fired in a kiln quite close to the probable source of the ballast!\u201d \u00a0Direct trade from North Devon to Maryland is well documented throughout the second half of the seventeenth century.<\/p>\n

A shaped wooden fragment, possibly a piece of a ship’s bilge pump, was also recovered. Researchers determined the wood is elm and hope further research may reveal more about its source.\u00a0 Discovery of this well preserved piece gives hope that portions of the hull survive elsewhere under the ballast.<\/p>\n

Since few artifacts were found and the remains are close to what was the 17th<\/sup>-century shoreline, researchers suspect the ship was abandoned rather than wrecked. \u00a0Cargo and items of value would have been removed. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhile a wreck filled with goods would be more exciting, there is still much we can learn from the remains of this ancient abandoned vessel, \u201c \u00a0 HSMC\u2019s Director of Research Henry Miller, Ph.D. \u00a0commented, \u201cThe findings\u00a0strongly suggest that this is indeed a 17th-century ship.\u00a0 Given its likely English origin and size, it was probably a tobacco ship that carried settlers and goods to Maryland and tobacco back to Europe. \u00a0Such vessels were\u00a0the vital link for\u00a0the early Chesapeake economy.\u00a0 While\u00a0thousands of vessels engaged in the Tobacco Trade during the colonial era, this is the first 17th-century one to be identified by archaeologists. \u00a0Scott’s work gives us another hint of the vast store of archaeological evidence and historical knowledge that lies hidden under the waters of Chesapeake Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

State\u00a0Underwater Archaeologist Susan Langley, Ph.D. remarked on the superior quality of Tucker\u2019s research design and commended his level of effort. \u201cWe are looking forward to reading his report and reviewing the evidence,\u201d said Langley,<\/p>\n

Tucker\u2019s work was funded by the Elsie Carper Charitable Foundation with support from University of Southampton, Historic St. Mary\u2019s City Commission, the Institute for Maritime History, and the Maryland Historical Trust.<\/p>\n

For more information about Historic St. Mary\u2019s City and archaeology on the site of Maryland\u2019s first capital, visit\u00a0www.stmaryscity.org<\/a>\u00a0or contact the museum at\u00a0800-762-1634<\/a>or info@stmaryscity.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

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smrarchaeology’s photostream<\/a> on Flickr.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Photos from the 2013 fieldwork season at Historic St. Mary’s City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ship Remains Identified in the St. Mary\u2019s River Working and pleasure boats have plied Maryland waters for centuries. \u00a0No one knows how many wrecked or abandoned ships lay hidden In Maryland\u2019s rivers and bays. \u00a0One suspected underwater site that was first mapped in 1994 gave up some of its secrets …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[401,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}