A Tale of Two This past winter, storms o n t he east a nd west coast s exposed two unide ntitie d s hipwrecks, high a nd d r,y o n t he bea c h. The attent io n th ese wrecks got in th e me d ia a nd b,y the public was rema rka ble . Each was located o n public la nds, a llowing t he m some measure ot p rotectio n t ram loote rs a nd souvenir collectors. Desr:;ite t he cold a nd wind , eve r- present o n Ca pe Cod a nd the O regon coast in mid- winte r, t ho usa nd s ot people donned parkas, th rew the kids in the car, a nd t rekkea o ut to see the wrecks in P.erson. We asked Victor Masto ne , Director o t the Massachusetts .5oa rd ot Underwate r Arc haeolog ica l Reso urces, a nd Robe rt Schwe mmer, the West Coast Regiona l Coord inator to r NOA./% Maritime Heritage Program, to exa mine the phe no me no n ot t hese events a nd exp la in the ir value to o ur ma rit ime he ritage.
Marine D ebris or Shipwreck Tale? The M~ster~ at Newcomb Hollow Beach) Cape Cod b,y Victo rT Masto ne n late January 200 8, part of a shipwreck appeared on the Atlantic shore of Cape Cod at Newcomb H ollow Beach in Wellfleet. We expected the sea to reclaim it in quick time, like most wreckage that gets washed up on the beach. Winters are a quiet time on the Cape, so this event m ade the newspapers and, as a resul t, hundreds of people Hocked to see it. It raised a lot of interest and questions. How did it get there? What part of the ship was it? Where is the shipwreck site? What vessel was it? Fortunately, this wreckage lies within the
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bounds of the Cape Cod Natio nal Seashore, m anaged by the National Park Service, which grants it protection from would-be souvenir hunters and whose mission includes interpreting cultural remains fo r the benefi t of the public. Over the next several months, I made three trips to visit the site to see if we might be able to answer these q uestions and assist the Seashore staff interpreting the wreck. Amo ng my colleagues on these trips were Massachusetts Historical Commission archaeologist Lenny Loparto, Sea History
edito r Deirdre O 'Regan, local maritime researcher and remote sensing expert Arne Carr, and underwater archaeologist David Robinson and h is students from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point. Staff from the National Park Service regional office in Lowell also visited the wreckage and prepared a site plan. These site visits provided opportuni ties fo r data collection, teaching exercises, discussions among us as to what we were seeing, and real-time interpretation for the on-looking public. (continued on page 14)