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August 3,
2004
by Peter Hitchcock
Peter Hitchcock received his bachelor’s
degree in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in 1993 and his MA in
nautical Archaeology 2002. He is currently a PhD candidate in the
University’s Department of Oceanography focusing his research on
Archeological Oceanography, specifically of deepwater shipwrecks located
in the Gulf of Mexico. He has participated in several marine archaeology
projects in the United States and abroad. |
Last night, on August 1, we finished our survey of the
Virginia at 4 a.m. and headed toward the
site of the Halo, approximately 50 miles
to the southwest. By 9 a.m. our research vessel, the HOS Dominator,
was over the site and the Sonsub ROV was
making its 480-foot descent to the shipwreck below. The first task at
each of the survey areas is to perform reconnaissance or a series of
“fly-bys” over the wreck. This step is crucial for a number of reasons
as it allows us to determine how the vessel is oriented on the seafloor,
enables us to note possible hazards such as davits and cables for the
ROV to avoid, and lets us record the location of biological organisms on
the hull to be photographed and/or sampled. It also provides us the
opportunity to look for those fine details in the ship’s construction
that makes it unique, thus allowing us to positively identify the
vessel.
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Mike Stephens on stand-by to launch
the ROV. |
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Biologists retreiving samples from
the ROV after a dive
on the tanker Halo. |
During the reconnaissance, looking
for those “fine details” proved a bit more challenging than we
anticipated as many of these ships (tankers) have identical design
features. What the ROV was finding was not necessarily matching our
historical pictures and we began to question whether or not it really
was the Halo. As we moved into the next phase of the site survey,
a series of grid lines preformed by the ROV around the vessel looking
for artifacts and identifying the biology around the wreck, all the
archaeologists on board reexamined each one of the old photographs for a
feature on the ship that would unequivocally prove its identity. After
completing the grids, we went back to the shipwreck and positioned the
ROV just above the bow to begin constructing a photo mosaic, a series of
pictures pieced together for a plan view of the hull. At last, we
finally came across what we were looking for. On either side of the
foremast were two large box-like structures with vents, a feature we had
identified in our photograph of the Halo. The pilots flew the ROV
around the wreck one more time looking for additional subtle features,
such as the number of port holes or the position and shape of a davit.
All matched perfectly, and we could now say with certainty it is the
Halo.
The tanker Halo, with the boxlike
structures used to positively identify the wreck highlighted. Image
courtesy the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia.
Sharks patrol these waters.
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