ECU Program in Maritime Studies

Yesterday, the summer field school team continued documenting key maritime features along Brunswick Town’s southern waterfront.

The field school group split into two teams to maximize data collection. Team 1 focused on mapping the extent of Wharf 04 using offset/baseline measurements, while also working with the RTK to get detailed spatial information.

Team 2 concentrated on locating Wreck 04. Probe returns were flagged to identify structural elements before mapping began. Investigations revealed that the site has been impacted by the ongoing erosion and other environmental forces such like strong currents, which have significantly affected the preservation of the wreck.

Due to inclement weather, fieldwork concluded early. The team then transitioned to a hydro-probe training session at the Underwater Archaeology Branch. This is in preparation for upcoming work to determine the extent and depth of Upper Midnight Channel Wreck 01.

Continue to follow along as work develops on Brunswick Town’s southern waterfront!

Yesterday, the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site field school began work on Wharf 4, the focus of Kel Welton’s thesis research.

Students established a new baseline for a follow-up survey to assess changes to the wharf after significant erosion over the past two years. A second team mapped Upper Midnight Channel Wreck 04 located south of Wharf 4. Since most of that wreck is buried, the second team also probed for timbers beneath the mud to create reference points for continued investigations tomorrow.

The field school also installed a steel cable baseline over the Upper Midnight Channel Wreck 01 near Wharf 4 in anticipation of a hydroprobe survey for more of the wreckage from the vessel recovered last year that might be still buried in the mud. Students are looking forward to the next several days of recording and investigating both the wharf and adjacent shipwreck remains.

Honorable mention goes to our staff archaeologist who continues to crush the daily morning pull-up competition.

Follow along as field school continues uncovering the history beneath the waters of Brunswick Town.

The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site summer field school team is hard at work investigating the historic waterfront.

Yesterday, students wrapped up mapping at Wharf 1 and shifted operations to the southern waterfront. Weather conditions provided the opportunity to practice terrestrial archaeological methods at a coquina structure near the marsh — one of the only known coquina structures in North Carolina.

Using a total station, metal detectors and probing techniques, the team documented the site while identifying its extent and depth. This site was initially recorded in 2024, but this data will be used to help plan a future excavation of the architectural ruin. As the tide dropped later in the day, students also scoped out Wharf 4 and the original location of Upper Midnight Channel Wreck 01, where investigations will begin tomorrow!

Fieldwork also came with plenty of wildlife encounters, including inchworms, spiders, and “Coquina” the snake. As work continues along the shoreline, students are discovering that there is always more to uncover at historic Brunswick Town.

It was great to catch up with graduates (some recent, some not so recent) at the 54th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial Archaeology (Norfolk, VA) for the double sessions of "3D Modeling of Maritime Innovation and Change" papers:

* Matt Pawelski (MA Maritime Studies, 2023)
* Raymond Phipps (MA Maritime Studies, 2024)
* Ian Shoemaker (MA Maritime Studies, 2026)
* Allyson Ropp (MA Maritime Studies, 2016; Ph.D. ICS, 2026)
[with Dr. Nathan Richards]

The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site field school continued investigations at Wharf 1 over the last several days. As the team explored the site, new features were identified and traced to better understand the overall layout of the wharf.

Students continued collecting RTK points as the site plan develops, while also documenting wharf timbers, ballast stones and probe hits through photography and mapping.

Accessing the site has involved boat travel and off-roading through sandy terrain at the historic site. On Saturday, incoming weather quickly changed conditions on the water, and the team raced a major rainstorm back to the marina. Docking and unloading proved challenging, but luckily everyone was already suited up in wetsuits.

Follow along as field school continues uncovering the historic waterfront at BTFA.

The team in Dr. Harris's summer field school section worked in the Neuse River near New Bern in North Carolina this week. This portion of the river featured prominently in amphibious Civil War operations such as the Burnside (Maj.Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside) expedition in March 1862. The powerful amphibious force of about 13,000 soldiers supported by a fleet of gunboats and other transports intended to capture New Bern, an important coastal trade center and the second largest town in North Carolina. The Confederate troops laid underwater obstructions including sunken vessels and torpedo mines in the Neuse river. Combining information on NOAA charts showing underwater obstructions and primary historical sources like maps and reports the team prioritized three areas of investigation and documentation. The most exciting finds thus far were a 33-meter wooden shipwreck with remnants of a propeller shaft and a complex area of disarticulated wreckage spread throughout a bay at the mouth of a small creek entering the Neuse. More to come on our findings. Stay tuned and follow our website.

The team in Dr. McKinnon’s section of summer field school at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site is hard at work as investigations continue along the historic waterfront.

This week, students began our survey at Wharf 01, also known as Roger Moore’s Wharf, where they have been putting their archaeological skills to the test to better understand this colonial wharf feature. Over the last three days, the team has documented the site through RTK mapping and underwater/intertidal recording to produce a detailed site plan of the timber-crib wharf.

From climbing through the marsh, dives around the modern attenuators, to evening post-processing sessions, students are gaining hands-on experience with the many methods used to study and document maritime archaeological sites — all while uncovering what lies beneath the waters of the Cape Fear River at Wharf 01.

Follow along as our field school continues exploring the BTFA waterfront!

The team in Dr. McKinnon’s section of field school has arrived at and begun work at our first waterfront feature. On the first day of fieldwork, Site Manager Jim McKee led the team on a tour of the historic site to familiarize students with BTFA and the types of sites we’ll be looking at over the next two weeks!

Building New Skills Before Fieldwork Begins 📸

Today marked the final day of our weeklong workshop in 3D photogrammetry to kick off our summer field school!

A huge thank you to Dr. Kotaro Yamafune () for sharing his expertise and training our students to use photogrammetry as a tool for their research! This workshop covered everything needed to collect meaningful scientific data that can be applied in a wide range of settings.

We’re excited to put these new skills into practice as we head into the field next week and continue exploring innovative approaches to maritime archaeology.

Stay tuned for more updates from both sections of the field school as we head to New Bern, South Carolina, and !

We are excited to announce that Dr. Allyson Ropp has joined our team in a new position, as the Research Fellow!

Since graduating from our program in 2016, Allyson has worked as an underwater archaeologist in the non-profit, state, and academic sectors. She recently completed her doctorate in Integrated Coastal Sciences at ECU. Her research explored the stability of a wooden shipwreck by integrating identifiable site-formation processes, including microbial habitation, local water conditions, and use and salvage-related behavioral decisions. By using novel methods and integrating known, quantifiable processes, she showed that the wood of a shipwreck is continually degrading and influenced by these processes at different rates.

She has conducted maritime historical, underwater archaeological, and interdisciplinary research on sites and landscapes across the East Coast, from Vermont to Florida, in the Great Lakes, and internationally in the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. In addition to quantifying interrelated site formation processes, her research specialties include climate change impacts on coastal and submerged cultural resources, maritime cultural landscapes, and public archaeology.

Welcome aboard, Dr. Ropp! 🏴‍☠️

research