Shipwrecks have a way of catching the imagination of both professionals and the general public. During the fall of 2004 a shipwreck was discovered in Delaware Bay near Lewes, Delaware. This vessel, believed to be British, was lost during the second half of the eighteenth century. Preliminary examination of the wreck site suggested that it was a merchant ship bound for the colonies. While wrecks dating to this period representing various countries have been found, no British merchant vessels bound for the colonies have been examined archaeologically. This project provided the opportunity to investigate a ship and its cargo in light of the historical events of the period. Analysis of artifacts recovered from the site provided important glimpses of colonial American consumer practices in the period leading up to the American Revolution. In light of the general colonial displeasure over increased Parliamentary restrictions, colonists adjusted their buying habits. Study of the artifact assemblage suggests British merchants were attempting to substitute non-British manufactured goods for some objects. This study also indicated that colonists were perhaps not idealistic in practice when it came to denying themselves consumer goods. Further excavation of this vessel, and the study of other inbound merchantmen, should help confirm the conclusions regarding British policy and its effect on pre-revolutionary consumer practices. Based upon evidence derived from a handful of artifacts, this study tentatively identified the vessel as the ship Severn, lost in 1774 off the coast of Delaware.

A late antique shipwreck was excavated in the Pantano Longarini marsh in the southeastern corner of Sicily in the 1960s. Despite its excellent preservation, problematic circumstances surrounding its excavation and publication have resulted in scholars ignoring or misinterpreting it. The majority of the data, including original field notes and documentation, are lost, and the drawings, plans, and photographs that remain are sometimes inconsistent and incomplete. My research reanalyzes the remains of this ship to determine how the Sicilians adapted to their marine and economic conditions within the turbulent socio-economic and political climate of late antiquity. The Pantano Longarini shipwreck demonstrates early stages in a shift from the tradition of plank-based construction to the modern system of reliance on an internal framework for structural support. Contemporary wrecks provide parallels, but unique elements distinguish this ship from those typically studied. Extremely thick timbers, a relatively flat bottom and bow and stern ramps argue that the Pantano Longarini ship was designed to carry bulk loads. Although the ship was originally reported as an extremely advanced ship, the present analysis points to a different type of watercraft: a coastal barge. Correctly identifying the Pantano Longarini ship allows us to gather information about the needs of its builders, as well as extends our knowledge of shipping and ship construction in the seventh century.

A late antique shipwreck was excavated in the Pantano Longarini marsh in the southeastern corner of Sicily in the 1960s. Despite its excellent preservation, problematic circumstances surrounding its excavation and publication have resulted in scholars ignoring or misinterpreting it. The majority of the data, including original field notes and documentation, are lost, and the drawings, plans, and photographs that remain are sometimes inconsistent and incomplete. My research reanalyzes the remains of this ship to determine how the Sicilians adapted to their marine and economic conditions within the turbulent socio-economic and political climate of late antiquity. The Pantano Longarini shipwreck demonstrates early stages in a shift from the tradition of plank-based construction to the modern system of reliance on an internal framework for structural support. Contemporary wrecks provide parallels, but unique elements distinguish this ship from those typically studied. Extremely thick timbers, a relatively flat bottom and bow and stern ramps argue that the Pantano Longarini ship was designed to carry bulk loads. Although the ship was originally reported as an extremely advanced ship, the present analysis points to a different type of watercraft: a coastal barge. Correctly identifying the Pantano Longarini ship allows us to gather information about the needs of its builders, as well as extends our knowledge of shipping and ship construction in the seventh century.

