[Shannon Ricles] Well, hi everyone. Welcome to Submerge North Carolina's webinar series,
Driven Ashore and Gone to Pieces - Beach Wrecks of North Carolina. Glad you could join us today.
I am Shannon Ricles. I'm the education and outreach coordinator for Monitor National
Marine Sanctuary and I'm going to be your host today. And joining me is Mark Losavio. He's going
to be my co-host. He is the media and outreach coordinator for Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.
Now this webinar is brought to you by NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
in collaboration with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
Partnering since 1975, NOAA and the state of North Carolina have worked to research, honor,
and protect the hallmarks of North Carolina's underwater cultural heritage - shipwrecks. Now
these shipwrecks hold information about the ever-changing technologies and cultural and
physical landscapes. Tthey serve as uniquely accessible underwater museums and a memorial to
generations of mariners who lived, died, worked, and fought off our shores. This is one of the many
webinars we will be hosting in the coming months for the Submerged North Carolina webinar series
in collaboration with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.
Now Monitor is just one of 14 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments
in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The system encompasses more than 600,000
square miles of marine and Great Lake waters from Washington State
to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to the America. I'm sorry my slide's going on its own.
Sorry about that. Love technology. But during the presentation, during the presentation all
attendees will be in listen only mode. You are welcome to type questions for the presenters into
the question box at the bottom of the control panel on the right hand side of your screen.
Now this is the same area you can let me or any of us know about any technical issues you may
be having that we can help you with. And we'll be monitoring incoming questions and technical
issues, and we'll respond to them just as soon as we can. We are recording this session and we'll share
the recording with registered participants via the webinar archive page and a URL will be provided at
the end of this presentation. So we are welcoming our presenter Stephen Atkinson, Assistant State
Archaeologist for the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch. So Stephen tell us about the
beach wrecks of North Carolina. And I am going to make you presenter. [Stephen Atkinson] All right.
Well thanks for having me. This is something that I'm
pretty passionate about. I grew up finding beach wrecks along the shores of Maryland and
all right here we go. All right there you go. Is that it we're up.
All right. Yeah, like I said, thanks for the introduction. This is a topic I'm
super passionate about because beach wrecks are basically what inspired me to become a maritime
archaeologist to begin with. So beach wrecks have the special ability to capture the hearts
and minds of folks on the coast. Sometimes even more so than wrecks that still remain submerged.
There's something about making your way down the beach in the thick morning fog
and discovering the worn timbers of an unfortunate vessel that met a violent end many years ago.
But once you cut through the romance and the imagination, these wrecks are still important
archaeological sites that need to be recorded and managed. So in this talk, I hope to cover
how we have done that in the past and what we plan on doing in the future. So how to begin?
Well, here's a few questions I hope to answer throughout this talk regarding coastal geography:
what type of wrecks we encounter, and how we've interacted with them in the past,
and what we plan to do in the future, as well as the impacts the presence of these
wrecks have on the people and places of coastal North Carolina. I also plan on covering why we
think it's important to do any of this type of thing at all. So why so many beach wrecks, well
seafaring vessels, have been wrecking on the coast of North Carolina since the dawn
of European exploration. And though the numbers may have slowed, vessels still continue to wreck
even to this day, usually in the form of iron ships like shrimpers or fishing trawlers, and
that type of thing. So there are three major capes along our coast,
each with shallow shoals that extend unseen miles into the ocean. Combined with cooler Labrador
currents from the north meeting the warmer Gulf Stream from the south near Cape Hatteras,
our coast has an extremely dynamic and unpredictable weather conditions. Couple that
with hurricane season, and it's essentially the perfect mixture to create shipwrecks.
So how many shipwrecks are out there? Well, on the left you can see how many shipwrecks were lost by
region based on historical documents. To the right you can see the number of beach wreck remains that
have been identified over the years. Currently, there are over 90 identified sites in the program
that are still being tracked along our beaches. Some may not have been seen for years and
years. Some might be gone, and we're sure as heck still going to get more in the future.
But as you can see from this popular National Geographic map, that's
basically a requirement to have in your house as a maritime archaeologist, coastal NC resident,
or just anybody interested in shipwrecks, there's potential for hundreds of other wrecks
to eventually become uncovered, washed up, and newly identified. Our database of reported beach
wrecks is ever growing from massive fragments like the one you see in this picture, which is
basically a whole ship to single disarticulated frames, planks, heels, stern posts, even rudders.
