The Persistence of Sail in the Age of Steam

In Archaeology Under Water (1966: 19), pioneer nautical archaeologist George Bass pointed out how much easier it is to train someone who is already an archaeologist to become a diver than to take trained divers and teach them to do archaeology. While this is 'generally true, there have also been occasions when well-trained and enthusiastic sport-divers have been willing to accept the train ing and discipline necessary to conduct good archaeological science, becoming first-rate scholars in the process. Dr. Donna Souza's book is the product of just such a transition. It shows how a sport-diver and volunteer fieldworker can proceed through a rigorous graduate program to achieve research results that are convincing in their own right and point toward new directions in the discipline as a whole. What is new in this book for maritime archaeology? Perhaps the most obvious and important feature of Dr. Souza's archaeological and historical analysis of the wreck at Pulaski Reef and its contemporaries in the Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida, is the way it serves as a means to a larger end---namely an understanding of the social history of the transition from sail to steam in late nineteenth century maritime commerce in America. The relationship between changes in technology and culture is a classic theme in anthropology, and this study extends ~t theme into the domain of underwater archaeology.

`...the method she used in her study and analysis of six shipwrecks on the Pulaski Reef site in the Dry Tortugas gives preservationists an excellent model for conducting minimum impact archaeology. ...excellent use of illustrations, using only line drawings and pertinent black-and-white photographs. Of interest to the scholar and researcher are the appendices tabulating steam versus sail losses, insurance losses, salvage records, and information on the number and types of wreckers working in the Dry Tortugas. The Persistence of Sail in the Age of Steam demonstrates well the movement within underwater archaeology towards minimal site excavation and in situ preservation.'
Nautical Research Journal, 47:4 (2002)

Texte du rabat

Using an anthropologically oriented research design, this investigation of the wrecks of six sailing ships dating from the middle to late nineteenth century shows how merchant sailing attempted to compete with steamships, not only through technological adaptation, but also through increased risk-taking. Souza addresses risk-taking behavior, its archaeological signatures, and supporting evidence. Highlights include-maps, photographs, and contemporary illustrations-tables of anchor and chain size-a list of all wrecking vessels known to have operated in Dry Tortugas, and-a glossary of nautical terms. The result is a work with broad applications to the study of cultural change and a model for a new kind of underwater archaeology.

Contenu

1. The Dry Tortugas.- 2. The Pulaski Site.- 3. Archaeology of the Pulaski Site.- 4. Other Dry Tortugas Sites.- 5. Technological Change and Risk-Taking behavior.- 6. Summary and Conclusions.- Appendix A: Wrecking Vessels Operating in the Dry Tortugas, 18291909.- Appendix B: Block 16 Loci Descriptions.- Appendix C: Artifact Inventory.- Appendix D: Stud-Link Chain Data.- Appendix E: Stud-Link Chain Analysis.- Appendix G.- Appendix H: Sail versus Steam Casualty Ratio Data.- Appendix I: Insurance Data for Vessels Reporting Disasters.- References.