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Shipwreck Teaches Students About History
On one afternoon, the students looked for damage as they turned over the pieces in their gloved hands, then photographed the items for the museum's records and wrote reports describing the objects and recommending how to conserve them.
Most of the items were fairly easy to identify: a door hinge, a pulley, a spike.
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Cameron Parsons and David Hart, 13-year-olds from Virginia Beach, weren't sure what they had been given. It looked like two small pieces of wood held together by three rivets. One rivet was inscribed "Philada."
"That's cool," said Michael V. Taylor, the museum's preservation officer. "I have no idea what it is."
David, using a magnifying glass, spotted on the "Philada" rivet what looked like an engraving of the scales of justice. Maybe the artifact was associated with the ship's legal officer, Taylor told the boys.
They may get to find out for sure. NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration is providing $1,000 for enhanced restoration for Cumberland artifacts, and the Cumberland Club voted to use the money in part to conserve the "Philada" piece.
Cameron said he enjoyed studying the artifacts "because we're finding real stuff, not recreation stuff that adults set up for us."
"And it's fun to see stuff that people used like a really long time ago," David added.
The following week, in late June, the students spent a day aboard the Bay Hydrographer, a 56-foot NOAA research vessel. They helped researchers use side scan and multibeam sonar to scan the Cumberland wreckage, as well as the nearby wrecks of the Confederate ship CSS Florida, which accidentally sank on Nov. 28, 1864, and a third, unknown ship.
James S. Schmidt, contract archaeologist with the underwater archaeology branch of The Naval Historical Center, will crunch the data collected.
Taylor believes the program will have a lasting impression on the students.
While many kids spend their summers hanging out, Taylor said, "Cumberland kids get to say, `I went out on an archaeological expedition with The Naval Historical Center on a NOAA boat and we went to the wrecks of the Cumberland and the Confederate Florida. You know, they're important wrecks and important cultural resources.'"
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On the Net:
Hampton Roads Naval Museum: http:/
