Gulf of Mexico

GEOPHYSICAL STUDIES (2002)

In cooperation with Dr. Will Schroeder (University of Alabama – Dauphin Island Sea Lab) and Dr. Roger Sassen (Texas A&M University, Geochemical Environmental Research Group), ProMare utilized the US Navy Nuclear Research Submarine, NR1, to explore sites of potential chemosythetic organism colonization and methane hydrate deposition for a period nearly one month during the summer of 2002.

Sites surveyed include petroleum lease-blocks VK826, VK862, VK907, MC029 and MC118 in water depths ranging from 400 to 700 meters. Significant colonies of deepwater, chemosynthetic corals, as well as relict carbonate lithotherms and methane hydrate deposits were located and studied.

THE WRECK PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS THE “WESTERN EMPIRE” BOEMRE VESSEL ID NO. 359 (2003)

In the early 1980s, during a geohazard survey, an oil company survey vessel came across an anomaly on the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico during a routine pipeline survey. Thinking that this might be a shipwreck, The company informed the Minerals Management Service (MMS). The “wreck” was added to the shipwreck database, created and utilized by the MMS for cultural heritage management purposes. That anomaly was inspected by the MMS in 1999 and an analysis of the video footage was compared to known shipwrecks in the area. Based on the historical search conducted at the time, the “Western Empire”, a Canadian ship built in 1862 and abandoned during a hurricane in September 18, 1875, was the only known wreck in the area, thus this site was identified as such. Historically-known length of the “Western Empire” matched the length of the archaeological find as determined by the sonar record.

In 2003, with the generous support of Deep Marine Technology, Inc. (Houston), TAMU/ProMare surveyed the wreck using an ROV and a manned submersible. The wreck is 1350ft (411.5m) deep, making its detailed documentation a technically challenging and costly project. Survey results revealed that the ship had double frames with minimal space between each frame set.

Preliminary research conducted by Josh Levin based on the video footage raised questions about the identification of the vessel as the “Western Empire.” Heavy style of construction is more often seen in wooden warships where hull strength was a necessary for both supporting the weight of cannon and providing protection from enemy attack. Another incongruity with the record of “Western Empire” in Lloyd’s Register is that the ship was registered as having last been sheathed in 1870 (LR 1874), but neither planking nor sheathing could be seen in the video. Finally, the absence of any visible cargo contradicted the identification of the site as the “Western Empire” that had a cargo of timber at the time it was abandoned.

In 2009, additional research conducted by Dr. Chris Horrell, from the MMA, discovered an additional document: in October 1875 a newspaper from Galveston, Texas, reported that a schooner captain saw the Western Empire in the Gulf: “mizzen mast standing, signal flag flying in mizzen rigging, fore and main masts lying alongside, both anchors hanging under her bow.” Following this thread, Dr Horrell was able to locate another newspaper from Pensacola, Florida, that reported (November 1875) that “the abandoned ship has been found, after making a voyage of more than five hundred miles without a hand at her helm…. caught in the reflux current… the masterless ship drifted with the influence of the gulf stream . . . swept through the straits of Florida and on toward the Atlantic until she was discovered 30 miles north of Jupiter inlet, swinging to an anchor.” Other documents located by Dr. Horrell established that the ship was salvaged in 1875 by Benjamin Baker, a wrecker near Key Largo, Florida.

Thus, while it certainly is not the Western Empire, the shipwreck studied in detail by Josh Levin is possibly a naval ship that may have been used as a merchant vessel at the time of its wrecking. The double framing is consistent with the mid-19th century construction techniques, and the wreck remains to be identified possibly after further data can be collected from the site. This wreck is now referred to as the BOEMRE Vessel ID No. 359, until further work is conducted for its identification. Bibliography below provides detailed information about the present state of research about this shipwreck.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE “WESTERN EMPIRE”

1.

THE MICA SHIPWRECK (2001)

In February 2001, an eight-inch gas pipeline was placed on the seafloor and passed directly through the midships section of a historic shipwreck tentatively dated between 1775 and 1830. Upon discovery, the shipwreck was immediately reported to the Mineral Management Service (MMS), the agency with jurisdiction over submerged archaeological resources discovered in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The shipwreck lies approximately eight hundred meters deep and is sitting upright on its keel with the remaining portion of the hull clad in copper sheathing.

After a preliminary study of the shipwreck conducted by ROV and funded by Exxon-Mobil, Inc., the MMS entered into a cooperative agreement with Texas A&M University (TAMU) to conduct an archaeological study of the wreck-site and the surrounding area. Through ProMare, TAMU requested the use of the United States Navy Nuclear Resarch Ssubmarine, NR1, and her support ship, SSV Carolyn Chouest, to conduct the study and to compile detailed side-scan sonar imagery and photo-mosaics of the site, and to recover a limited number of diagnostic artifacts, and to determine the origin and age of the ship.

Archaeological research revealed that the hull of the ship was constructed of Eastern White Pine that grows only along the eastern seaboard of the United States north of Virginia. Based on the presence of copper sheathing (to protect the hull from wood-boring marine organisms) and the general morphology of the ship, it most likely dates between the years 1800 and 1830. This small coastal merchant vessel (approximately twenty-five meters in length) was ubiquitous in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and throughout North American coastal waters. Ships of this type were the lifeblood of commerce and industry in the burgeoning United States. Archaeologists believe that this small merchant ship located on the main shipping route to and from New Orleans was either heading to or departing from that port when it came to grief.

PUBLICATIONS:

“Mica shipwreck project: Deepwater archaeological investigation of a 19th century shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico.” (2006) U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, New Orleans, LA. OCS Study MMS 2006-072. 116 pp. Authors: Atauz, A.D., W. Bryant, T. Jones, and B. Phaneuf.