And it's because of the combined factors of the three major capes and their associated shoals,
the combination of two major currents, and the ever present
risk of storms that our coast has become known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, with so many
ships ending up just like the Priscilla here. And I love this historical picture,
because you could tell that this guy is basically in the middle of salvaging this shipwreck
and stopped to strike a pose. And you can see his pickaxe smacked into the deck right there.
So what's left? Well to be honest, most wreck sites are mere fractions of their former selves
with most of the superstructure being broken down by hundreds of years of ocean activity.
This leaves sizable articulated chunks, usually the lower 10 percent of the vessel.
Sometimes you'll find more of a wreck, if it was a smaller vessel. But much of the beach wrecks
we find today are sections of vessels that had probably three, four, even five masts.
They were basically the tanker ships of their time. So insofar as a ship wreck goes,
the rigging would be the first bits of the ship to be lost. And once one piece of a ship fails,
it really becomes a domino effect. The vessel then experiences failures in weak
points in their construction with the battering waves breaking fasteners along the bow and the
stern. This in turn, will pop out whole planks and eventually fracture the keel, if the vessels smack
down on a sand bar hard enough. And once that happens, it's all over. So there's a reason why
so many of the beach wrecks you see today are still those heavily built chunks that I mentioned
before is anything less really would have been smashed to splinters hundreds of years ago.
Historical documents also tell us that much of what could be salvageable after the time
of wrecking, would have been auctioned or sold off to try and recuperate the owner's
losses. And even more would have been reused by the local nearest population basically.
So how do we really know it's a shipwreck? To get started, well there are a number of features that
typically separate ships' timbers from an old chunk of fishing pier or dune crossing.
Curved timbers would be your first indicator. Followed by whatever fastener types may or may
not be present. So ships would have used what's called trunnels, which is a type of
wooden peg driven through the plank and frame, and/or bronze or iron spikes and drift pins,
which are essentially massive rivets used in areas that require greater reinforcement, such
as attaching the bottom-most floor timbers or floor frames to the keel itself or putting a large
drift pin through an area of the ship called the deadwood, which was a large solid piece of wood
right in front of the stern post. Kind of where the rudder itself would attach to.
So this type of construction can be easily scaled up or down depending on ship size.
So what's been done in the past ? Well, for as long as UAB has been around, which is the 60s,
there have been a conscious effort to investigate these beach wrecks whenever they appear
and record them in any way possible. Usually through photography
and pencil and paper. As evident in this photo here, signs were sometimes placed
on wreck fragments to prevent people from carting off timbers as souvenirs.
Still plenty of timbers are taken away from the beaches and many more end up in fire pits.
UAB has been keeping tabs and recording beach wrecks throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s,
but it was not until 1990 definitively that UAB developed a beach wreck tagging program
to inventory and track ships' timbers, whole fragments, and even entire ships that could
be found washed up on the beaches, buried or exposed, and migrating up and down the shoreline.
The small circle tag, circular yellow tag in the middle, there was a fix to a rocker timber
with a single nail displaying information, such as the wreck's tag number designation and our
branch's contact info if found. All that info is then also recorded in our big red book there
to keep track of it all and make sure we know what tags have been deployed and what
wrecks that they were attached to. But as time went on,
the office numbers changed, the addresses changed, tags were lost, and the increase
in different branch responsibilities meant that the program more or less has fallen out of use.
So what do we do now? Well, essentially, we do pretty much the same as it was before,
except digitally. So we manage and report wrecks via email and have the reporter include photos and
geographical location. We normally respond with our assessment of the structure, if it's known,
and what vessel it might have been. If it's new, it'll receive a site number based on our coastal
delineation system, and get its own file in our database. But that's kind of about it.
I mean our ability to visit every wreck is, as always, dependent on time, money, and location.
