Red River Wreck Update: July 21

First SCUBA on Red River Wreck: "There’s a Lotta Boat Down There"

Saturday, July 21, 2001. Although the Red River Wreck field school doesn’t formally begin until tomorrow, the staff has been working diligently to get as much of the preliminary logistics work done in advance as possible, to allow the students to hit the ground - er, water - running.

The main project for Saturday was to place a work barge over the Red River Wreck. This barge - actually two identical small barges bolted together - will serve as a dive platform for field school staff and students working on the wreck. Under the direction of Drs. Annalies Corbin of the PAST Foundation and Sheli Smith of the Oklahoma Historical Society, the first barge was maneuvered into position and anchored with two lines leading upstream and to either side of the wreck itself. After this was completed, the second barge was brought out from the bank and secured to the downstream side of the first. Together, these barges form a roughly 18-foot-square platform from which the divers can work. Divers and equipment will be ferried out to the platform from the Oklahoma bank, about a hundred yards away. Additional anchors may be run out to positions directly toward either bank of the river, which will allow the team to position the barge very precisely over any specific part of the wreck. A canopy will be added to the barge within the next few days, to allow the staff and crew to spend at least part of their time in the shade. Temperatures on the river have been peaking at around 100 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a week now.

The second objective of the day was to conduct a pair of test dives to assess both the condition of the wreck after recent high water and to evaluate the diving conditions that field school students will encounter. In both cases, there were surprises. The current, which is now running about two knots, is impossible to swim against for any length of time, and requires divers constantly to pay attention to their location on the site. Visibility proved to be somewhat better than expected, ranging from six inches near the surface to two or three feet at times on deeper parts of the wreck. Perhaps because of the very high water and swift currents experienced on the river in the last several months, the actual depth of water in the immediate vicinity of the wreck varies enormously, from about three feet to more than twenty. The working environment on the Red River Wreck is a challenging one, but one that will provide excellent experience for the field school students.

The most exciting news, though, concerns the extent of the wreck itself. The remains of the boat and its machinery appear to be much more extensive than initial, non-diving examinations have shown. It is possible that the recent and extended period of high water on the river has scoured much more of the boat than was there when it was first examined in 1999. In the first-ever SCUBA dives on the Red River Wreck, Annalies Corbin and John Davis, of the Fort Towson Historic Site, discovered substantial additional structural material that had not been previously suspected, including what is believed to be inner and outer hull planking, hog chains, structural bracing and the remains of one of the steamboat’s sidewheel paddleboxes. Corbin, whose archaeological career has focused on Western Rivers steamboats like the Red River Wreck, was amazed, commenting "there’s a whole lotta boat down there."

This update is sponsored by the PAST Foundation and the Oklahoma Historical Society. It may be freely redistributed without modification for non-commercial purposes.

Project work barge wait placement over the wreck site.	Dr. Sheli Smith describes the anchoring arrangements for the barges.	Dr. Annalies Corbin (left) prepares to make the first dive on the Red River Wreck.	Corbin (top) and John Davis of the OHS discuss their first dive on the wreck.