No one knows more about the state’s shipwrecks than marine archaeologist Rod Mather, who last year announced the discovery of four Revolutionary War-era ships in Newport Harbor.
A recreational paradise and a vision of immense beauty, Narragansett Bay is the jewel of Rhode Island. Stuck among the sediments far below the sparkling surface waters are dozens of sunken ships, many of which are several hundred years old and which may provide insight into the history of the region and the country.
No one knows more about the state’s shipwrecks than marine archaeologist Rod Mather, who last year announced the discovery of four Revolutionary War-era ships in Newport Harbor. He previously found two others in the same area. The ships are believed to be part of a fleet of 13 British transport ships deliberately sunk by British forces to create a barrier against a French bombardment and amphibious landing in Newport in 1778.
“As is the case with many 18th century shipwrecks, the newly discovered vessels were pinned to the bottom of Newport Harbor by their own ballast stones,” said Mather, a URI professor of history and archaeology. “Over time, a complex series of biological, chemical, and physical processes broke down the shipwrecks, leaving ballast piles onto which artifacts including cannons fell and below which there are almost certainly well-preserved sections of the ships’ lower hulls.”
Historical detective work conducted by the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project concluded that one of the sunken ships was the Lord Sandwich, which had originally been called Endeavour and was the ship that explorer Capt. James Cook used on his first voyage of discovery to the South Pacific in 1768. The ship’s discovery by Mather and the Marine Archaeology Project team made global news, especially in Australia and New Zealand, where the cultural significance of the ship rivals that of the Mayflower in the U.S.
Mather’s search for shipwrecks in Narragansett Bay began shortly after he completed his Ph.D. at Oxford University and arrived at URI in 1997. Working with Oceanography Professor John King and others on a project called BayMap, funded largely by R.I. Sea Grant, Mather used oceanographic survey techniques like side-scan sonar and multi-beam bathymetry to create three-dimensional maps of the bay floor. The maps are useful to biologists and geologists, too, but for Mather they helped to identify potential sites of historic artifacts and shipwrecks. He and others then used scuba gear to dive to the target sites to document the artifacts.
While the Revolutionary War-era ships are perhaps his most notable finds in Narragansett Bay, Mather has also found several other shipwrecks there, including several wrecks off Prudence Island and a four-masted schooner called the Addie Anderson that was carrying coal from Virginia in 1899 when it struck something and sank in the West Passage.
“I really enjoy finding shipwrecks,” Mather said. “I like doing the survey work and the historical research and the diving, too, but that moment of discovery also opens up all new avenues of inquiry. What was the ship doing? How and why did it get in trouble? The seafloor tells you all about the way human society interacts with the oceans.”
Born and raised in England, Mather developed an interest in archaeology while in high school when he volunteered every weekend at the site of an ancient Roman wharf on the Thames River in London. “In the beginning, all I did was carry buckets of dirt from the trenches,” he said, “but it led me to an interest in waterways. Then in college I started scuba diving, which led to an interest in shipwrecks.”
The one shipwreck the associate professor of history is most interested in finding in Rhode Island is the HMS Gaspee, the British schooner that was attacked and burned by Rhode Island patriots in 1772 in the first armed conflict leading to the Revolutionary War. While he continues to search for that iconic vessel, he is also exploring elsewhere in U.S. waters for relics of American maritime history.
In 1983, scallop fishermen brought up an English cannon 50 miles off the coast of Virginia that Mather’s colleagues at East Carolina State University dated to 1585, the time of the lost colony of Roanoke and a visit to the area by Sir Francis Drake. For the last two years Mather has looked for the ship that held the cannon, as well as for the remains of several World War I German warships that ended their days as targets for military exercises in 1921 in the same vicinity. The URI research vessel Endeavor searched for these ships last July, and while Mather hasn’t found the 16th century shipwreck yet, he found several other sites that he wants to revisit.
“The hardest part of these expeditions is getting all the components together—the equipment, the people, the funding—all at the same time. After that it’s thrilling because we’ve developed fairly good techniques for actually finding shipwrecks.”
Finding a shipwreck leads to additional challenges, however. “Underwater archaeological sites are not like some other marine resources,” Mather said. “If you improve the environment, you can rebuild fish stocks, for example, but once archaeological sites are destroyed, that’s the end of them. There are only a finite number of archaeological sites, so we have to be systematic about the ways we retrieve and conserve artifacts. It’s the collection of objects and the relationship of objects together that’s important.
“Over time, underwater sites reach a state of stability and are preserved where they are. It costs a great deal of money to raise and preserve artifacts. If you don’t do it right, you’ve done quite a lot of damage. So you’re often better off leaving the artifacts there and disturbing the site as little as possible.” That’s a lesson Mather is teaching his students as well.
In addition to his extensive research activities, Mather carries a heavy teaching load, from a freshman level course in “History and the Sea” to upper level courses in maritime history and an underwater archaeology field school. “I just love teaching,” he said. “What I like most is seeing the excitement of the students, especially when they come back with new ideas about thinking about the past. And it happens quite frequently.”
Mather is excited about his role in the University’s new Institute for Archaeological Oceanography, which was launched in 2003 by Professor Robert Ballard as the first graduate program in the world that merges the disciplines of oceanography, ocean engineering, history, archaeology, and anthropology. Graduates of the program earn a master’s degree in history and a doctorate in oceanography.
“The program is very challenging because it involves a heavy science focus plus the social sciences and humanities,” Mather said. “There is a high demand for the program, so we have had to be very selective in the students we accept. Our standards will continue to rise.”
One student in the program, Alicia Caporaso, originally from Nebraska, is working with Mather to lead a group of graduate and undergraduate students on a search for shipwrecks in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron.
“Thunder Bay is at the crossroads of Great Lakes maritime traffic for passenger ships, fishing boats, and commercial vessels,” Mather explained. “There are probably hundreds of 19th century shipwrecks there, and in some cases the cold, deep waters have kept them well preserved, with their masts sticking up and their ships’ wheels in place. We found two new shipwrecks there this year in almost perfect condition. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
By Todd McLeish
Photos Courtesy of Rod Mather And Nora Lewis