And the very southerly location of our office headquarters in Kure Beach in Wilmington
makes it pretty difficult to make it all the way out to the Outer Banks in time before an
entire shipwreck is reburied, or a single timber washes away, that type of thing. So I just wanted
to include this slide real quick to nerd out about ship construction for a second. Because
it's kind of contrary to what I had literally just said about lower and heavily built sections
of a ship being the most preserved. Because there's a couple features in this wreck that
shows that it's certainly upper structure, which to me is pretty fascinating, because you don't see
it that much. So in the upper right-hand corner is a ship's knee, and I believe that one would
be referred to as a transverse knee. Something that's not, you know, straight up and down. And
it would have been used to reinforce particular joints there for the deck beams, the outer hull
planking, and the skinnier frames that you see kind of sticking out of the sand in the center picture,
which are referred to as futtocks. So this whole section kind of exhibits the straights of upper
deck, because it's more lightly built. It has those knees at weird angles and interesting
corners. And there's also the bottom picture in the center there has a huge concreted iron area,
which could be the remains of the hawsepipe where cables would run through to affix the boat to
a dock or to run the anchor through. So this one I have flagged for revisiting. But anyway,
this was essentially the other responsibility that has kind of taken precedence more or less
over a lot of the other things we do. So this aspect of our job occupies a great deal of time.
It involves fulfilling the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act
requiring the archaeological review of numerous projects. So we handle all the coastal counties
and still do encounter wrecks related to these types of projects and occurrences. But we also
handle all manner of terrestrial archaeology review as well.
This one is, I believe, in Surf City, and we had informed the beach wreck or
the beach re-nourishment project that there was a wreck there. But I'm not sure if that
information trickled all the way down. And it was being kind of run over by machines.
So we made sure to get out there and delineate this site so nothing would be more impacted.
All that being said, it's time now to move towards a new way of cataloging and monitoring beach
wrecks. Technology has changed well enough in our favor for an easy and efficient way
of collecting site condition data and location, all with the use of a smartphone.
These new tags won't be bound entirely by the text printed on them,
such as a phone number or an address, but rather it will depend on the survival of
a QR code connected to a database for reporting the wreck timbers discovery.
So this new system of shipwreck tagging will be undertaken with a new partnership centered around
the Florida Public Archaeology Network Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Maritime Program. Or STAMP,
as it's much more easily referred to as. This QR code-based database encourages anyone who comes
across a tag to scan the code with their phone, which will produce an easily fillable web form,
that is then stored in their corresponding database. The initial concept and efficacy
testing began as a summer project that eventually became a master's thesis by Austin Burkhard.
A wreck tagging workshop was held that trained 20 volunteers on how to
properly identify and tag wreck fragments and timbers on Chincoteague Island in Virginia.
So this is the first iteration of the QR code-based wreck tag,
which would eventually be implemented in Florida via a FPAN STAMP. Made from Mylar,
which is a type of plastic waterproof paper. Chemically bonded inside two layers of Plexiglas,
the tag proved to be largely UV resistant and highly resilient. Stainless nails were chosen as a
fastening method for ease of install, as something like a hammer is a lot easier to transport and
wheel as opposed to power tools, which would require electricity. And in many cases,
you're probably standing in ankle deep water, and it's not really a risk that's worth taking.
So numerous other tag types that have been used in the past were also collected by this crew and
used as a sample. And they were deployed along with the Plexiglas tag in order to gauge the
new tags viability and resilience, including one of UAB's very own yellow tags up there.
So these sample tags were placed on actual wreck timbers that they had in the area,
which were then strategically left in different coastal environments,
including submerged dune and inter-tidal zones, to see how everything held up.
But okay. So the yellow tags held up okay. They were a little bit subjective to warping and
breakage. The orange tag completely washed out, which is kind of interesting to me,
but it was pretty clear that the Plexiglas tag had come out on top compared to all the other ones.
But that was only half the equation. So in the years following, the data collected through the
web form and online database, there were 200 submissions received from 90 different tags,
with 175 tags being deployed overall. The timbers with unreported tags could have easily been
reburied, swept back out to sea, or could have even been moved to a far and inaccessible shore.
Either way, the data still continues to stream in. So FPAN's program has basically rebuilt,
revamped, and redesigned the program based off the principles laid out in early testing.
And has already led to successful results on the beaches of Florida. So further, there are plans
basically to partner with the National Park Service, as well as Maryland, Virginia,
Rhode Island, and of course, Florida in what could be the beginning of a tagging program
that spans the entire East Coast. And also, before diving headfirst into the STAMP program,
I'd be remiss if we didn't mention our NC State intern who began experimenting with
other potential options. Having worked with GIS and the GIS-based system, using Survey123
app as a different, but quite similar method of tracking features.