While excavating a late fourth-century Roman merchantman off the coast of Yassiada, Turkey in 1967, archaeologists discovered another, more recent wreck lying across the stern of the Roman wreck. The artifact assemblage, dendrochronology, and carbon-14 dating indicated that the wreck was of Ottoman origin and dated to the late sixteenth-century. In 1982 and 1983, archaeologists under the auspices of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University returned to the site to fully excavate the vessel and raise its timbers for detailed study and conservation at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Turkey. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the remains of the hull by building upon previous preliminary reconstruction efforts to determine the ship's intended form and function. To accomplish this task, 1:10 scale drawings of the timbers were used to construct a half breadth model of the ship. By matching the nail holes on the recovered planking to the preserved remains of the ship's framing, it was possible to assess the hull's contours through transfer to a lines drawing. The resulting drawings show a moderately sized vessel with a wide flat bottom. In order to place the reconstruction into perspective, archaeological remains of similar shipwrecks and period iconography were consulted in order to suggest the ship's type and function. Four shipwrecks were found that have similar construction features to those on the Ottoman wreck. Three of the wrecks had the same unusual knuckle joints used in securing futtocks to frames that the Ottoman wreck has, shedding light on design and construction philosophy of ships in the eastern Mediterranean. The preliminary analysis of period iconography in conjunction with the remains of similar shipwrecks indicated that the vessel was a cargo carrier that may have ties to the Ottoman navy. Four types of ships from the same general period, the felluca, polacre, and shebek were found to have similar design features to the Ottoman wreck, but the closest iconographic parallel was the saique, which was a two-masted cargo carrier found in the Black Sea and the west coast of Turkey between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

In the early 1980s Bulgarian archaeologists of the newly established Centre for Underwater Archaeology at Sozopol discovered the remains of a post-medieval ship in the southern Bay of Kitten, in the lee of Cape Urdoviza. Between 2000 and 2003, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University and a team from the Bulgarian Centre for Underwater Archaeology returned to the site to complete the first excavation of a post-medieval shipwreck in the Black Sea. The well-preserved vessel, lost in the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III (1789-1807), featured constructional characteristics seen in Iberian shipbuilding tradition, such as scarfed floors and futtocks and filling pieces between the frames. Analysis of the Kitten ship permitted the author to reconstruct the whole-molding process used by the shipwright to build the vessel. The futtock-floor hook-scarphs appear to be the identifying part of the molding process. Morphologically identical scarfs have also been observed on Mediterranean wrecks such as Culip VI (14th century), Yassiada (16th century) and Sardineax (17th century), which suggests that the Kitten ship is a very late example of a Mediterranean-wide shipbuilding tradition that developed in the Middle Ages and from which the Atlantic vessel descended. It also points that the Black Sea maritime culture was an integral part of Mediterranean seafaring tradition. The dissertation offers an overview of the artifact assemblage raised from the Kitten shipwreck. Fragments of an iconostas prove that at the time of sinking the vessel was operated by Christians. The smoking paraphernalia found on the wreck provides opportunity to correct the dating of some pipe bowl types proposed by previous scholars. Personal belongings open a window into the life of the crew of a Black Sea merchantman. Although the ethnicity of the crew cannot be determined at this time, a group of copper galley ware suggests that they may have been Bulgarian. An unsolved mystery is presented by the presence of a navigational instrument, probably an octant, on board.

A survey conducted in February of 1998 located an anomaly originally believed to be the remains of L'Aimable. L'Aimable was one of four ships utilized by Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, for his voyage to colonize the Gulf Coast in 1684. The anomaly, a wrecked vessel with a heavy iron signature, was located outside the entrance to the historic pass into Matagorda Bay, Texas. Artifacts were extracted from the wreck site to aid in the identification of the vessel, which was subsequently determined to be more recent in origin. A preliminary examination of the artifacts indicates that the shipwreck dates to the first half of the 19th century. The survey recovered over two hundred artifacts. The assemblage of artifacts includes over 80 lead shot, over 40 examples of brass firearm furniture, over 15 firearm fragments, several pieces of copper sheathing, and iron bar stock. Almost two-thirds of the material is associated with small arms. The majority of the identifiable firearms are military arms of three patterns: the British Short Land Pattern, the British India Pattern, and the 1757 Spanish musket. Historical research has determined that these arms were circulating in Texas, New Orleans, and Mexico, as early as 1815. The British Pattern arms were both purchased for the Mexican army in the 1820s, and used by the British Infantry in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The 1757 Spanish musket was used chiefly by Spanish expeditionary forces in North America in the late 18th century. Evidence garnered from the artifacts suggest that the firearms were shipboard cargo onboard a small, wood-hulled sailing vessel that wrecked between the years 1815 and 1845. Archival and historical research isolated nine wreck candidates for this period. Historical research and artifact analysis suggest the Hannah Elizabeth as the primary candidate for this wreck site. The Hannah Elizabeth was a small merchant schooner from New Orleans laden with a munitions cargo for Texas troops stationed at Goliad. The vessel wrecked at the entrance of the historic Pass Cavallo while evading capture from a Mexican brig-of-war in November of 1835.

