A few weeks back I had a great little phone interview with the writer Gary Boulard, who was really fun to talk with. He was on assignment for WorkBoat Magazine. He was calling because of a press release announcing the archival research that I had recently carried out in England. Now Garry’s article has come out, and its a fun read . . . .
From WorkBoat Magazine:
In May 1782, the editors of the British-run Royal Gazette in Charleston, S.C., posted an almost idle boast.
“We insert with pleasure, what gives us every reason to believe,” the paper declared, “that neither American independence will be recognized, nor the friends of British Government in this country deserted, by the present Ministry of England.”
Just seven months later, with the Revolutionary War all but over, the British left Charleston.
“They evacuated Charleston, which was a huge port, and went in several different directions,” said Chuck Meide, the director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. “One squadron went to England, one went to Halifax, one to Jamaica.”
But many of the vessels headed for St. Augustine, Fla. “We were getting swamped with people — our population exploded,” noted Meide. “We became the third or fourth largest city in all of the colonies.”
But on the way to St. Augustine, the vessels loaded with British loyalists confronted head-on a treacherous and well-known sandbar. At least 16 ships were wrecked as a result of the sandbar or for other reasons in December 1782.
One of those vessels was the Storm Wreck, currently being excavated offshore by archaeologists with the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program.
Read the entire article here!
Garry has expressed interest in a follow-up story, focusing on our research vessels and the equipment used during shipwreck excavations and artifact recovery. I’m looking forward to working with him again, and hope that this time we can meet in person and get him out on the deck of the Roper!