Well, so what's the point? Why are we bothering to do all this stuff anyways? Well, it may seem
ridiculous to talk about recording and preserving beach timbers and wreck sites, while also just
letting them sit there at the mercy of the tide, but hear me out. I promise it'll make sense.
The wreck timber depicted here was tagged by Austin and his crew. And through the frequent
scanning by curious discoverers, they were able to track the timber as it journeyed all the way
from Chincoteague, Virginia, to Corolla, North Carolina, which is like hundreds of miles. So
this type of long-distance movement is something that we never really would have been aware of
if not for these tags. And the timber certainly would have assumed to have been a local shipwreck.
So who knows how much other wrecks have moved in the past and how far they could have gone.
Another huge aspect in advocating for an NC2 wreck tagging program is weighing the costs
of extraction and proper conservation. So it's not always as easy as dragging
a timber up the beach and popping it in a corral for folks to look at.
The timber has been buried under wet sand for possibly hundreds of years. And it's acclimated
to that environment. So the movement, the moment that that changes and the timber begins to dry out,
it's going to crack, warp, shrink, and splinter becoming a shadow of its former diagnostic self.
And the cost to adequately conserve that timber in proper bulking agents could cost hundreds or
even thousands of dollars. Plus you need a facility to do it in. But of course,
concessions can always be made for particularly diagnostic materials, such as this awesome bow
adornment here. And you can see kind of the very tip of it on the left-hand side there in detail.
So it's also imperative to consider what it would take to move an entire shipwreck. So
it's easy to look at an exposed site and think, man we really need to do something about this,
without taking the time to consider where it's going to go and what the plan is after movement.
Now I use these two wrecks only as examples. Not to put the way that they were handled on blast.
It's my understanding that the Nags Head wreck had become semi-buoyant and decided to have one
last sail right into the side of the nearest pier. So of course, that one had to be handled.
But you can see the before and after of moving a shipwreck to an area and not providing
any type of treatment. I mean the timbers have basically turned brittle and started
to crumble. I mean that one on the Corolla wreck is completely in half now. You know it's just,
it's just a massive logistical undertaking. And many of the wrecks end up crumbling away
in a parking lot, where they very well could have lasted many more years under the sand.
But like I said, there's always kind of caveats. We're always accepting donations at our office,
and we're willing to take in a reasonable amount of materials. I
don't think we have enough space for an entire ship. But you know, even
one timber that has been kicking around the garage for 30 years still has a lot to tell us, like that
one on the bottom left-hand side. That skinny one that was donated to us I think last year.
So what are the benefits of all of this?
Well like I mentioned in a previous slide, being able to track a wreck fragment or lone timber,
provides us with multiple levels of data. Data as simple as location and site condition can tell
us about the state of our coastline. How often a wreck is exposed due to how often it's reported.
The more it's exposed and reported, the more it can degrade, and so on, and so forth. So
the attached images that folks send us, as well can indicate to us if the wreck is breaking up or
if it's relatively stable. But even more so than the tagging program, these beach wrecks mean a lot
of things to a lot of different people and their communities. So it's our hope that the presence
of a tag alone on any given timber will indicate that these pieces are more than just firewood,
but an important piece of our collective coastal history and deserve to be preserved. And our first
step in implementing this program should probably be to create materials to engage with the folks
who most frequently see these wrecks, because after all, they'll probably be the end up doing
most of the reporting. In the future, I hope to create more video content, like this video that we
produced last year for Submerged NC celebrations. Basically, outlining what it takes to identify a
wreck timber. And I think more material like this can aid in our tag, wreck tagging initiative.
Like I said, many coastal communities are already well aware of the wrecks on their beaches. And
with the prevalence of social media these days, pages, such as this one on Facebook have become
a fairly popular way to exchange daily sightings, discoveries, and ask questions about the wrecks.
Are they uncovered right now? Can I go check it out? Do I need an ORB pass?
That type of thing. So others even depend on these wrecks as an element of their economy
with folks giving beach tours focused on taking tourists to well-known shipwrecks.
Even distilleries that have special releases named after significant beach wrecks in the area.
Notice that particularly suspicious mantlepiece.
