DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 1997               TAG: 9705280040

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

SHIPWRECKS: VIRGINIA HAS LOTS OF SHORELINE, WHY NOT AN UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY UNIT?

I WAS speaking on the phone with Gordon Watts, a nationally renowned archaeologist whose company - based in Washington, N.C. - is examining the nine tons of remnants from a wrecked wooden ship found on the Portsmouth waterfront earlier this year.

``Everything we have found supports our earlier conclusion that it was built between the time of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812,'' Watts said.

``The most interesting feature of the ship is its pine wood construction, which may be the key to its identity,'' he noted. Since oak was the preferred wood for ship construction, the ship's designer probably chose an inferior wood for a purpose, he speculated.

The builder had known his craft well and had designed a vessel built for speed rather than long life, he said. The hull shape indicates it was a schooner or bark.

The vessel, about 100 feet long, might have been designed as a privateer, one that would be used to capture another vessel of much greater value. Or as a trading ship that would run the British blockade of the Bay to fetch molasses, rum, sugar or salt from the West Indies. That would be valuable cargo worth more than the relatively inexpensive ship.

It might even have been a gunboat.

``Another possibility we're checking into is the possibility that it might have been a fire ship - one which could be set afire and sent into the British fleet,'' Watts said.

Watts' company - Tidewater Atlantic Research - was hired to analyze and excavate the shipwreck when it was found by a construction company digging out a ferry slip for TRT's Norfolk-Portsmouth ferry back in February.

The vessel's bow, stern, and remaining timbers from the wreck were piled aboard a 17,000-pound trailer and taken to Washington, N.C., where Watts and his associates are cataloging the pieces. Before summer's end they will have a computer model of the ship.

Watts is director of nautical archaeology at East Carolina University, which has one of only two underwater archaeology graduate programs in the United States.

He's a man who knows his onions. But after talking with him by phone I wondered what he was doing with our onions? Didn't the state of Virginia have underwater archaeologists capable of doing the work he is performing?

The answer - unfortunately - is no. Until the early 1990s the state's Department of Historic Resources had an underwater archaeology section, but it was eliminated as an unnecessary expense at the request of Gov. Douglas Wilder.

Hard to imagine, isn't it? Today, 2,000 shipwrecks are known to exist within state waters. And countless more are likely to be found at any time in what is likely the most historically rich ship graveyard in the nation.

Even harder to imagine when the state spends millions encouraging tourists to visit our state. Surely some would be lured by the prospect of shipwreck exhibits. A good example of what state underwater archaeologists have contributed in the past is the stunning exhibit at the Yorktown Victory Center displaying artifacts from a ship sunk during the Battle of Yorktown.

In the absence of a state archaeologist in Hampton Roads, Fielding Tyler, the executive director of the Lifesaving Museum in Virginia Beach, has been attempting to collect and preserve shipwrecks and nautical items discovered by the public.

But he concedes he and his museum staff have neither the training or resources of a state archaeological team. ``If we found a big shipwreck we wouldn't know what to do with it except give it to Watts and let him take it home with him.''

I found myself getting a little angry that our state should be so unmindful of its nautical history. We are only one of two states from Maryland to Florida without an underwater archaeology unit. And the other state - Georgia - is considering one.

Richard Lawrence heads the underwater archaeological unit for North Carolina's Department of Archives and History. It employs three archaeologists, a technician and an administrative assistant.

He was at a loss to explain why we didn't have a similar unit in Virginia.

``With the amount of rivers and ocean coastline and rich colonial and Civil War sites, you certainly should have one,'' he said.

The shipwreck found on the Portsmouth waterfront by a backhoe digger was dredged up from muddy landfill, including the pilings from old piers. The construction company notified the Portsmouth office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Dave Hazzard of the Portsmouth office documented the excavation and served as a liaison with TRT and Tidewater Atlantic Research.

Whether more of the shipwreck in Portsmouth might have been saved from destruction if a state underwater archaeology unit had been in existence is speculative. But requiring archaeological surveys prior to excavation in history-rich areas is one of the functions of such a state unit.

``I certainly hope that the next time a hole is dug up there people will recognize early on the potential for finding other ships under downtown Portsmouth,'' Watts said.

During colonial times, many port towns sank ships on their waterfronts - New York is an example - and used them as wharves, he noted.

One of the state's former underwater archaeologists is John Broadwater, currently manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off North Carolina.

As a senior Virginia archaeologist, he worked on a state survey in the 1980s that identified about 2,000 shipwrecks in Virginia waters. ``We not only do not have archaeologists investigating the underwater wrecks in Virginia but there's little, if any, attempt to prevent the scavenging of those resources,'' he said.

``After the settlement at Jamestown everyone was as familiar with punts and skiffs as we are with Fords and Chevys today,'' he said. ``It's a shame with such a maritime heritage that we're missing our historical and archaeological interpretation.''

A shame, indeed.

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