Bibliography
"The Santee Canal Sanctuary," Part 1, edited by Joe J. Simmons and Mark M. Newell, 1989, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Columbia, South Carolina.
"What Really Happened to the CSS Hunley? Success and Tragedy in Maffitt's Channel" by Mark M. Newell, Alabama Heritage, Number 39, Winter 1996, p. 40
"Underwater Surveying" chapter of the "Archaeology Underwater The NAS Guide to Principles and Practice," published by the Nautical Archaeology Society.
Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology, it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras. Its acceptance has been a relatively late development due to the difficulties of accessing and working underwater sites, and because the application of archaeology to underwater sites initially emerged from the skills and tools developed by shipwreck salvagers. As a result, underwater archaeology initially struggled to establish itself as bona fide archaeological research. The situation changed when universities began teaching the subject and when a theoretical and practical base for the sub-discipline was firmly established. Underwater archaeology now has a number of branches including, after it became broadly accepted in the late 1980s, maritime archaeology: the scientifically based study of past human life, behaviours and cultures and their activities in, on, around and (lately) under the sea, estuaries and rivers. This is most often effected using the physical remains found in, around or under salt or fresh water or buried beneath water-logged sediment. In recent years, the study of submerged WWII sites and of submerged aircraft in the form of underwater aviation archaeology have also emerged as bona fide activity.
USS Housatonic was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, gaining its namesake from the Housatonic River of New England.
H. L. Hunley, often referred to as Hunley, was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War. Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship (USS Housatonic), although Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to base. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of Hunley during her short career. She was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after she was taken into government service under the control of the Confederate States Army at Charleston, South Carolina.
Clive Eric Cussler was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. Cussler was the founder and chairman of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. He was the sole author or lead author of more than 80 books.
The National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) is a private non-profit organization in the United States founded in 1979. Originally it was a fictional US government organization in the novels of author Clive Cussler. Cussler later created and, until his death in 2020, led the actual organization which is dedicated to "preserving our maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts.” Additionally "NUMA does not actively seek private funding. Most of the financial support for the projects comes from the royalties from Clive Cussler’s books."
Resurgam is the name given to an early Victorian submarine and its prototype, designed and built in Britain by Reverend George Garrett. It was intended as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed around ship hulls to defend against attack by torpedo vessels.
CSS Georgia, also known as State of Georgia and Ladies' Ram, was an ironclad warship built in Savannah, Georgia in 1862 during the American Civil War. The Ladies' Gunboat Association raised $115,000 for her construction to defend the port city of Savannah.
The year 2000 in archaeology included many events, some of which are listed below.
The year 1995 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Sub Marine Explorer is a submersible built between 1863 and 1866 by Julius H. Kroehl and Ariel Patterson in Brooklyn, New York for the Pacific Pearl Company. It was hand powered and had an interconnected system of a high-pressure air chamber or compartment, a pressurized working chamber for the crew, and water ballast tanks. Problems with decompression sickness and overfishing of the pearl beds led to the abandonment of Sub Marine Explorer in Panama in 1869 despite publicized plans to shift the craft to the pearl beds of Baja California.
Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (MSRA) is an American non-profit corporation based in Holland, Michigan. Formed in 2001 by the former directors of the committee which originally established the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve, their stated purpose is to "Preserve Michigan’s Submerged Maritime History." With the discovery of the steamer H. C. Akeley outside the boundaries of the preserve, the group broadened their area of focus and formed MSRA.
The archaeology of shipwrecks is the field of Archaeology specialized most commonly in the study and exploration of shipwrecks. Its techniques combine those of archaeology with those of diving to become Underwater archaeology. However, shipwrecks are discovered on what have become terrestrial sites.
Craig Dirgo is an American author of techno thrillers and adventure novels, as well as non-fiction. He started off co-authoring with Clive Cussler on his non-fiction work. He soon moved to his own novels starring his character, John Taft, an agent of a fictitious US spy agency, the National Intelligence Agency. He co-authored with Cussler the first two "Oregon Files" novels.
Edward Lee Spence is a pioneer in underwater archaeology who studies shipwrecks and sunken treasure. He is also a published editor and author of non-fiction reference books; a magazine editor, and magazine publisher ; and a published photographer. Spence was twelve years old when he found his first five shipwrecks.
The Sea Research Society (SRS) is a non-profit educational research organization founded in 1972. Its general purpose is to promote scientific and educational endeavors in any of the marine sciences or marine histories with the goal of obtaining knowledge for the ultimate benefit to mankind. It does both archival research and underwater expeditions in search of historic shipwrecks.
The Sea Hunters: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks is a nonfiction work by adventure novelist Clive Cussler published in the United States in 1996. This work details the author's search for famous shipwrecks with his nonprofit organization NUMA. There is also a television series titled The Sea Hunters which is based on the book. It airs on the National Geographic Channel and History Television in Canada.
Serpent is the first book in the NUMA Files series of books co-written by best-selling author Clive Cussler and veteran of mystery books Paul Kemprecos, and was published in 1999. The main character of this series is Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala.
The Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) of the Naval History & Heritage Command (NHHC) is a unit of the United States Department of the Navy. It was formally founded in 1996 as a consequence of the emerging need to manage, study, conserve, and curate the U.S. Navy's submerged cultural resources.
The conservation-restoration of the H.L. Hunley is currently being undertaken by the Warren Lasch Conservation Center; they hope to have the Hunley project completed by 2020. Since the Hunley was located in 1995 and recovered from the ocean in 2000, a team of conservators from the Lasch Conservation Center has been working to restore the Hunley.
Seeteufel was a hand-powered submarine designed by Wilhelm Bauer in 1856. It was made of iron, and was 51 feet (16 m) long, 12.5 feet (3.8 m) wide and 11 feet (3.4 m) deep. It could hold 15 people. After his last submarine, Brandtaucher had sunk, Bauer included a diver's chamber in the design. Through this chamber, which worked like an airlock, divers could leave and enter the submerged vessel. He had tried to obtain support for his invention in several countries, like the Austria-Hungary, the British Empire or France. Finally, in 1855, Bauer made a contract with Russia. He built his submarine at the Leutemberg Works, and it was completed on 1 November. In May 1856 it was taken to Kronstadt and testing began. The submarine made 133 successful diving runs, including a dive on 6 September 1856, when musicians played the national anthem of Russia during the coronation of Alexander II. During the 134th dive, the submarine got stuck in the sand of the seafloor and was later retrieved by a salvage crew.
