IN AND OUT MAINE SHIP SKELETON IDENTIFIED

11 April 2020: I realize it has been longer than a week since we last posted; sorry about that, but being involved in "sheltering in place" causes one to barely know what month it is, let alone what day of the week we're on! The days seem to run together in some random order with little to distinguish one from another. But enough about that - we hope you all are safe and staying home and away from nasty places where you could pick up this virus. Hopefully in another few weeks it will be a thing of of the past. 

Today we're bringing you an interesting (we thought) story from Maine (in the US) about a pre-Revolutionary War vessel - well, the skeleton of one - that periodically shows up on a beach in York. From Archeology Online:
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YORK, MAINE—Researcher Stefan Claesson has determined that the remains of a ship that periodically appear in the shifting sands of southern Maine date to the mid-eighteenth century, according to a Seacoast Online report.

The hull currently measures about 50 feet long, but Claesson thinks the narrow vessel was about 60 feet long when it was built. “I believe it is the sloop Defiance,” Claesson said. “I think the ship is a pink, a type of cargo ship.” 

Claesson said he mapped the site with a drone and geographic information system technology. Wood samples analyzed by the Cornell University Tree-Ring Laboratory were found to be from trees cut down in 1753. Using that information as a starting point, Claesson then examined notary records kept by Daniel Moulton between 1750 and 1794, and found that the Defiance ran aground in Cape Neddick Cove in 1769. “Defiance fit every description,” he explained. 

Additional research revealed that on its last journey, the Defiance left Salem, Massachusetts, and was headed for Portland, Maine’s Casco Bay, carrying a crew of four, flour, pork, and other supplies when it hit rocks in Cape Neddick Cove during a storm. The crew survived, but the ship was lost. Claesson has also recommended procedures to protect the wreckage from further damage. 
 
Claesson told selectmen the Maine Historic Preservation Commission recorded the site as a significant historical find, and that the ship would qualify for the National Registry of Historic Places. Examples of pre-revolutionary ship-building are rare, he said.

“There’s so much we can still learn from the site,” Claesson said.
In terms of conservation, Claesson suggested the wreck remain where it is, but that certain measures be enacted to help educate the public.
“I suggested a rapid-response team of local volunteers who could cordon the site and educate the public so that nobody climbs on it or takes anything,” he said.
“There is the possibility for a FEMA grant pre-disaster mitigation to document the site, and to potentially put more protective measures like sand-bagging, or netting down to help preserve it,” Claesson said.

Claesson said the ship has captured the fascination of the York community for decades.

″‘Was it a viking ship? Was it from the Revolutionary war?’ People had so many ideas about its origin,” he said.

Claesson said he had records of the wreck’s unearthing in 1958 and 1978.
“Photos taken during that time indicate the mast was cut off,” he said.

“I’m not trying to be the archaeology police,” he joked. “But people have been interacting with the site for decades. I’d love to see photos or learn anything else about it to be able to tell the full story of the site.”
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That will do it for this one. To those readers who celebrate it, we wish you a happy Easter and Passover. See you next week (if we recognize that a week has passed!)

Until next time, stay safe and if you go outside or into locations with other people, hold your breath!

                                   Fair Winds, 

                                           Old Salt

A REALLY BAD DAY BY ANY RECKONING

2 April 2020: Sorry for the delayed posting - corona Virus notwithstanding - we were going to post yesterday (April Fool's Day) but figured anything we put up would be considered a prank (which we have been accused (rightly) of in the past) so we waited til today. If you kind readers buy that, I think we might have a bridge you'd be interested in! [sorry about that - this shelter in place is taking its toll!] For this weeks episode, we came across this piece from Atlas Obscura and I have to admit the lead picture is what caught this old destroyerman's eye right off the bat. We worked with subs often and both the submarines and the surface ships went to great lengths to avoid this type of catastrophe. 
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The crew of the USS Stickleback didn’t expect things to end this way—rising from the depths on May 28, 1958, only to be broadsided by the hull of a friendly American destroyer, the USS Silverstein. The Stickleback sank to the bottom, an 11,000-foot journey to nowhere.

Now, 62 years since the sub disappeared from any radar screen—and became one of only four U.S. Navy submarines lost since the end of World War II—it’s been found again.

The sub—named for a spiny, scaleless fish native to many northern waters—was found off the coast of Oahu, Hawai’i, by the Lost 52 Project, an independent initiative to find the 52 American submarine wrecks from the World War II era.

The great depth of the wreck (over two miles beneath the surface), and the fact that its precise resting place was unknown, allowed the submarine to elude discovery until now. The project found the sub by cross-referencing old records with modern sonar technology and remote submersibles, which eventually located the ship split in two at the bottom of the sea.

Subs are solo actors in naval warfare, says Tim Taylor, head of the underwater-technology firm Tiburon Subsea and founder of the Lost 52 Project, who recently spearheaded the team that identified the Stickleback. Unlike ships, he says, “when they went missing, there was no fleet close [by] to witness and record the loss.”

The Lost 52 Project, Taylor says, often finds itself parsing flawed wartime data to decipher the location of wrecks. Ironically, the sonar technology used to find the Stickleback was developed largely due to the advent of submarine warfare—the same reason the Stickleback existed in the first place.

For Taylor and his team, challenges abound. “We have many items to overcome [in our work], such as international permits, weather, mechanical, and technical issues that arise on all expeditions of this nature,” Taylor says. “The [biggest] challenge is looking for lost ships using limited 75-plus-year-old data.”

The Stickleback’s sinking could have been far worse. It occurred in 1958, after the sub had come out of decommission—ship retirement—to serve in the Korean War. A training exercise gone awry had caused it to plummet through the depths; when the sub managed to resurface, it found itself in the path of the Silverstein. A collision was unavoidable, yet no one was hurt, and the Stickleback’s crew scrambled onto the friendly destroyer before the sub foundered and slipped below the waves, this time for good.

 The Stickleback is a rare example of a submarine wreck without any casualties. “Submarines are built to keep water out,” Taylor says. “What they also do, by virtue of that, is they keep men in. For a [wrecked] submarine, it guarantees those men are in there.”

Without a soul on board, the sunken submarine off the Hawai’ian coast is a piece of human history that exists in a very different environment than, say, a history museum.

“The ocean floor at these deep depths [is an] alien environment,” says Robert Neyland, the head of underwater archaeology for the Naval History and Heritage Command. “I think people are really attracted to something they can recognize there, and the sacrifices people have made in the past.”

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I suspect neither skipper came away unscathed - we used to say that a collision at sea can ruin your entire day! No mention of what might have happened to them, but fortunately, there were no casualties!

Stay safe, kind readers, shelter in place, and for God's sake, wash your hands - often.

Until next time, 

                               Fair winds, 

                                  Old Salt