pcolaboy
Hero Member
I went to the announcement ceremony today on the Pensacola waterfront. They confirmed that there has been a second ship found from the ill-fated Tristan de Luna colonization attempt in 1559. The first wreck was found in 1992.
This second ship was located by marine archaeology students from the University of West Florida during their summer field school of 2006. Two students were performing "circle searches" outward from a magnetometer anomaly when two exposed ballast stones were found. Dr. John Bratten was aboard a companion boat and advised the students to take down the probe sticks to determine if other stones were present beneath the sand. The students returned to the surface and reported that the ballast pile was very deeply buried and extended over a 14 square meter area. So far, twelve 1x1 meter excavation blocks have been opened on the site and have exposed framing timbers in complete immaculate condition as well as lead sheathing, ceramics, and oven bricks that date to the period of the de Luna expedition. As far as they can determine at this point, this 'new' shipwreck is subsantially smaller than the first being what they estimate to be between 30-40 meters in length.
Another tantalizing fact is that both wrecks are within 1/4 mile of each other and lie on the same 13' depth line contour offshore from Emmanuel Point in Pensacola Bay. According to one of the graduate assistants on the project, this indicates to them that the other 4 remaining wrecks are mostly likely nearby as well. The wreck has now been officially declared, "Emmanuel Point Shipwreck II". State Archaeologist Dr. Roger Smith was at the ceremony as well and indicated that the framing timbers exposed were so well preserved that they had great difficulty nailing survey nails into them.
Dr. John Bratten has invited me to accompany them out to the site when all of the VIP dives have taken place and things begin to settle down a bit. Pensacola Bay now officially contains the first and second oldest shipwrecks found in Florida florida waters and the second and third oldest shipwrecks found in North America.
Very cool stuff guys. I know some of you aren't nearly as excited about this as I am but I just wanted to share it with you.
Pcolaboy
This second ship was located by marine archaeology students from the University of West Florida during their summer field school of 2006. Two students were performing "circle searches" outward from a magnetometer anomaly when two exposed ballast stones were found. Dr. John Bratten was aboard a companion boat and advised the students to take down the probe sticks to determine if other stones were present beneath the sand. The students returned to the surface and reported that the ballast pile was very deeply buried and extended over a 14 square meter area. So far, twelve 1x1 meter excavation blocks have been opened on the site and have exposed framing timbers in complete immaculate condition as well as lead sheathing, ceramics, and oven bricks that date to the period of the de Luna expedition. As far as they can determine at this point, this 'new' shipwreck is subsantially smaller than the first being what they estimate to be between 30-40 meters in length.
Another tantalizing fact is that both wrecks are within 1/4 mile of each other and lie on the same 13' depth line contour offshore from Emmanuel Point in Pensacola Bay. According to one of the graduate assistants on the project, this indicates to them that the other 4 remaining wrecks are mostly likely nearby as well. The wreck has now been officially declared, "Emmanuel Point Shipwreck II". State Archaeologist Dr. Roger Smith was at the ceremony as well and indicated that the framing timbers exposed were so well preserved that they had great difficulty nailing survey nails into them.
Dr. John Bratten has invited me to accompany them out to the site when all of the VIP dives have taken place and things begin to settle down a bit. Pensacola Bay now officially contains the first and second oldest shipwrecks found in Florida florida waters and the second and third oldest shipwrecks found in North America.
Very cool stuff guys. I know some of you aren't nearly as excited about this as I am but I just wanted to share it with you.
Pcolaboy
