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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/85990 |
| Date | 10 October 2008 |
| Creators | McVae, Bridget Christine |
| Contributors | Crisman, Kevin J. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, born digital |
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