SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS
Progress in the Defence Dig .............................................................................. ""'5
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~ "To the extent 8always taught
By David C. Switzer, Defence Excavation Project Director
"We think Delays in the present Case are extremely dangerous," the captains in the American fleet operating in Penobscot Bay wrote to their commodore, while he hemmed and hawed about the task of ousting a small British force from their base at Bagaduce. The intelligent fears of the captains were overwhelmingly realized when on August 13 a British squadron appeared in the offing, bottling up the American force of nineteen vessels. The whole fleet was scuttled. Careful work is now going forward under the direc.tion of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology to recover the remains of one of these ships, the Defence, as reported here. -ED. The excavation of the mud-imbedded hull of the Revolutionary War privateer Defence, scuttled by her crew in Stockton Harbor, Maine, following the disastrous Penobscot Expedition of 1779, has been the goal of an underwater archaedlogical project initiated in 1975 by the Maine State Museum. The project began in the summer of 1975 with a survey of the wreck site of the Massachusetts-built brig. Excavation of the hull began during the summer of 1976 and has continued through the summer of 1978. The project involves a multi-institutional approach: The Maine State Museum is responsible for the holding, preserving, and the display of artifacts. The Maine Historic Preservation Commission maintains responsibility for the administration of the Defence site, which is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Maine Maritime Academy .Provides logistical support and technical assistance. Supervision of the archaeological work ·is the responsibility of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) based at Texas A&M University. Funding for the survey and successive field seasons has come from a variety of sources including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, the National Geographic Society and the Texas A&M Research Foundation. In addition to the recovery of artifacts, the archaeological investigation of the Defence has provided first-hand knowledge of shipbuilding techniques of the era. Approximately fifty percent of the hull is being documented by means of drawings and photography. Prof. DavSEA HISTORY, FALL 1978
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that the sea us lessons in cooperation and determination , it§ is indeed fitting that you should be gathered together as a band of § Scitizens, united in the task of 8 §reviving our maritime heritage. "
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The shot locker (port side) reassembled on work float. Impressions of cannon balls can be seen on interior surface. Photo, D. Switzer
id B. Wyman of Maine Maritime Academy, associate project director, is transposing structural information and dimensions into a set of plans of the hull. These plans, along with the record of the provenance of artifacts recovered from the inner hull, will provide the unique opportunity to develop two models. In add ition to building a model restoration of the hull remains, it will be possible to create a complimentary "use model" that includes the human dimensions. During the past field season, June and July 1978, efforts were concentrated in the midship area and at the st ill-standing stump of the mainmast. Silt and mud were removed by airlifts operated with a grid system placed over the wreck. Numerous artifacts were found in the mud and within the ballast, among them were mess kits, spoons, and crockery, medicine bottles, navigation instruments, gunner's handspikes and grape-shot stools. At the main mast the largely intact shot locker and bilge pump well were exposed. Following in situ documentation, the structure was disassembled, raised, and reassembled for further photographic documentation and then transported to holding tanks at the State Museum . To learn more about the hull construction and design , some ceiling planking was removed to determine the method of frame construction. As the field season ended, a sheathing of polyethylene was laid down and the excavated areas refilled with sand. To protect the exposed structure. While many of the artifactual and structural elements of the Defence can be easily identified or interpreted, there are still many questions to be answered. Also yet to be discovered is the identity of the builder of the Defence or a muster or crew list. With the latter it will be possible to associate many items bearing w initials with the owners or users.
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-Senator Edward M. Kennedy
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We join Senator 8 8 Kennedy in saluting § § the remarkable § ~ efforts of the Ship § § Trust of the National ~ ~ Maritime Historical ~ § Society. §
~ Bay Refractory ~ ~ 164 Wolcott St. ~
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Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231
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