‘Not the Gaspee’
October 2022 - Demonstration of test excavations of RI 2435, a potential shipwreck site in Newport Harbor, RI.
Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) divers study a pile of stones at site RI 2435 in the shallows of Newport Harbor to determine if it might be ballast from an 18th-century ship known to have been lost in that area. This video shows the underwater techniques used to control the excavation process and to document what was found, plus the post-dive debriefing, as part of the archaeological research process.
March 18, 2022.
In 2015 the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) began training local volunteers and organized a professionally directed archaeological and historical study of two shipwrecks in Warwick, Rhode Island's Occupessatuxet Cove. The team then studied two ships' structures and determined that they are twice the length of HMS Gaspee, the Royal Navy vessel that local Patriots burned at nearby Gaspee Point in 1772. This Warwick team will continue to monitor the two "Not the Gaspee" sites, and in 2021 RIMAP added the search for HMS Gaspee to the team's list of research tasks.
The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) is a not-for-profit organization that trains diving and non-diving volunteers to participate in maritime history and marine archaeology research under professional direction. RIMAP membership and classes are open to the interested public, and research participation depends on matching volunteer skills and availability with RIMAP's particular needs and schedule.
2017 Update of RIMAP's Search for Capt. Cook's Endeavour Bark
This video summarizes the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) study of the Revolutionary War transport fleet in Newport Harbor, RI. RIMAP volunteers have located and mapped 10 of the 13 ships scuttled there in 1778, and historic documents have identified the group that included the Lord Sandwich ex Endeavour.
RIMAP 2018 Newport Transport Study and the Search for ENDEAVOUR The Media Event at Gurney's Goat Island Resort September 21, 2018 In September 2018 the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project and its partner, the Australian National Maritime Museum, mounted a team to continue the study of the British transport fleet in Newport Harbor.
An April 12, 2018 debate, sponsored by the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, featured presentations on the legal and ethical issues of shipwreck salvage and studies, illustrated by case studies of two historic shipwrecks, the Lusitania and the Endeavour.
Kinsale, Ireland, is a sister city to Newport, Rhode Island, twinned in history and a shared culture with the large Irish population in Newport. But these two cities also share the fact that historically significant ships are to be found off their shores: Capt. Cook’s Lord Sandwich ex Endeavour ® is in Newport’s Outer Harbor, and the great ocean liner Lusitania is within Ireland’s territorial waters just off Kinsale. This video includes short interviews with the leaders of both cities who discuss these ships' exciting histories.