On the weekend of June 5th & 6th, 2004, one of our own CCForum members, "Celeste" , will be one of 15 people given the chance of a lifetime.

The Chantry Island Institute, a division of the Bruce County Museum, is dedicated to preserving marine history of the Great Lakes here in Canada and the US.

In 2002 pieces of wood were discovered on the beach of Southampton. Further investigation determined that these "pieces of wood" were in actuality a shipwreck.

During the weekend she will have the opportunity to do shipwreck recording, reconstruction research and modeling methods. As well, she will have the opportunity to do actual mapping and recording at the excavation site, actually helping in the dig !


Nautical archeologist Ken Cassavoy, who is leading the shipwreck dig on Southampton’s beach again this summer, is shown here excavating the mainmast step at the local site in May of 2002.



An archeological dig planned for Southampton this spring just might go down in history as one of the most significant archeological finds of the Great Lakes.
Nautical archeologist Ken Cassavoy is already working on plans to again uncover the wreck of the schooner, which was found alongside a barge in the summer of 2001 on Southampton’s beach.
The schooner is thought to be the Weazell, built in 1786 and lost in its present-day location just off Morpeth Street sometime before 1808.
An even more significant find was a small-bore swivel cannon found on the wreck last year.
“To find a cannon on it was absolutely amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime activity. I don’t imagine many archeologists in the world have found a cannon on a shipwreck,” said Cassavoy.
While the cannon has since found a home at the Bruce County Museum in Southampton, there is still a mystery surrounding the Weazell that Cassavoy hopes to solve.
“This is a most interesting shipwreck,” said Cassavoy, adding as soon as the first excavation occurred, he knew it would become the most significant shipwreck of his career.
“Once we did some work on it and very quickly discovered there were two vessels under there, then the whole thing got interesting.”
While this year’s dig is dependent on funding approval, Cassavoy hopes to uncover the entire interior of the schooner and half of the exterior. When found in 2001, only parts of the exterior were revealed.
Volunteer crews will work from mid-May until July to expose the remains, which roughly measure 55 by 17 feet.
“We’ll do virtually all of it manually,” said Cassavoy, explaining that back hoes and front-end loaders will not be part of the picture this time around.
Cassavoy would love to see the vessel raised out of the ground, preserved and put on display at the museum in Southampton, something that could cost millions.
“I couldn’t guess at the cost, it might be $5 to $10 million or it could only be 20 or 30 per cent of that,” he said.
Preserving the Weazell would involve hiring a giant crane to remove the ship from the sand and using a flatbed truck to transport it to a space large enough to accommodate a storage tank the remains would sit in. From there, the ship would be immersed in a chemical bath for up to three years, before eventually being put on display.
“The museum has indicated it’s interested in displaying it. I’ve always said it’s probably not going to happen, that the most likely scenario is it will stay buried, (but) given the interest I’ve seen locally and in the archaeological community, we might find the support for it.
“It would be a massive undertaking but there is a possibility,” he said.
Once the shipwreck itself has been dealt with this summer, either covered again or raised from the beach, Cassavoy said the work won’t be over.
“There will be years of additional research and writing that will follow this. It has a very high profile and it’s a very exciting project. Of course, unless we get funding none of this will happen, but it’s a fascinating time in Southampton.”

LOL..thanks Tony. Needless to say I am running on an absolute adrenaline rush. And of course I will do my utmost best to provide everyone in the Forum with photos and details of my adventure.

Thanks Tony for the article you found on Ken Cassavoy. I hadn't seen that one. I do however have this link for everyone to check out. This is from last summer's dig.

www.brucecounty.on.ca/museum/southamptonshipwreck

Congratuations Celeste! th:

Way cool celeste that sounds like a once in a life time opportunity.
have a great time playing in the sand and bring us some pictures ,

maybe i should take a drive and see far my self the shipwreck on dry land (wet beach) p: Todd

Way to go Celeste.
If they ask you to get some firewood don't pick the stuff off the beach. ;)
Can't wait to see the pictures.
Rob

congrats celeste! w:

t: Congrats Celeste have a great time, but keep a brick in your pocket so you don't float away. :P

That's an amazing opprotunity! Good luck, and have fun, Celeste.

Congrats Celeste, and have fun!!

