Hi All,
Just a quick note to let those of you who might be interested that Ships of Discovery and the Turks & Caicos National Museum are launching the 2006 Search for the Slave Ship Trouvadore.  As you might remember in 2004 we conducted a preliminary search for the ship.  We found several sites, and this year we are going back to continue the work from July 9 through July 21. This year a documentary film crew will be joining us as we test a small wooden wreck and search the lagoon and fringing reef of East Caicos island.   We were fortunate to receive funding this year from NOAA's Ocean Exploration program along with donations from several TCI organizations and private donors.
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We will have several websites devoted to the project this year:
1) Hosted by the Turks & Caicos National Museum, this will include an informal daily log: http://www.slaveshiptrouvadore.com .  This is a general site with a wide variety of  information with an emphasis on the Turks & Caicos, the freed Africans, and their impact on the local communities.  It has background on the project as well as the 2004 mission logs.

2) The documentary film makers, Windward Media in collaboration with the HoustonPBS station KUHT, also have a website at http://www.trouvadore.org on the making of the documentary. It will be a "behind the scenes" approach.  It  includes a brief video, will have science-oriented mission updates, and a global perspective on the slave trade.

3) NOAA's division of Ocean Exploration will also host a summary site at: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/explorations.html  This may not be active until after the project is over, but check it regularly just in case.  As you might expect, it is heavily science-oriented.

Wish us luck and NO HURRICANES!
Cheers,
Toni
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Toni L. Carrell, Ph.D.
Ships of Discovery
1900 N Chaparral St
Corpus Christi, TX 78401
Phone: [001]  361-826-4674
Fax: [001]  361-884-7392
Visit us at : www.shipsofdiscovery.org
Visit the Turks & Caicos National Museum at: www.tcmuseum.org
Find out about the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology at: www.ACUAonline.org