BP giving back a few of our guiltily guzzled gasoline greenbacks?
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May 24, 2007, 12:39AM
A&M scientists to recover artifacts from Gulf shipwreck

By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle 

To get a glimpse of life two centuries ago, some Texas scientists are willing to travel 4,000 feet into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.

A team of oceanographers and archaeologists led by Texas A&M University scientists has traveled to a site 35 miles off the Louisiana coast and begun conducting the deepest shipwreck recovery effort ever attempted in the Gulf.

The "Mardi Gras Wreck" — the unidentified ship is temporarily named after a nearby pipeline — was found in 2002 by employees from Okeanos Gas Gathering Co. who were surveying the seafloor with remote cameras.

After realizing it might have a significant find, the gas company, two-thirds of which is owned by BP, agreed to put up $4.8 million for one of the most-well funded academic studies of a shipwreck off American shores.

"This is a potentially historic shipwreck, and we're excited that some of these 200-year-old items on the seafloor can be recovered, and put on display for everyone to see," BP spokesman Neil Chapman said.

At 4,000 feet, the weight of water would crush a diver, so the expedition will use two remotely operated vehicles to capture video of the shipwreck and bring artifacts to the surface.


A monthlong venture

Because of the scope of the investigation — it will involve some 20 scientists from Texas A&M and the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the field work may take up to a month. Special equipment was developed solely for the mission, which is being hailed as one of the most ambitious shipwreck investigations ever conducted in the Gulf.

"This is just a tremendous undertaking," said Cheryl Ward, an associate professor of anthropology at Florida State University. "It's a huge effort to pull together so many agencies, and to do it all with the aim of doing science. This kind of thing isn't common at all."

Foremost among the scientific goals is identifying the ship, learning more about its occupants and getting the measure of economics, politics and history of the time, all encapsulated and preserved in a tidy bundle below the sea.

Initial surveys already have revealed a trove of artifacts that should help provide some answers: wine and rum bottles; bowls, plates, cups and a pôt de creme; a telescope, octant, compass and an hourglass. And then there are the weapons: flintlock pistols, muskets, swords and a cast-iron cannon in its carriage.

"There really is no way to tell what else is down there," said Peter Hitchcock, a Texas A&M doctoral student in oceanography and the project manager, in a news release announcing the expedition.

The Gulf of Mexico, just south of Louisiana, was teeming with history when the ship sank, which the researchers believe must have happened in the late 1700s or early 1800s.

The surrounding waters were frequented by traders, pirates and warships as American, French and Spanish interests competed for natural resources and access to the Mississippi River.

Despite a substantial Creole population loyal to France in the latter half of the 18th century, Louisiana remained a Spanish holding until 1802 when Napoleon Bonaparte reacquired the territory from Spain as a part of a war treaty. A year later, he sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.


Crescent City history
At that point, New Orleans blossomed into a substantial port town and major economic engine of the still-young country, trading cotton, flour, tobacco and other commodities, as well as becoming a den of outlaws as pirates and patriots vied for power in the city and nearby barrier islands. It also was the site of some pivotal battles in the War of 1812. 

Artifacts collected by the research team will be studied and conserved at Texas A&M's Conservation Research Laboratory before being delivered to Louisiana. Many eventually may be displayed at the Louisiana State Museum.

"The next few weeks are going to be interesting, to say the least," said William Bryant, a Texas A&M oceanographer and the project's leader.

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http://www.chron.com:80/disp/story.mpl/front/4831606.html

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Pleistocene extinctions? Clovis kaput? It was the bolide, stupid!