:rolleyes: i TOO WISH TO OFFER MY CONGRATS ON THIS CHANCE TO BE PART OF RESEARCHING HISTORY. MOST OF US DON'T GET THIS CHANCE, SO GRAB IT AND RUN WITH IT! AND OH YES, I EXPECT A FULL REPORT :lol:

LEO

Well I have completed Day One. Let's see:

Woke up late. Couldn't find most of the stuff that I thought I'd gotten together the night before. Finally left the house and got to the Bruce County Museum and Archives with about 5 minutes to spare. Whew!

Today, myself and 14 other participants learned a little about what we will be doing. Wewere shown the grid techniques, how to use a plumbob and various other gauging and measuring tools. I got a sinking feeling as I know I'm not very good with mathematics. But I was assured that I could do some shovelling as every shoveful of sand has to be sifted through.

I did learn that they are not absolutely positive that this is the "Weazell" but it's a fairly decent bet.
The wreck itself is on the beach ( I had a bad case of the shakes & goosebumps when I first saw it) and has a 19 degree list to the starboard side, which t: apparently makes excavation an interesting task.
I also got to see the cannon they'd excavated last summer. What a sight!! We know that the ship probably pre-dates the War of 1812, as a Treaty signed in 1817 prohibited ships sailing on the Great Lakes to be armed with any kind of weaponry (ie. cannons)

Our instructor of the day was Stan McClellan. Upon talking with him in regards to my NUMA ballcap, I mentioned our website and talked with him about Dr. Cussler. As it turns out Mr. McClellan knows some of Dr. Cussler's crew.
I mentioned about Mike's adventure in Maine for the"White Bird" and we got onto topic about that. As it turns out 3 other participants are avid readers of Dr. Cussler's books (and part of the reason why they were there themselves)
So Tony I handed out the website address and invited them to check us out.

Mr. McClellan extended an invitation to me to join him and Dr. Ken Cassavoy this summer to do some more work on the dig. Needless to say he didn't have to ask twice. Tomorrow we start actual work at the site. Gonna be a hot one too.
They have a professional photographer documenting everything and was asked not to take pictures but I'll keep my camera handy just in case.

The adventure continues.............. t:

WOW :blink:
Good stuff. And an amazing opprotunity to continue into the summer as well! I'm eagerly looking forward to your next update!
Have fun!

Seems like your having fun.
Wish I could be there also.
B) B) B) B) B)

Thanks for the update, Celeste ! a great report ... I'd love to be there ;)

I liked this part ...lol

Very apt wording indeed!

Cheers ... p:

DAY 2:

If ever I am asked to look back on my life and describe the best experience I have ever had..I would have to say this shipwreck was it.

We were set to start digging at 9 am Sunday morning, after Saturday's experience I thought it best to arrive early today. This time I also came well prepared, equipped with my camcorder and a disposable camera (I also moved this weekend and couldn't for the life of me find my digital).

It wasn't until after I had snapped a few photos that I found out photography of the site is prohibited. They have their own photographer for official recordings but don't want any others taken as they don't want photos of what they discovered thus far being posted on the Internet. Oops!

My first task of the morning was digging. I was given my own one metre by one metre part of the grid area to work in and what excitment.
I should also mention that in the same area as the shipwreck there is also the wreck of a barge that sank around the late 1880s. The barge was used in the building of a dock. Large pieces of stones were loaded into the barge.
Anyways, my assigned section was part of what is thought to be the debris field of the 'Weazell'. Dr. Cassavoy informed me that 2 days earlier they had found a coin in the grid area behind me, dated 1886 (thought to have been from the barge). I didn't unearth any coins but I did find some shoe leather, some dark glass possibly from a bottle and the highlight of my day, a piece of pottery which when cleaned of sand a bit had the faint printing of Blue Willow pottery dated 18-- (we couldn't make out the last 2 digits, but Dr. Cassavoy thinks with a bit of care and a closer look, they may be able to figure it out).

I also did some triangulation mapping. There was a metre tape that ran along the keelson of the ship from bow to stern. I assisted Mr. McClellan in measuring from points along the baseline to the exposed ribs to the ship.
And my final stint of the day was sifting the sand to find artifacts and again I found some more items, one being a piece of shoe leather with the nail from the cobbler still in the leather. Very cool.

