Red River Wreck Update: July 23

Practicing Safe Underwater Archeology

Monday, July 23, 2001.

Crew activities today centered on preparing the project teams to work safely and effectively in poor visibility. Dive check-outs were held at a nearby lake, with half the crew diving in the morning and the other half after lunch. Dr. Sheli O. Smith, who serves as dive safety officer for the Red River Project, conducted the dive check-outs. Smith stressed that safety is the first priority for all concerned with the project, and that each member of the crew must constantly look out for the other members’ welfare, especially in the water. Smith acknowledged that diving in "black water" conditions was always challenging and sometimes intimidating, and that students working in such conditions for the first time need to be prepared to take their time and work at pace they are comfortable with. After taking each crew member through his or her check-out dive, Smith also predicted that each member of the crew would become acclimatized to the visibility conditions on the site, and would probably not think twice about them after a couple of weeks.

Between and after diving check-outs, the crew had presentations on the significance of the Red River Wreck as the oldest Western Rivers steamboat to be studied by archaeologists, on its propulsion machinery, and on the standards and techniques to be used in documenting the wreck.

As part of the latter, field school students learned how to prepare a dive slate for making notes and drawings underwater, and how to plot points on a wreck by a method called trilateration. Using this technique, divers working in pairs can take a series of measurements from known points on the wreck to a new point, and then by plotting the distances determine the new point’s position. The concept is simple enough, but it takes practice to get it right, especially when working with a new partner. Bob Piper, an experienced archaeological volunteer who has worked on many terrestrial sites, observed that the technique can be much more challenging than it looks, especially for a beginner.

"This is gonna be tough underwater," he said. "On a land site you can just set a primary datum point and measure in all the secondary datum points from there. The idea here is the same, but it’s a lot harder to do when you can’t see the person on the other end of the tape." Lucius Martin, a recent graduate of Long Beach City College, agreed, saying "this is going to be real challenging in black water."

Also as part of the exercise, field school students were given a measured drawing of an actual Red River Wreck artifact, one of the boat’s flywheel arms, and challenged to find a known (but secret) error in the drawing by comparing the sketch to the piece itself. The field school students took the challenge to heart, and actually found several small additional errors in the drawing. Clearly, this is a very sharp and capable group of students. The original, intentional error was found by Christine Chan, another recent Long Beach City College graduate, who will be entering the University of California – San Diego in the fall with a double major in Anthropology and Visual Arts.

The temperature moderated a little today, only going up to about 100 degrees F. The menu for supper was spaghetti with tossed salad.

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

Dr. Sheli Smith (hat, foreground) watches as project divers get suited up for their checkout dives. Complete familiarity with one's equipment is essential for underwater safety.	Checkouts in Hugo Lake.	More equipment checks.	Providing mutual assistance is a fundamental principle of safe diving.