So like I said, in the beginning, where do we begin? Well, it's my opinion that the best
plan of action in regards to deploying the tags and getting them out there
should probably be focused on the most frequently reported wrecks as candidates
for the first tag. So for a number of reasons, firstly this frequency of reporting, shows that
they are more often uncovered. Therefore, more at risk to environmental degradation, but they're also
more visible and visited, meaning that the tag is more likely to be noticed, scanned, and reported.
And the program be recognized and learned about. So this slide depicts a handful of the most recent
and more commonly reported wrecks from the past year. I think the most popular one, currently,
is the G.A. Kohler on top. I think that section is probably the lower back bottom of the ship.
And as you can see, it's like extremely heavily built. The Metropolis comes and
goes, possible Metropolis, near Corolla off ramp 55 is another pretty popular one out on Hatteras.
I see the Edith Stowe being reported quite a lot. Normally, you don't see as much of it as you do
in this picture. This one shows the keel, but also the outline of the outer part of the ship as well.
And the mile 67 or 65.7 site, rather is, I believe,
out on Ocracoke and has been making the rounds on news networks and that type of thing.
And the truth is the ever-changing climate, coastal erosion, and the purely chaotic and dynamic nature
of the Outer Banks, and all barrier islands for that matter, means that these sites are
in a constant state of flux. Considering it's usually far too difficult to raise and conserve
every site, the tags give us an opportunity for gaining invaluable information on the
status of these sites, from movement, to site condition, and basically, anything in between.
So in summary, it's our hope that the presence of these tags on the timber or whole fragment
will show that these timbers are not in fact just a chunk of wood, but an important cultural
resource and subject to scientific study. Leaving the tagged wrecks and timbers in an 'as found'
condition also opens up the opportunity for the public to experience the joy of discovery,
and engage them by giving them the opportunity to participate in a
long-term scientific study that will benefit the beach communities of North Carolina as a whole.
So who wants to get out there and help me place some tags?
Thanks everybody. [Shannon Ricles] All right. Thank you Stephen. Okay, well we're gonna do some
questions and answers now. So if you haven't had time to put your question in, please feel free to
put it in the question box, so we can get it to Stephen. And the first question we have
is - what's the biggest surprise in recent years concerning shipwrecks that you've had?
[Stephen Atkinson] Biggest surprise in recent years? I don't know. That's a good question.
[Shannon Ricles] Anything that was unexpected? [Stephen Atkinson] Not particularly. We, like I said, we kind of have a good handle
on the big ones, you know, the main wrecks that are often reported like I had on that slide. So
I don't think anything's really taken us off guard. Although it has been interesting from
a modern standpoint to watch the interest and degradation of what' that ship? The
Ocean Pursuit, I think. It's become a cultural phenomenon. So that to me is interesting from
like an anthropological standpoint, because you wonder if the local communities would have had
the same opinions of the wooden ships that were there, you know, 100 to 200 years ago. So that's
pretty interesting. [Shannon Ricles] Okay. And then we also have, let's see, let me go back up.
Besides providing a location to managers, does the QR code system give the finder data or historical
information about a timber, such as a frame, a knee, etc.? [Stephen Atkinson] Not as of yet. So
we don't really have too much in regards to site specifics when you scan the code and get the web
form. It's really just an entry system, but we hope to have that feature in the future.
So I guess, like I said with that slide about known wrecks, once we know what the wreck is
and know its history, it's my hope that we can essentially attach, I guess something that you
could call a brochure or whatever to that QR code. And when you scan it, it'll give you a readout
of that wreck and its history. I think that would be a super cool aspect. [Shannon Ricles]
Okay. Mark do you have any questions you want to read off? [Mark Losavio] Yes. We have
someone wondering if there's some sort of maybe internship program to help with this kind of work?
[Stephen Atkinson] Nothing's set up yet, but I think moving forward in the future,
I think that would be an incredible resource for us to have. I mean
basically, UAB staff in total is four people, and we have the whole coastline
of North Carolina to handle. So any help we can get would be greatly appreciated.
[Shannon Ricles] Stephen you mentioned that you had a volunteer program that you did.
Is there any way for people to get involved in that volunteer program and take the training?