The digging ceased for the afternoon as the winds were getting bad and a storm was coming in. I do have some photos to share but as I said my digital was packed away so I have to get a photo CD from the disposable.
My work schedule is busy for the rest of June but I should be able to get back again next month to do some more. w:

It sounds like you are having such an interesting and fun experience, thanks for keeping us updated :)

Seems like you had a nice day and it's cool that you've been invited back. Cogragulations wish I was there. Instead I'm here <_< <_<

way cool celeste hope to see your pics soon sounds like a lot of work but very much worth it w:

w: thanks Celeste for the COMPLETE :lol: report. Honestly, sounds like you had a blast and am looking foward to the pics. Great job!!! th:





leo

UPDATE:

Had the day of work yesterday (Friday, June 10th) so of course I went up to Southampton. What a difference a week makes! Last weekend we had just the tops of the ribbing of the one side revealed. Yesterday there was the entire side I had been working near..the bow and part of the barge uncovered. Looks really awesome. It still boggles my mind that here is a ship that sailed the waters 218 years ago!
I promise to get those pictures soon!

Sounds like you've been working hard ;)

Celeste,
I apologize for not commenting on this earlier but my in-laws have been up this past week from TN for my daughter’s graduation....need I say more? ;)

I must say, I wish I had been there with you. It sounds like a great experience. I am anxious to see your pics. If you are anything like me, an experience like this will only make you want to be involved more and more and more....

Thank you for sharing this with us and please do keep us posted on your further involvement.

Mike

Now thats the way to spend a summer (or at least part of)!!! And I'm stuck here playing on the computer, reading, and baking to death at summer camp.

I can't wait to hear the rest of thr report. Go Celeste!

I also can't wait to hear the rest of your report. How lucky you are, keep up the good work Celeste!! w:

Posting for Celeste ;

The first one is of me standing just outside the site boundaries. The had orange snow fencing up as barriers. I'm pointing to my name on the board which lists each day who is working on the site.

Posting for Celeste ;

The second is of the site itself. I didn't realize until later that we weren't permitted to take pictures of just the site. There had to be people in the picture. Also couldn't take pictures of the ship itself as there is a copyright on any pictures of the ship.

Posting for Celeste ;

This is a diagram of the ship as it's been uncovered previously. Picture #2 was also taken from the boardwalk. Now the black marks near the top of the picture were the ribs of the ship the were first discovered about 2 years ago. Also if you look closely at the diagram you can see the mast step and where they found the cannon. The grey area is where they believe the ships ballast stones

Posting for Celeste ;

This is of course Dr. Ken Cassavoy, on-site head marine archaeologist. Nice enough fellow, but quite serious. He was teased quite a bit about not being one to smile. At one point I was talking to another Clive Cussler fan who was also working the site. I was telling him of the forum when Dr. Cassavoy over heard us. We ended up pausing and having quite the discussion regarding Dr. Cussler. Let's just say the end result was we agreed to the fact that Dr. Cussler wasn't a "marine archaeologist" but had done quite well at preserving and uncovering significant historical shipwrecks.

Posting for Celeste ;

This is a picture of Stan McLellan, also a marine archaeologist. He is showing us how to plot the measurements we took out at the site. I had to balance myself over a point near the bow and place the tip of a plumbob on one of the ribs. Very nerve-racking as a slight slip would break off a piece of 218 year old wood.

Posting for Celeste ;

A picture of me with Dr. Cassavoy and Stan McLellan after a hard day of digging.

Cool pictures thanks celeste and Tony :)

Thanks Tony!!

For those checking out picture #2 of the site. You may see two wooden stakes with the ends painted blue. The one to the right is the bow of the ship and the other just behind the picnic table is the stern. The distance between the two though not appearing far is actually a distance of 85 feet approximately.
The bow is the part I was working around. When I went back a week later they had part of the barge undcovered.

Thanks for the pictures Celeste and Tony.
Looks like you are having the time of your life

This is certainly a fascinating way to spend one's summer. The first pic posted looked like you were holding a "Tim Horton's" coffee, a mainstay up here in Canada! B)
Looks like you're having a great summer, Celeste!! Congratulations!

Great Pics! w:

Great JOB! w:

LOL..Foss Gly

I never do anything in the morning until I've had my Timmies. You don't know coffee until you've enjoyed a Canadian Tim Horton's coffee...good thing I'm Canadian j:

Thanks for the pictures Celeste its like history in the making... b:

In what turned out to be an incredible coincidence, I turned out to be in the Southampton area for most of last week. I was the best man in my best friend's wedding in Port Elgin, basically the sister-city of Southampton. We were out and about and somehow the dig came up in conversation, as it has become quite the story locally. I'd have loved to have been able to visit the site if at all possible, but we were very pressed for time.

Oh, and I know all too well the addictive qualities of Tim Horton's coffee... yike: