Underwater Archeology
I spent the past weekend SCUBA diving on the Burlington waterfront right between the EPA superfund site and the sewage treatment plant. The scenery on land isn't great but the number of wrecks underwater is fascinating.
The superfund site is an old barge canal that was built back when Burlington was the third largest lumber port in the U.S. and was the main stopover for cargo traveling between Montreal and New York City. Extending from the canal into the lake are two breakwaters that would keep waves from hitting canal boats as they entered the canal. These breakwaters extend for a couple hundred yards into the lake and after the canal closed became a place to tie up old boats which would eventually leak and sink. The result is a large number of wrecks sitting in 10-15 feet of water.
The lake water is cold enough to preserve the wooden wrecks so as part of an underwater archeology class run by the Lake Champlain maritime Museum and my favorite dive shop Murphy and I spent the weekend mapping artifacts on an old lake schooner called the Excelsior.
The double-masted boat was built in the 1850's was retired and then sank off the breakwater as a result of neglect around 1895. In the early 20th century with canal closed its breakwater was only getting in the way of boat traffic and a hole was opened in it using heavy equipment or explosives. (probably the former) The hole was opened right where the Excelsior was, ripping off its rear half.
This made for an interesting wreck to dive since there are boat pieces mixed in with the big logs and rocks used to make the breakwater. We spent most of our time over the forward portion of the ship where we could document the locations of artifacts like shoe bottoms, pieces of iron rod and chain, jugs that held who knows what and odd things that we drew for the archaeologists to identify. One artifact Murphy found was completely out of place for a commercial boat of that age and figuring out why it would be there drove the archeologist leading the class nuts.
There were two classroom sessions along with the weekend of diving: An introduction last Wednesday and one tomorrow on how to conserve artifacts that have been removed from the lake. Of course any artifact found on a wreck in Lake Champlain must stay on the wreck by state law unless it is removed as a part of an approved archeological expedition. On the side of the lake belonging to New York State no human-made item may be removed from the lake bottom. In Vermont stuff sitting on it's own is fair game. (so we Vermonters can pull golf balls and old beer cans out of the lake without becoming criminals)
The superfund site is an old barge canal that was built back when Burlington was the third largest lumber port in the U.S. and was the main stopover for cargo traveling between Montreal and New York City. Extending from the canal into the lake are two breakwaters that would keep waves from hitting canal boats as they entered the canal. These breakwaters extend for a couple hundred yards into the lake and after the canal closed became a place to tie up old boats which would eventually leak and sink. The result is a large number of wrecks sitting in 10-15 feet of water.
The lake water is cold enough to preserve the wooden wrecks so as part of an underwater archeology class run by the Lake Champlain maritime Museum and my favorite dive shop Murphy and I spent the weekend mapping artifacts on an old lake schooner called the Excelsior.
The double-masted boat was built in the 1850's was retired and then sank off the breakwater as a result of neglect around 1895. In the early 20th century with canal closed its breakwater was only getting in the way of boat traffic and a hole was opened in it using heavy equipment or explosives. (probably the former) The hole was opened right where the Excelsior was, ripping off its rear half.
This made for an interesting wreck to dive since there are boat pieces mixed in with the big logs and rocks used to make the breakwater. We spent most of our time over the forward portion of the ship where we could document the locations of artifacts like shoe bottoms, pieces of iron rod and chain, jugs that held who knows what and odd things that we drew for the archaeologists to identify. One artifact Murphy found was completely out of place for a commercial boat of that age and figuring out why it would be there drove the archeologist leading the class nuts.
There were two classroom sessions along with the weekend of diving: An introduction last Wednesday and one tomorrow on how to conserve artifacts that have been removed from the lake. Of course any artifact found on a wreck in Lake Champlain must stay on the wreck by state law unless it is removed as a part of an approved archeological expedition. On the side of the lake belonging to New York State no human-made item may be removed from the lake bottom. In Vermont stuff sitting on it's own is fair game. (so we Vermonters can pull golf balls and old beer cans out of the lake without becoming criminals)
posted by Adam at 6:06 AM
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