[Stephen Atkinson] That was actually set up by Austin Burkhard a number of years ago when
he started experimenting with this type of technology. That wasn't UAB in particular,
but that's certainly something that we could look forward to in the future
in setting up. [Shannon Ricles] Okay, Mark do you have another one? [Mark Losavio] We have another
question. How far might you or your team travel in a given week? Are you guys on the go all the time?
[Stephen Atkinson] Not currently because of, you know, Covid restrictions and all that. But on the
day-to-day, if things were I guess you could say 'normal', we try to be moving. You know, we have,
like I said, we basically have two different responsibilities. One is essentially
the archaeological review for Section 106 project related stuff. And then the other is managing
all these submerged resources. So we usually start the month with a game
plan of things we want to accomplish, things we want to see, and nine times out of ten,
it doesn't ever go exactly as planned. New things are reported or new issues come up. And we just
basically have to take things as they come. [Shannon Ricles] Okay, another question is,
they said great presentation and being located in southeast North Carolina, do you foresee tagging
the numerous wrecks along the Cape Fear River or other rivers? [Stephen Atkinson]
Yeah, absolutely. I don't see why not. If they're exposed enough. You know,
we're not going to put a tag on a wreck that's underwater and is never really going to see
air, but if there's like a wreck that's located kind of in the intertidal zone,
that type of thing, absolutely. I will say, if if you're a local, I doubt we're going to drudge
out over to Eagles Island and put tags on any of those wrecks in that shipwreck graveyard,
but probably a little bit farther down here closer to the mouth of the river, definitely.
[Mark Losavio] We have an interesting question about how
you're planning on working with a bunch of states on the eastern coast,
but what about the beaches, say in the Gulf Coast or the West Coast or even near Hawaii,
what are the programs like over there? [Stephen Atkinson] Frankly, I don't know. I'm not sure
what other states have done. I mean Florida, you know, working with FPAN and Florida, they encompass
all the coasts so they would handle the Gulf Coast as well, for sure. And you know it's
it sounds harder than I think it honestly is, because a lot of the underwater archaeology
branches are much like us. It's just a handful of people, you know, two, three, four, five people.
So it honestly isn't that hard to coordinate between everybody. And I think if FPAN is going
to be the one hosting the server, then really all we've got to do is work on getting our hard goods,
like the tags and the QR codes of the match, and putting them out there. [Shannon Ricles] Okay,
another question came in, it says other than fasteners, what artifacts accompany these timbers?
[Stephen Atkinson] Well, for beach wrecks, not much to be honest. They're pretty well
like stripped by the waves' action themselves. I know with the Corolla wreck, which I featured
on one of the slides, held local had a number of artifacts that were found in and around it.
But it was really just a handful of coins and that type of thing. But unless the ship is really,
I don't want to say intact, but definitely more of a ship shape rather, a lot of the artifacts that
would have been inside the ship or just washed out and washed over hundreds of thousands of
times. And like I said, it's even kind of tough to judge the context of the artifact of the
ship itself sometimes, because they do often move pretty far from their original wrecking location.
[Mark Losavio] Okay, we have another interesting question.
Is there like a slow season or a peak season for beach tagging?
[Stephen Atkinson] Yeah, I mean absolutely. Obviously, the slow time would be the winter when
nobody's out at the beach. And it definitely picks up in the summertime when people are out there,
kind of getting into the weeds, getting into the dunes, and exploring during the summer. But in so
far as wrecks being exposed, that would definitely be more of a winter thing, a fall/winter when all
the storms are hitting the coast and the beaches become a lot shorter. So that's when you start
to see the timber sticking out. And like in a few of the images, you can see wrecks basically
sticking straight out of the dunes. [Shannon Ricles] Okay and then another question is,
you said that wrecks can move up and down the beach. So what's the furthest you've ever
found a wreck to move? [Stephen Atkinson] Honestly, that timber that I featured that
Austin tagged. I had never seen, I mean obviously it wasn't a whole ship. it was just one timber,
but that's an incredible distance. And for it to be as intact as it was too, was pretty impressive.
Normally, wooden ships are completely devoured by a marine boring worm called Teredo, that
lives in warmer waters, and you know, if a timber is sticking out of the water, into the water, out
of the sand, or whatever for any amount of time, it starts to be found and destroyed. So that one's
held up pretty well. But yeah, for us honestly, I mean we're not gonna really know until we get some
new tags on these ships, and then we can really figure out how much and how often they're moving.
