Jennifer Cobb

We stumbled to breakfast at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am. Having completed our work at the NOAA office, we were unsure what tortures awaited us – lurking in the minds of Drs. Annalies and Sheli. Undaunted by our morning crankiness, Dr. Sheli bee-bopped to the white board – vibrating with enthusiasm – at 8:00 a.m. on the dot.

She revisited the work accomplished over the past two days and called for discussion on how the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary can move forward with using these artifacts in exhibits, lending the artifacts to museums, and creating education modules to complement them. Bare minutes into the meeting, our passion rushed to the forefront (or the coffee kicked in) and we tripped over each other to offer ideas.

Ewa Silver, Carrie Atkins and Kenny Keeping take a break during work on the Adelaide Baker artifacts.

After the brainstorming session, we divided into groups to work on creating the database and drafting our ideas into exhibit recommendations, education modules, and artifact loan sheet creation. Those of us who had not participated in yesterday’s panorama creation moseyed to the dock to take pictures. (Amazingly, we accomplished this without knocking either the camera or ourselves into the water.) We then ran tape measures out 172 feet to visualize the length of the Slobodna and 19 feet out from the midpoint of the tape measures (approximate mid-ship) to visualize at least half the width of this wreck.   (FYI – Slobodna was long and wide.)

Damon Lassiter, Ewa Silver and Max Johnson at the Pennekamp cannon site.

After lunch, we headed to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to measure cannons. We believe these cannons were donated by the wives of men who looted sites. Tired of having an unwieldy and disintegrating mass of metal taking up space in the garage, they coerced their husbands into surrendering the cannons. Regardless of the accuracy of our theory, these cannons were removed from sites without being recorded, which render them useless for archaeological analysis. In a creative move to salvage something from these artifacts, the cannons were laid out in the swimming area of the park and act as an underwater mini-museum for park visitors (as well as a means of student persecution).

Carrie Atkins and Jennifer Cobb playing "Fin-Smack Your Friend" -- oh, and measuring, too.

Divided into four groups of three, we discovered that diving weightless, even a mere four feet, is surprisingly difficult. Thus, we created a new game: Fin-Smack your Friend (or a Stranger) in the Face. We played this game by forcing our heads down towards the bottom and frantically kicking our fins in the air, smacking others at random. While our fins flailed violently at innocent victims, we tried to coordinate running a tape measure along a cannon’s length. To add challenge to the game, while inverted, participants of each three-person team are denied oxygen and a means of communication.  Eventually, each team fell into a rhythm and was forced to abandon the game. As a result, all teams found each cannon and managed to record its information. 

Bruce Terrell, senior archaeologist for NOAA and Lieutenant Commander Stephen Beckwith.

Upon returning to the ranch, we jockeyed for a position in line for one of the two showers. By dinner, everyone had managed to scrub the kelp and salt from themselves and enjoy the wonderful aroma wafting from the kitchen (which I assure you was preferable to pre-shower smell). The evening rounded off with a visit from Bruce Terrell, NOAA senior archaeologist and Lt. Cmdr. Steve Beckwirth of NOAA Corps.