Page 16 - AlertDiver_Winter2013

DIVE SLATE
14 | winter 2013
Four volunteer divers helped the Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary solve the mystery of a previously
unidentified early 20th-century shipwreck off Key
Largo last fall. Working with two maritime-archaeology
experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the National Association of Black
Scuba Divers (NABS) volunteers helped conduct a survey of
the 315-foot-long vessel once known only as “Mike’s Wreck”
after a local dive shop employee. The underwater research at
Elbow Reef, six miles off Key Largo, confirmed what significant
research on land had led the experts to suspect.
“We have identified Mike’s Wreck: It is the steamship
Hannah M. Bell,” said Matthew Lawrence, principal investigator
on the project and a maritime archaeologist at Stellwagen Bank
National Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts. Confirmation
of the ship’s identity shines a spotlight on a wreck once just
an afterthought to the more well-known City of Washington
and USS Arkansas nearby. “These projects connect us with
our history,” Lawrence said. “The Hannah M. Bell is a tangible
connection, something you can really see.”
The British-built steel steamship was Mexico-bound with
a load of coal from Newport News, Va., when it ran aground
on April 4, 1911, in bad weather. A federal cutter evacuated
most of the crew, while the captain and a few others stayed
behind to help the salvage crews, known locally as wreckers.
The wreckers determined the ship couldn’t be refloated,
and they abandoned the effort three days later. Before the
steamship’s owners could launch a salvage attempt of their
own, the vessel broke apart in heavy weather.
Lawrence said the next step is further documentation of the
site as well as possible nomination to the National Register
of Historic Places. Brenda Altmeier, maritime heritage
Diving Into History
in the Florida Keys
Volunteers facilitate an archaeological breakthrough