When discovered by sport divers in 1970, the Mepkin Abbey shipwreck was immediately reported to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA). The wreck was first investigated in 1980, and a preliminary report was published in 1981. The shipwreck is now part of 'The Cooper River Underwater Heritage Trail,' established in 1998. SCIAA archaeologists theorized that the wreck was the sloop Baker, owned in the late 1700s by American patriot and Mepkin Plantation owner Henry Laurens. This thesis includes a description of the field research, drawings of the vessel, a scantling list, and a discussion of the artifacts recovered from the site which provided clues dating the vessel to the second quarter of the 19th century. The historical background of Mepkin Plantation is described, with a focus on how the craft may have been utilized. Finally, the thesis compares the wreck with other documented vessels from the same region and period, specifically: the Brown's Ferry vessel, Clydesdale Plantation sloop, and Malcolm boat.

Artifacts found within the context of a shipwreck offer valuable insight into specific events surrounding a vessel’s journey and also have broader implications regarding the time period of the ship’s sinking. A collection of iron objects, excavated from the wreckage of a late Hellenistic ship carrying marble from the quarries at Proconnesus to the site of Claros, provides details of the implements vital to this ship’s passage. It was necessary that the completely corroded and encrusted iron artifacts undergo months of conservation, in the form of replication, stabilization of the iron where it survived, and restoration before they could be cataloged and researched thoroughly. The largest of the iron concretions was found to contain an anchor belonging to the ship. Being found on the same ship with wooden composite anchors, the iron anchor excavated at Kızılburun represents an important step in the transition in the use of wooden and lead composite anchors to their eventual replacement by anchors made solely of iron. The remaining identified objects comprise a collection of tools as well as three fasteners, all of which provide insight into the necessary equipment of an ancient wooden ship. Within the scope of this thesis, the conservation of each iron object is detailed, and a discussion of the implements enhances the understanding of their use aboard a seagoing vessel. Further research into similar objects and the development of each tool type offers insight into their value to the ancient seaman. Finally, a catalog of the artifacts is included, in order to provide measurements and technical drawings so that perhaps the currently unidentified artifacts can be compared to examples from other sites.

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.

The Western Ledge Reef Wreck, discovered and later excavated in Bermuda between 1989 and 1991, is a prime example of Iberian shipbuilding within a broader Atlantic context. Operating during the late 16th-century, arguably one of the most fascinating periods of Spanish maritime history, the ship epitomizes the culture and technology identified with the celebrated fleets of the Carrera de Indias. By combining the new and previously unavailable data with that of the original reports, this dissertation outlines the structural details of this small utilitarian vessel which plowed the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and the Spanish America. Regarded as one of the better preserved Iberian shipwrecks in the New World, the hull timbers were disassembled and raised to the surface for detailed recording and analysis; the most comprehensive being the study and reconstruction presented in this dissertation. This data not only illustrates the transition from late medieval ship construction founded on the unempirical and intuitive style of local shipwrights to that of the geometrically- and scientific-rooted Renaissance design philosophy, but also to a frame-led assembly sequence. The hull remains and associated cultural material excavated from the site prove to be an important 16th- and 17th-century collection of Spanish and New World origin, which collectively reinforce the notion that the Western Ledge Reef Wreck was on its homebound course when it sunk among treacherous Bermuda reefs sometime between 1560 and 1600.