CURRITUCK SOUND, North Carolina (17 July 2006) -- State underwater archaeologists diving in the Currituck Sound this week discovered the remains of several boats, two which sank more than a century ago. Richard Lawrence, director of the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, said he and other divers discovered the steam freighter Undine on Tuesday. The Undine was under way from Norfolk, Va., to Coinjock when it struck a log and sank off Mackay Island in March 1912, Lawrence said. On Wednesday, divers discovered the remains of a 25-foot wooden sailing vessel near Monkey Island. Divers also discovered the remains of what was believed to have been a schooner in a body of water known as Little Narrows on Thursday. Friday morning, the team got underway from Sawyers Creek in Camden County and dove on a submerged barge in the Pasquotank River. According to Lawrence, he and three other divers discovered the Undine with help from Currituck County residents and local historians Wilson and Barbara Snowden, who are familiar with the story of the Undine. "They are sort of our local contacts and are very involved with history," Lawrence said. Once the divers were in the vicinity of where the Undine was believed to have sunk they set up a search zone of approximately 3,000 feet by 600 feet. Using a magnetometer to search the bottom of the sound, they soon identified an object that appeared to be the remains of the Undine. "We feel pretty confident that is what it is," Lawrence said. At the dive site, Lawrence's team discovered the bottom section of the Undine, which measured approximately 93 feet from bow to stern, he said. Part of the boat was still intact. "The screw propeller is still in place," he said. "We also found the boiler." Other parts of the boat, such as the engine, appeared to have been salvaged years ago, perhaps by the ship's crew, he said. The Undine's propeller measured approximately 5 feet in diameter, Lawrence said. Although the Undine was a freighter, Lawrence said he believed it was carrying passengers when it sank. | | According to Lawrence, the 25-foot sailboat was discovered in about 6 feet of water and dates back to the 1800s, possibly before the Civil War. However, the Underwater Archaeology Branch, which is responsible for tracking the state's shipwrecks, has no records of a ship sinking in the vicinity of Monkey Island, he said. On Thursday, all that remained of a boat that Lawrence's team discovered in the Little Narrows were wooden planks and other debris, he said. "The current runs through there pretty fast and has cut out a fairly deep channel," he said, adding that portions of the boat were not intact like the Undine and the 25-foot sailboat. According to Lawrence, it's unclear exactly what kind of ship it is that sank in the Little Narrows. "The local story was it was a schooner that was sunk during the Civil War to try to block the channel," he said. Lawrence said he will record the information from the shipwrecks at the Underwater Archaeology Branch's headquarters at Fort Fisher, south of Wilmington. He said the dive team could return to the Currituck Sound as early as next summer. SOURCE - The Daily Advance |
