Ghosts on the Coast of Paradise: Identifying and Interpreting the Ephemeral Remains of Bermuda's 18Th Century Shipyards
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2011 Ghosts on the Coast of Paradise: Identifying and Interpreting the Ephemeral Remains of Bermuda's 18th Century Shipyards Joel Garrett Dworsky College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Dworsky, Joel Garrett, "Ghosts on the Coast of Paradise: Identifying and Interpreting the Ephemeral Remains of Bermuda's 18th Century Shipyards" (2011). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626650. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-rbeg-x274 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ghosts on the Coast of Paradise: Identifying and Interpreting the Ephemeral Remains of Bermuda’s 18th Century Shipyards Joel Garrett Dworsky Levittown, Pennsylvania Bachelor of Arts, Millersville University, 2002 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the College of William and Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology The College of William and Mary May 2011 APPROVAL PAGE This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of M aster rts Joel Gcfrrett Dworsky Approved by^the Committee,April 2011 SB CdRmittee Chair larley Brown III College of William and Mary Dr. Neil Norman College of William and Mary Dr. Timothy Trussell Millersville University ABSTRACT PAGE Bermuda's 18th century economy was wholly dependant on the sea and trade with the Americas and the Caribbean. Bermudians sailed the world over, trading, privateering, smuggling, and wrecking making the island wealthy in the process. While many have been content to study the economic impact of Bermudian merchants and privateers, few have studied the island's shipbuilders who created the small fast vessels that were the backbone of the island's economy. To truly understand the development of 18th century Bermuda this industry must be examined and understood. This paper hypothesizes the topographical criteria Bermuda shipbuilders used when deciding where to place a shipyard. The hypothetical criteria were compared against ground survey results and historical research to arrive at a set of criteria that could identify areas where shipbuilding likely occurred. These criteria were then used to locate the archaeological remains of several Bermudian shipyards. In the summer of 2010 a survey of shipyards was conducted identifying several 18th century shipyards. The analysis of these sites provides insight into how the islands shipyards were place on the terrain, organized and used. Table of Contents Table of Figures__________________________________________________________ ii Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 1 Historical Context for the Development of a Bermudian Shipbuilding Industry ______ 4 Eighteenth Century shipbuilding____________________________________________ 6 British/Colonial American shipyards ________________________________________ 6 Hypothesizing the Criteria Bermudian Shipwrights used to Determine the Location of their Yard ___________________________________________________________ 14 Topographic Criteria _____________________________________________________ 15 Ecological vs. Economic criteria for shipyard placement _______________________ 19 Hypothesizing the Archaeological Signature of a Bermudian Shipyard __________ 22 Shipyard associated features and their formation processes _____________________ 24 Shipbuilding associated artifacts ___________________________________________ 28 Archaeological Survey Results testing the hypothesis _________________________ 31 Shipyards ______________________________________________________________ 32 Tynes Bay Shipyard __________________________________________________ 33 The Outerbridge-McCallan Shipyard _____________________________________ 44 Righton Outerbridge Shipyard __________________________________________ 51 Shark Hole Shipyard __________________________________________________ 53 Data Interpretation ______________________________________________________ 61 Refuted Ideas 62 Conclusions 66 Appendices______________________________________________________________ 74 Appendix A - ___________________________________________________________ 74 Appendix B ____________________________________________________________ 95 Appendix C - Property reconstruction of Devonshire Parish from late 18th to early 19th centuries 100 Bibliography ___________________________________________________________ 103 Primary Documents ____________________________________________________ 103 Secondary Sources ____________________________________________________ 106 Table of Figures Figure 1 - A cross section of a British Royal Naval Slipway cut into a riverbank. The vertical posts are for scaffolding. The keel blocks run down the middle of the slipway providing an elevated foundation for the keel (James Dodds, 1984, p. 60) ......................... 7 Figure 2 - Cross section of the keel of a ship on a slipway (James Dodds, 1984, p. 60-61). ...................................................................................................................................................9 Figure 3 - An artist's rendering of a British warship under construction. Notice the angled supports, the scaffolding and the cradle for launching (James Dodds, 1984, p. 106- 107)..........................................................................................................................................10 Figure 4 - Rendering of a British Warship being launched. Notice the cradle and track system being employed in conjunction with the block and tackle (James Dodds, 1984, p. 110-111) 10 Figure 5 - A chart detailing the breakdown of 18th century shipbuilders by parish ..........19 Figure 6 - Proposed organizational layout of a Bermudian shipyard ................................. 31 Figure 7 - A map detailing the geographic placement of the Tynes Bay shipyard ..........34 Figure 8 - View of the Tynes Bay slipway from the water at high tide ............................. 36 Figure 9 - Aerial view of the Tynes Bay Shipyard detailing the locations of posts, slipways and features ............................................................................................................. 39 Figure 10 - A 3-D map of the Tynes Bay shipyard showing locations of posts and features as well as providing a view of the topographic contour elevation relative to sea level.... 39 Figure 11 - A 3-D rendering of a 40 ton sloop on the stocks on the slipway at the Tynes Bay shipyard. The sloop’s keel is resting on keel blocks and being kept vertical by leaning posts. The posts shown were likely part of scaffolding for the upper reaches of the vessel (Chapman, 2006) .................................................................................................. 40 Figure 12 - The winch and rails discovered at the Tynes Bay yard. Both the winch and the rails have been displaced from their original positions .................................................43 Figure 13 - The winch at Flatts Village, c. 1902, and its accompanying cradle and rails, derelict but still visible .......................................................................................................... 43 Figure 14 - A map detailing the geographic location of the Outerbridge-McCallan shipyard .................................................................................................................................. 44 Figure 15 - An aerial photograph of the Outerbridge-McCallan shipyard detailing the locations of slipways and land usage and disturbances... ....................................................47 Figure 16 - A view of Slipways #2 & #3 at the Outerbridge-McCallan Shipyards showing the inland portions of the slipways buried beneath a mountain of dirt and rubble that had formerly been a sea wall and a graded yard until a hurricane destroyed the wall. While much of the back portions of the yard undoubtedly remain buried beneath this debris, excavating was not a timely option. Thus only slipway #1 was mapped, as most of it, except for the upper portion of the slip which was truncated by a later dock, remained clearly visible ......................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 17 - An aerial plan view drawing of the features of Slipway 1 at the Outerbridge- McCallan shipyard. Sleeper beams have been rendered where a series of square cuts in the side of the slipway indicated their presence. Also visible are the rows of primarily cut square post holes which would have held the support beams that supported the vessel while under construction ....................................................................................................... 48 Figure 18 - Outerbridge-McCallan Shipyard side view with a rendered 3-D model of the HMS Dasher built at this yard for the Royal Navy in 1796-7 (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Box 48). Notice the supports bracing the keel of the vessel. While the full extent of the yard could not be mapped due to ground disturbance, further inland similar features