D Iv in G in to H Is T O Ry

OH, THE PLACES THEY’LL GO ALUMNi SPOTLiGHT HISTORY INTO DIVING Gulf Coast, where he would free dive and snorkel. In school, Hanselmann lifted weights and swam but he was also a member of the book club. At night when his friends were watching The Simpsons, Fritz was either watching Jacques Cousteau reruns or reading books. Fritz consumed stories from many time periods and especially treasured those about pre-Columbian civilizations and the conquest and colonization in the Western Hemisphere beginning in 1492. When Hanselmann arrived at BYU as a freshman, his thoughts were occupied with providing a living for a future family, not his interest in aquatic history, and he started preparing for a career in broadcast journal- ism. But he soon found himself wandering the BYU Bookstore looking for texts to satisfy his passion for history and water. When he stumbled upon an underwater-archaeology book, he purchased it, read it that night, and decided to add a beginning-level archaeology course as an elective. After serving a mission in Nicaragua, Hanselmann changed his major to interna- tional relations but continued taking classes in anthropology and archaeology until he either had to switch his major again or stop ADAPTED BY has an unquench- and a university team happened to be con- haunting the Department of Anthropology. JANE TALLMADGE Frederick able thirst for open ducting research. Hanselmann took the plunge and changed his FRITZ “Fritz” seas and treasure, “It was fascinating to find a shipwreck major to anthropology and began to pursue HANSELMANN PHOTOGRAPHY though not for gold, from the golden age of piracy, and it was a career in underwater archaeology. Anthropology, 2003 BY MARK Hanselmann silver, or gems. As amazing to start on a site from scratch and Since then, Hanselmann has swum the PHILBRICK a research faculty member at Texas State see it through,” Hanselmann says. The more depths of the world of shipwrecks and civ- University and the chief underwater archae- the Indiana researchers examined the wreck- ilizations. In 2008, the opportunity arose ologist and the diving-program director age, the more they suspected it could be the to became the principal investigator of a two more shipwrecks within five miles of the “It electrifies me to make connections with with the Meadows Center for Water and the remains of the lost Quedagh Merchant, which shipwreck possibly belonging to the infa- first wreck. “The Monterrey Project blows me the past and begin to understand how the Environment, Hanselmann has spent the had been seized by Captain William Kidd mous pirate Henry Morgan. This investiga- away,” says Hanselmann. “The ships are just lives of everyday people have been forever better part of a decade exploring historic near the turn of the 18th century. tion ended with Hanselmann’s being fea- a phenomenal sight.” changed by their interactions with the sea,” shipwrecks in Latin America, the Caribbean, When the news broke that Captain Kidd’s tured extensively in the documentary The With all his explorations, Hanselmann he says. That passion drives all his work, and and North America. For him, the real booty lost ship had been found, the story went Unsinkable Henry Morgan, which premiered looks for human connections, and he finds he sees each case as a chance to find and is the history buried at the bottom of the sea global, and Hanselmann was among those at the Sundance Film Festival. personal items especially touching. When share another part of the human story. and its potential to illuminate human life, interviewed. He transformed his good fortune From there, opportunities arose expo- ginger from bottles still smelled of spice, he behavior, and culture. of being the first scientist on the scene into nentially. As the principal investigator of imagines that it might have been used to calm Hanselmann’s first splash in the world of a seminal career opportunity—one he’d been the Monterrey Project, Hanselmann led a sailors’ stomachs during the storm that sank high-profile shipwrecks came in 2007 when preparing for his whole life. team of archaeologists, oceanographers, these ships. He wonders whether a retrieved he, then an Indiana University doctoral stu- “I was a swimmer by the time I was geologists, and biologists from three fed- spoon might have been used to eat a last Adapted from a story in the Winter 2014 dent and lecturer, learned that cannons had three and loved all things aquatic,” says eral agencies, three universities, and three meal, and he finds poignancy in a leather issue of BYU Magazine. Share your own been found off the coast of the Dominican Hanselmann. Even though he grew up in the nonprofit organizations. The team set out to shoe that went down with some unfortunate story or a story about alumni you know at Republic. This was not far from where he Midwest, he spent his summers on Florida’s explore one ship, but they soon discovered sailor during the shipwreck. rise.byu.edu. 32 THE COLLEGE OF FAMiLY, HOME, AND SOCiAL SCiENCES CONNECTiONS 2019 33.

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