(Courtesy NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program)
At the bottom of the Gulf of
Mexico, 4,000 feet down, an
expedition led by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
in partnership with the Bureau of
Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
and private companies, found a remarkable
shipwreck thought to date to the
early nineteenth century. The site was
identified during a 2011 oil and gas
sonar survey, but archaeologists didn't
know what they had until they visited
it with remotely operated submersibles.
The mission also employed some hefty
technology—broadband satellite communications
let experts and team leaders
consult on the exploration of the wreck
in real time. "Most of us watched the
operations from our living rooms," says
BOEM archaeologist Jack Irion. "Truly
armchair archaeology at its finest."
Artifacts include the ship's copper
sheathing (which reveals the ship's
form despite the decomposition of its
wooden hull), anchors, ceramics, glass
bottles, navigational instruments, cannon,
boxes of muskets, a rare ship's
stove, and even fabric. Work to identify
the ship is ongoing, but it appears to
date to between 1800 and 1840, a volatile
time in the history of the Gulf of
Mexico—a time that included the War
of 1812, the Mexican War of Independence,
revolutions in Texas and Yucatán,
and rampant piracy and privateering.
