LAMP's History

A Brief History of LAMP and Maritime Archaeology in America's Oldest Port City

View of the St. Augustine Lighthouse with Salt Run and the St. Augustine Inlet in the background.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum has funded maritime archaeology in St. Johns County, Florida, since 1997. In 1999, the Lighthouse formalized its maritime archaeology program, creating the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, or LAMP. LAMP is one of the few research units in the nation employing full-time professional marine archaeologists and an archaeological conservator that is not guided by a university or governmental entity. This unique organization has produced a body of research contributing both to the museum's interpretive potential, and more importantly to an under-represented portion of St. Augustine's history.

The contribution of maritime commerce and its impact on St. Augustine's development is not easy to grasp in our modern society. However, maritime technology was the foundation for St. Augustine and the nation's development. Historic systems of maritime commerce can be compared to today's interstates where eighteen wheelers and delivery trucks route the goods that support our lives. St. Augustine's colonists looked seaward for their connection with the greater economic, ideological, social and political world. The city's historical infrastructure was dominated by access to ships and the waterways that connected these ships to land. LAMP's research seeks to identify the physical remains of the region's past reliance on the seas, and through these remains help further our understanding of early life and socioeconomic development in St. Augustine and the surrounding First Coast region.

The first organization to conduct a systematic maritime archaeological survey in St. Augustine waters was Southern Oceans Archaeological Research, Inc (SOAR). With financial support from the State of Florida and in partnership with the Lighthouse, researchers from SOAR, focused on the offshore shipwrecks surrounding St. Augustine's inlet between 1994 and 1997 (Franklin and Morris 1996). Historical documents spanning four centuries of Spanish, British, and American occupation helped establish the changing inlet's locations over time, and referenced as many as 170 ship losses in the area. Archaeologists then conducted remote sensing magnetometer operations around the inlet's various historic locations. The original survey was directed by SOAR archaeologists Marianne Franklin and John W. "Billy Ray" Morris. Billy Ray would go on to found LAMP in 1999 and serve as its first Director. This initial work resulted in over 55 potential shipwreck targets; though many of these proved too deeply buried for divers to access, a number of historic shipwrecks were identified.

LAMP diver inspects an iron cannon from the British ship Industry, wrecked in 1764.

The most significant of these early discoveries proved to be Industry, a British supply ship lost May 6, 1764 attempting to supply the newly established British garrison. This wreck remains the oldest yet located in St. Augustine's waters and is an invaluable piece of St. Augustine's archaeological record (see Morris et al. 1998). Artifacts from the wrecksite were amazingly preserved offering an unprecedented glimpse into the needs of British soldiers posted to establish dominance in the Florida frontier.

LAMP archaeologist diving on the site of a late 19th century centerboard schooner.

Archaeologists also located two significant 19th century wrecks: a wooden-hulled steamship, and a centerboard schooner carrying construction supplies. The identities of both wrecks remain unknown, but the documentation of their remains contributes to the story of the economic and technical progression of St. Augustine at the dawn of modernity. Just as the city's historical architecture reflects dominant technologies, available resources and perceived dreams of their time, the shipwrecks offer similar insights. Could the wooden barrels of cement that dominate the Centerboard Schooner site, for example, have been meant for industrialist entrepreneur Henry Flagler's extensive construction endeavors in St. Augustine during the Gilded Age? The vessel's architecture speaks of significant changes in sailing ship technology in response to the economic supremacy of steam engines while its cargo speaks for the modern vision of an ancient city at the turn of the twentieth century.

LAMP archaeologists broadened their research scope in 2001 to assess all underwater sites within the county. A multi-year project, the St. Johns County Submerged Cultural Resources Inventory and Management Plan, has produced information on what types of sites can be expected in the various inundated environments of the region. Sites representing St. Augustine's Spanish, British, and Early American origins have been located. Shipwrecks are not the only maritime sites of interest to archaeologists. Other site types identified along St. Johns County's maritime landscape include British plantation landings, community boatyard foundations, ferry and steamboat landings, ballast dump sites, colonial wharves, and inundated terrestrial sites like homesteads that have eroded into the rivers. This growing database is beginning to offer a clear view of the historic development of our nation's oldest city from the vantage point of the water. These sites are remnants of the nexus points of transport for the region--the locations where people arrived, and where goods and materials were transferred. Much like reconstructing the city's development through the foundations left beneath the soil, a picture of the regional, historical infrastructure emerges.

Documenting the remains of a plantation wharf on the banks of the Tolomato River.

Perhaps the most significant site located along St. Johns County's inland waters is the Tolomato Anchorage site (see Morris, Moore, and Eslinger 2005). This site literally bridges the gap between sea and land encompassing terrestrial infrastructure, regional boat building, and colonial use of the natural environment. For a detailed look at this site please see our webpage highlighting it (coming soon!) or download our most recent research report.

Diving operations from LAMP's new research vessel, RV Island Fever.

In the latter half of 2005, LAMP underwent a significant change. LAMP's founder and Director, Billy Ray Morris, left the program to pursue research elsewhere. LAMP then went through a complete staff overhaul and extended period of re-organization. In October 2005, the new LAMP Director Chuck Meide was hired, and he started full-time in March 2006. Chuck is an experienced maritime archaeologist originally from Atlantic Beach in neighboring Duval County. His first task was to hire another staff archaeologist. Chuck approached longtime friend and respected scholar Dr. Sam Turner, of Frederick, Maryland, who started in March of 2006 as LAMP's new Director of Archaeology. These two archaeologists had previously worked on three shipwreck excavations together, and have been busy re-shaping the program to their vision as LAMP enters an exciting new era.

In their first few months, LAMP's new staff has been busy rebuilding the program and its infrastructure. In May 2006 a new boat, a 1973 28' Bertram named Island Fever, was purchased, and it has been outfitted as a diving and survey research vessel. In June and July 2006 LAMP joined the College of William and Mary and the Institute of Maritime History in sponsoring an overseas research project, a maritime archaeological survey of Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. Diving operations in St. Augustine waters were reinitiated in August 2006. Future plans include the implementation of a comprehensive program of research and education known as the First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project. This will expand our research scope beyond the limits of St. Johns County throughout the entire "First Coast" region of northeast Florida, while still retaining a focus on our nation's oldest port city, St. Augustine. In addition to the new focus of our research program, we are committed to building a network of volunteer divers and expanding our high school underwater archaeology program, to more fully engage both local and visiting communities as we dive into our collective history.

The assessment of our maritime landscape and lifeways, when integrated with the prodigious quantity of historical and terrestrial archaeological analyses of St. Augustine, offers additional avenues of inquiry for the future. To what degree were the people that left the rich archaeological deposits across the St. Augustine cityscape maritime societies? To what degree did maritime culture permeate the lives of St. Augustine's residents, and others of the First Coast? How was the region's development reflected by the ships used for trade, fishing, and war? The identification and synthesis of underwater sites in St. Johns county and beyond naturally leads to a new view of St. Augustine: a perspective from the water. The most clear view of the town, after all, is from the east looking west-a fact that we at the Lighthouse fully appreciate. As we open a new chapter in LAMP's history, and continue to build upon the established body of information from our previous research, LAMP and the Museum are becoming better equipped to offer this information to the public through educational programs, exhibits, and outreach. Please explore our website and visit the Lighthouse and Museum in person to view our Industry shipwreck exhibit or peruse our expanding maritime collection in our archives office - come see another perspective of St. Augustine!

This essay was originally written by Robin Moore, St. Johns County Archaeologist and LAMP Research Associate. It has been updated and expanded by Chuck Meide, LAMP Director, in September 2006.

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