In the summer of 2000, divers recovered a large shipping crate from the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, a steamboat that sank off of Crescent City, California on 30 July 1865. Ownership of the crate was taken over by the state of California and was sent to Texas A&M’s Conservation Research Laboratory for excavation and conservation. As soon as work began, it became clear that the crate contained a shipment of a variety of hardware most likely destined for a general store as each of the artifacts discovered was found in high quantities. Also, there was a wide variety of artifacts discovered, tools, architectural pieces, food preparation, fur trapping, and personal items. The crate was shipped from San Francisco from the warehouse of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company; however, its final destination is unknown. Records for this warehouse and for the boat were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, so the destination for these goods is purely speculative. Using information from the excavation of the crate and a historical analysis of the contents led to a plausible theory. After careful review, it seems most likely that the crate was intended for a general store in a small town with a rural customer base.

In the summer of 2000, divers recovered a large shipping crate from the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, a steamboat that sank off of Crescent City, California on 30 July 1865. Ownership of the crate was taken over by the state of California and was sent to Texas A&M’s Conservation Research Laboratory for excavation and conservation. As soon as work began, it became clear that the crate contained a shipment of a variety of hardware most likely destined for a general store as each of the artifacts discovered was found in high quantities. Also, there was a wide variety of artifacts discovered, tools, architectural pieces, food preparation, fur trapping, and personal items. The crate was shipped from San Francisco from the warehouse of the Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Company; however, its final destination is unknown. Records for this warehouse and for the boat were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, so the destination for these goods is purely speculative. Using information from the excavation of the crate and a historical analysis of the contents led to a plausible theory. After careful review, it seems most likely that the crate was intended for a general store in a small town with a rural customer base.

The A.J. Goddard, a steamboat built for the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898, wrecked in 1901 on Lake Laberge, Yukon Territory, where it lay undisturbed until its rediscovery in 2008 by the Yukon River Survey Project, directed by John Pollack. The complete and undisturbed nature of the wreck site, which is the only known site from this period to show such remarkable preservation, provides an unparalleled opportunity for studying the construction features of one of the Klondike steamboats and its associated material culture. The wreck of the A.J. Goddard is the only known surviving example of a small, prefabricated sternwheeler from the Yukon River's sternwheeler days. Due to the nature of its construction and building material, the A.J. Goddard represents a period of vast change in shipbuilding techniques, and is part of the fascinating juxtaposition between traditional wooden boats and a new, prefabricated industrial solution to boatbuilding. Work thus far has revealed that the A.J. Goddard possessed a simple design and construction, likely not one developed specifically for the Yukon River. It appears that the need to carry it over a mountain influenced its design more than the qualities of the Yukon River. Modifications were made over the course of its short career to make it more suitable, but its tragic end indicates that it was not a good choice for open-water navigation, though it admirably and successfully fulfilled its mission of serving throughout the gold rush. Though it was not ideally suited for the river and lakes environment where it was built, the quickness and ingenuity with which the vessel was constructed made it one of the few vessels, out of the thousands that set out for the Yukon in the summer of 1898, to actually make it to Dawson in time for the gold rush without being delayed by ice in the north, as so many were. Field seasons were conducted in 2009 and 2010 that focused on recording the boat's construction features and artifacts. Select artifacts were recovered for study and display in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory with the intention of creating an exhibit for the Yukon public.

La Belle’s rigging assemblage has provided a rare and valuable source of knowledge of 17th-century rigging in general and in particular, French and small-ship rigging characteristics. With over 400 individual items including nearly 160 wood and iron artifacts, this assemblage stands out as one of the most substantial and varied among all available rigging assemblages and currently is the only assemblage of 17th-century French rigging published. Furthermore, French rigging in general has not been as well defined as English rigging, nor has the 17th century been as well researched as the 18th. As such, La Belle’s rigging assemblage has provided a valuable source of knowledge whose research will hopefully provide a valuable foundation on which future studies can be built. Specifically, this project has attempted to catalogue these artifacts and reconstruct a plausible 17th-century French rig. This project has further attempted to define the differences between the better known English rigging features and those more characteristic of the French and Dutch. The reconstruction is based on the specific details derived from La Belle’s artifacts as well as contemporary French and other continental sources such as rigging assemblages, ship models, treatises, and nautical dictionaries. Together, these have suggested that La Belle probably carried a relatively simple rig with decidedly seventeenth-century characteristics and a Dutch influence.