[Mark Losavio] Do you need a special app to read the QR codes? Or will just
a regular QR reader will work? [Stephen Atkinson] I think anything will work, I believe. I think
you just use your camera on your phone and it'll bring up like a web page essentially.
[Shannon Ricles] Okay, and it said that, let's see, another one here says- what labs do you
use for preserving things you deem necessary? [Stephen Atkinson] Well, we kind of have two here
in North Carolina. We have our small lab at our UAB office at the Underwater Archaeology Branch,
that's basically been working on artifacts on and off since the branches inception
with the discovery of the blockade runner Modern Greece. But our main lab now is focused at
the Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Lab in Greenville, North Carolina. So their primary focus
is obviously the materials raised from the Queen Anne's Revenge, but if we have something that is,
you know, extremely essential, they will also treat plenty of other artifacts as needed.
[Mark Losavio] All right. And I think we have one last question. Do you carbon date any of the wrecks?
[Stephen Atkinson] I don't think we have with any of these ones as of yet. I'm not sure.
I'm not sure the viability of that, but something to look into. But most of them,
you know, these wooden shipwrecks are really an aspect of historical archaeology. So we can,
you know, pair with a historian and/or do the documentary research ourselves,
and really take a pretty good shot at identifying the ship's
name and age based off historical records. That type of information is out there. I mean
there's newspaper archives, there's insurance record, all kinds of things that we can use to
really identify shipwrecks without having to get hyper scientific if we don't need to.
[Shannon Ricles] Okay, great. Any other questions do you see Mark that I didn't get to?
[Mark Losvio] No, I think most of these questions have been answered. [Shannon Ricles] Okay, all
right. And I think there's a couple of personal questions that we'll forward on to you Stephen.
Somebody asked for your email address, and you are in luck, because that's on this
slide. [Stephen Atkinson] There we go. [Shannon Ricles] So if we did not get to your question or if you have additional ones,
you can always email Stephen directly to the email address that's listed here on the screen.
Also, be sure to check out the links in the handout that in the handout section on the chat
link there, and that's for more information on North Carolina's
Office of State Archaeology and the research that they're doing.
So once again, our this video will be captioned and a recording of the presentation will be made
available on the sanctuaries archived page found at the URL listed here at the top.
In addition, the webinar will be archived on the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary's webinar
website. And you can click on the multimedia section in the toolbar to access the webinar
box. You will also find future webinars in that same section. Now don't worry,
all of this information is going to be sent to you in a follow-up email once the recording is ready,
and that usually takes a couple of days. We'll get the recording by today or tomorrow,
but it takes our web team a couple of days to get it up. So just be patient but it will be there.
And this Thursday, we want you to tune back in with us for on April 22nd at 4:00 p.m. Submerged
North Carolina will present an educator workshop with Jenna Hartley. She's a PhD student at North
Carolina State University. Join us to learn more about the research she has done with over 2 500
North Carolina fourth and fifth graders, who collected thousands of pounds of trash
and have now become change agents with their families and communities.
Now although this webinar is aimed at educators all are welcome to attend.
And as we prepare for hurricane season, you won't want to miss our Submerged North
Carolina webinar on Tuesday, May 4th at 9:30 a.m Eastern time. It's early in the morning,
but Mr. Andy Lotto, with the National Hurricane Center will discuss the forecast process
and how hurricanes impact the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic region.
In addition the submerged North Carolina series will also feature these upcoming
webinars listed here. So be sure you tune in for any of those that might interest you.
And if you enjoyed this webinar, you can also check out others in the National Marine
Sanctuaries' webinar series. On May 1st at 3:00 pm Eastern time, you can join staff from NOAA
on a virtual outdoor adventure from Ventura Harbor in California, across the Santa Barbara
Channel in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, to Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands.
Lastly, as you exit the webinar, there is a short survey for formal and informal educators. If you
are an educator, NOAA would greatly appreciate it if you would just take a minute or two
to complete the survey. Your answers will help NOAA develop future webinars to meet your needs,
and your participation is voluntary, and your answers will be completely anonymous. So once
again we want to thank Stephen for a really great presentation. And thank you for taking
the time to join us today. Have a wonderful day and this concludes the presentation. Thank you!