courtesy alabama historical commission
A maritime archaeologist waits to inspect a disarticulated timber from the Clotilda wreck site as a Resolve Marine diver removes the D-ring from the crane boom. Artifacts were only briefly exposed to the air during inspection and recording. They were kept submerged in river water in a tank to ensure that they remained stable until they returned to the wreck site in the river. SEA HISTORY 179, SUMMER 2022
lected for further study is to place them back inside the wreck itself. Maritime archaeologists from SEARCH and a team from Diving With a Purpose were finally able to inspect the wreck site without obstruction. Most of the disarticulated elements that were recovered were timbers and iron fasteners, but five artifacts were retained for additional analysis and possible conservation. The other items selected were a lead hawsepipe, a small section of hull planking held together by iron fastenings, and a section of planking that retains marks from a circular steam saw. After analysis and conservation, these artifacts will help illustrate the story of the enslaved people aboard Clotilda. What can be said with confidence in this preliminary stage is that the wood below the mudline is much better preserved than the sections of the shipwreck that extend into the water column. Probing in the stern section indicated that the ship is in two or more pieces with a section of the stern broken away and possibly preserved beneath the mud. Divers were able to get a first glimpse inside the hold where captives were held and observed vertical posts and a bulkhead that does not appear to be part of the ship’s original architecture. It is too soon to speculate regarding the function of these features. Once the samples have been analyzed and conserved and the findings from this phase of the project studied, the Alabama Historical Commission will create a management plan for the site that will allow for the protection, preservation, and interpretation of the Clotilda wreck site. (ahc. alabama.gov) ... Sailing to Freedom, Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad, an exhibition based on the 2021 publication of the same title, edited by Timothy Walker, PhD, opened in May at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. Self-emancipation along the Underground Railroad was not entirely via overland routes. What has been largely overlooked by historians is the great number of enslaved persons who made their way to freedom using coastal water routes along the Atlantic seaboard. Enslaved African Americans often escaped by sea aboard merchant and passenger ships, or using smaller watercraft. This groundbreaking exhibition expands
new bedford whaling museum
timbers and, for selected diagnostic ones, scanning them three-dimensionally. Maritime archaeologists from SEARCH conducted the initial archaeological analysis and preliminary identifications. After divers exited the water, Survtech ran multibeam sonar and aerial LiDAR to provide the first clear image of the wreck without all the trees, snags, and disarticulated timbers that previously obscured the view. SEARCH scanned the artifacts and disarticulated elements using Pix4D software to create photogrammetric images that may be viewed from multiple angles before divers placed them back inside the wreck. Much of the work in this phase of investigation focused on environmental science. Dauphin Island Sea Lab is investigating what grows on and in the wreck, from bacteria to more visible marine organisms. Sealed in anaerobic mud, timbers are often protected from being eaten by riverine and marine organisms. The best conservation practice for the timbers that are not se-
The story of the many unknown players in the maritime Underground Railroad are told in the new exhibition. One was Dempsey Hill (c. 1842–1894), a waterman and a slave since birth. Early in the Civil War, he broke into the Beaufort, North Carolina, Customs House to steal nautical charts detailing the coastal waterways of the region. Later, he and four enslaved companions stole a pilot vessel and escaped, delivering the charts to the blockading US naval squadron. Hill served as an able seaman in the US Navy throughout the war, after which he settled in Wareham, Massachusetts. our understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what the journey looked like for many African Americans. The exhibition corresponds with an NEH Summer teacher’s institute “Sailing to Freedom: New Bedford and the Underground Railroad,” taking place in July 2022. The exhibition runs through 20 November 2022. (NBWM, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA; Ph. 508 997-0046; www. whalingmuseum.org) ... Sam Heed, historian and education director with the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation (KNF), was elected president of the Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM) on 29 April at the organization’s annual meeting at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s, Maryland. CAMM was founded in 1974 to bring together institutions working toward the 53