Buy a puzzle, assemble it, and destroy its original box. Take the puzzle, go to a lake, throw the puzzle in the lake, and leave it for a few weeks. Return to the lake and try to rebuild the puzzle from the remaining pieces. Such is the challenge of the research goals presented on this abstract – the reconstruction of a Portuguese frigate, Santo Antonio de Tanná, from its submerged remains. This thesis focuses on the mechanisms of reconstructing the ship, including the thought process, new computer tools, and imagination required for an archaeologist to be a detective of lost eras. The main objective was to understand the construction of a late Seventeenth-century Portuguese frigate. Frigates were responsible for patrolling the seas, intercepting fastmoving vessels, re-supplying military trading stations, and protecting trade routes. The existence of Portuguese frigates was known from historical records, but Santo Antonio de Tanná is the only frigate identified in the archaeological record. As such, its reconstruction should enable scholars to better understand the actual capabilities of seventeenth century frigates.A particular challenge in this study was ascertaining the manner in which Santo Antonio de Tanná’s construction reflected the state of affairs of the Portuguese trade network. Although their construction methods were advanced, the Portuguese adopted a shipbuilding design that was not able to compete as well in the new conditions of a changing global context. This study clearly demonstrate that cargo capacity was given greater emphasis than either speed or maneuverability, illustrating the on-going necessity of the Portuguese to build military ships with cargo capacity sufficient for minimal trade, even at the expense of speed. These were just the first steps in terms of what could be learned from the reconstruction. The best method to understand the ship, a three-dimensional object, was to recreate it into a three-dimensional environment in order to create a more accurate model. The resulting model permitted research to extend beyond the limits of the individual line drawings through the added benefit of being able to calculate hydrodynamics, sailing characteristics, and other data based on the ship’s morphology.

In 1281 C.E., under the rule of Kublai Khan, the Mongols sent a fleet of more than 4000 vessels to subjugate the island nation of Japan. A powerful typhoon, called kamikaze, dashed the invading fleet into pieces on the shores of Japan and thus saved the nation from foreign rule. Historical sources suggest there were three principal vessel types involved in this event: V-shaped cargo ships for transporting provisions to the front, constructed in China’s Fukien Province; miscellaneous flat and round bottomed vessels made along the Yangtze River; and flat bottomed landing craft from Korea. In the recent past, the remains of the fleet were discovered at the Takashima underwater site in western Japan, unveiling numerous artifacts including weaponry, shipboard items, and sections of hull; however, between 1281 and the late twentieth century the site has seen major disturbances, and the artifacts are often in poor condition. Because the site contains the remains of ships built in China and Korea, the interpretation of the artifacts is also extremely complex. In order to determine the origin of the vessels, a logical framework is necessary. The author has created a timber category database, analyzed methods of joinery, and studied contemporary approaches to shipbuilding to ascertain the origins and types of vessels that composed the Mongol fleet. Although no conclusive statements can be made regarding the origins of the vessels, it appears that historical documents and archaeological evidence correspond well to each other, and that many of the remains analyzed were from smaller vessels built along the Yangtze River Valley. Large, V-shaped cargo ships and the Korean vessels probably represent a small portion of the timbers raised at the Takashima site. As the first research project of its kind in the region, this study is a starting point for understanding the real story of the Mongol invasion of Japan, as well as the history of shipbuilding in East Asia.

This dissertation research project focuses on maritime exploration during the Age of Discovery and the vessels that were the technological impetus for this dynamic era that ultimately led Christopher Columbus to the New World and Vasco da Gama to India. Little is known about the caravel and the nau, two ships which defined this era of global expansion; archival documents provide scant information regarding these vessels and to date there are only a few known archaeological examples. The caravel and the nau became lasting symbols of the bourgeoning Portuguese and Spanish maritime empires and are featured prominently in contemporaneous iconography. This dissertation bridges the gap between the humanities and sciences through the statistical analysis of the caravel, galleon, and nau in the iconographic record. As one of the first intensive uses of iconography in nautical archaeology, the study analyzed over 500 images using descriptive statistics and representational trends analysis in order to explore the two research questions posed, Are the ships represented in the iconography accurate? and Can iconography provide information on constructional characteristics of these vessels that will determine typology, evolution, and design changes? Gauging the accuracy of the ship representations was fundamental to establishing this study’s validity. The artists creating these images were not shipwrights or mariners and thus this research was not limited to the technological and constructional aspects alone. The dissertation addressed technology as a cultural symbol in order to understand how and why cultures attach such powerful and important symbolism to technology and adopt it as an identifying feature. On a broader level, this dissertation proved that iconography is a viable data source within nautical archaeology. The representational trends and general construction proportions analyzed in the iconographic record did provide an ample amount of information about the different ship types to greatly assist in the reconstruction of a caravel, galleon, or nau. The vast quantities of new data generated using these methodologies have the potential to significantly advance the study of these three ship types when paired with current and future archaeological evidence.

