Archaeology

The N°13 Demister - May 2003

The island of St Kitts, called a long time St Christopher until the treaty of Paris in 1783 when it will be yielded to the English, was during three centuries the theatre of multiple naval battles and violent one tropical hurricanes. It is following the one of these hurricanes that a wreck was discovered with the southern point of the island in the bay called "White House Bay" near the largest salted lake of the area.

In partnership with ADMAT/ERIMAT and the SCH society, I took part in the first investigations and phases of recognition of the wreck in September and October 2002, then with the installation of the building site of underwater excavations launched from the very start of April 2003.
With some pitch-stirrers of the edge of sea, the still unknown ship rests with 3,5m depth covered with sediments and a fine ballasting.

To start, a squaring of 5x5m, i.e. a white and orange PVC squaring with numbered squares of 1m, is set up with the top of the wreck. This technique makes it possible to the archaeologists to record, draw, photograph and index all the dispersed objects and this in a methodical way in order to establish a precise cartography of the samples belonging to the history of this building.

Then avid to know some more about the origin of this ship, the circumstances of the shipwreck and especially its architecture, we install quickly with the assistance of the plungers of the local army, the suction dredgers, genuine giant vacuum cleaners to release the wreck.
Little by little a button of uniform, a spoon, balls of musket are released as by magic from all this sand and at this point in time I imagine the occupants of the ship to be occupied with their occupations day labourers while trying to reconstitute the daily scenes of life on board.
Especially that with a few meters of the wreck 5 guns of a size of 2 meters covered with concretions rest, leaving us for the moment in the expectancy as long as they be will not have gone up and will have cleaned.

These guns belong to the multiple parts which will enable us to reconstitute the puzzle by supporting us at the same time on the historical reality of the Caribbean and the research tasks in files. Indeed each building site of underwater excavations is the result of a long requiring course of the years of efforts because it is necessary to plunge in the laws and the payments, to come to end from a maquis from procedures, to obtain audiences, to prepare files and to discuss the conditions of the contract with the government of reception.
But what represents these many obstacles in comparison with the pleasure and the joy of the discovery, such of the pioneers on the traces of these adventurers of the past?

Florence

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