Modeling Wooden Shipwreck Deterioration in the Potomac River: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Measuring the Site Stability and Integrity of Maryland's Maritime Cultural Resources

Over the summer of 2022, East Carolina University archaeologists recorded the remains of the wooden shipwreck Aowa (1919-1924) at the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary (Charles County). The goals of the project were to record an archaeological and biological baseline to establish its state of preservation. With the addition of follow-up environmental sampling, Aowa's hull has the potential to become a test site to help inform preservation decisions for the hundreds of Emergency Fleet-era shipwrecks that sit in the internationally significant National Register of Historic Places site (listing #15000173, April 24, 2015). By studying these processes over time rather than one single time point, we will get a better understanding of potential wreck deterioration. These results have the potential to be modeled and projected onto the hundreds of shipwrecks in Mallows Bay and can inform what may be happening to shipwrecks in the freshwater and brackish environments of Maryland's watersheds. Hence, this project seeks revisit Aowa every 3-4 months in 2023 to repeat the environmental sampling regimen. We propose to commence this thematic project to build new models to aid in the effective evaluation and protection of Maryland's maritime cultural heritage and assist the future management of the shipwrecks at Mallows Bay during a time of global environmental change.

Scholars @ ECU