La Belle's rigging assemblage has provided a rare and valuable source of knowledge of 17th-century rigging in general and in particular, French and small-ship rigging characteristics. With over 400 individual items including nearly 160 wood and iron artifacts, this assemblage stands out as one of the most substantial and varied among all available rigging assemblages and currently is the only assemblage of 17th-century French rigging published. Furthermore, French rigging in general has not been as well defined as English rigging, nor has the 17th century been as well researched as the 18th. As such, La Belle's rigging assemblage has provided a valuable source of knowledge whose research will hopefully provide a valuable foundation on which future studies can be built. Specifically, this project has attempted to catalogue these artifacts and reconstruct a plausible 17th-century French rig. This project has further attempted to define the differences between the better known English rigging features and those more characteristic of the French and Dutch. The reconstruction is based on the specific details derived from La Belle's artifacts as well as contemporary French and other continental sources such as rigging assemblages, ship models, treatises, and nautical dictionaries. Together, these have suggested that La Belle probably carried a relatively simple rig with decidedly seventeenth-century characteristics and a Dutch influence.

Buy a puzzle, assemble it, and destroy its original box. Take the puzzle, go to a lake, throw the puzzle in the lake, and leave it for a few weeks. Return to the lake and try to rebuild the puzzle from the remaining pieces. Such is the challenge of the research goals presented on this abstract - the reconstruction of a Portuguese frigate, Santo Antonio de Tanná, from its submerged remains. This thesis focuses on the mechanisms of reconstructing the ship, including the thought process, new computer tools, and imagination required for an archaeologist to be a detective of lost eras. The main objective was to understand the construction of a late Seventeenth-century Portuguese frigate. Frigates were responsible for patrolling the seas, intercepting fastmoving vessels, re-supplying military trading stations, and protecting trade routes. The existence of Portuguese frigates was known from historical records, but Santo Antonio de Tanná is the only frigate identified in the archaeological record. As such, its reconstruction should enable scholars to better understand the actual capabilities of seventeenth century frigates. A particular challenge in this study was ascertaining the manner in which Santo Antonio de Tanná's construction reflected the state of affairs of the Portuguese trade network. Although their construction methods were advanced, the Portuguese adopted a shipbuilding design that was not able to compete as well in the new conditions of a changing global context. This study clearly demonstrate that cargo capacity was given greater emphasis than either speed or maneuverability, illustrating the on-going necessity of the Portuguese to build military ships with cargo capacity sufficient for minimal trade, even at the expense of speed. These were just the first steps in terms of what could be learned from the reconstruction. The best method to understand the ship, a three-dimensional object, was to recreate it into a three-dimensional environment in order to create a more accurate model. The resulting model permitted research to extend beyond the limits of the individual line drawings through the added benefit of being able to calculate hydrodynamics, sailing characteristics, and other data based on the ship's morphology.

The purpose of this study was to describe the investigation of the Mica shipwreck. The objectives of the investigation, as identified by nautical archaeologists from the United States Minerals Management Service and the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University, include determining the extent and limits of the wreck site, acquisition of diagnostic artifacts to identify the temporal period of the shipwreck and its mission at the time of loss, to identify the type of ship and its country of origin, and quantify the relationship between the vessel's construction and function. The manuscript contains a thorough analysis of the equipment and approach used by archaeologists during the excavation. The manuscript also briefly explores the use of metallic ship sheathing during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, focusing specifically on the pure copper sheathing found on the Mica wreck. Sheathing from numerous contemporary vessels will be analyzed and compared to the Mica shipwreck sheathing.