The first Western steamboat was built in 1811 in Pittsburgh, and thousands more were constructed in the years before the Civil War. These waterborne vehicles helped define the nineteenth-century trans-Appalachian West. Decades of incremental changes created a distinctive watercraft, and the steamboat became perfectly suited to the conditions of the Western rivers, transforming the West from a wilderness into a place of economic significance. In The Western River Steamboat, nautical archaeologist Adam I. Kane traces the development of this once commonplace vessel. Kane describes the importance...

In 1606, a Portuguese ship, "Nossa Senhora dos Martires," put into Lisbon laden with peppercorns, porcelain, and other products from Cochin. A large vessel for the time, the merchantman displaced twelve hundred tons and carried three to four masts. The ship foundered during a storm in a northern channel of the Tagus River. Within hours the currents and the storm had torn it asunder and spread its precious cargo along the shores of the estuary.
"The Pepper Wreck" tells the story of the ship's excavation by crews working in cold water and fast currents between 1997 and 2000, four centuries...

In July 1882, the steamboat "Red Cloud" hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The flagship of I. G. Baker & Company, which controlled much of the trade that flowed to Fort Benton and the upper reaches of the Missouri River, the "Red Cloud" had served as an agent of change in the West through which it traveled. Through the story of the boat and its owner, Annalies Corbin casts new light on the role of entrepreneurs and steamboats in the development of the West.
The "Red Cloud" was a symbol--and a source--of the trading...

In July 1882, the steamboat "Red Cloud" hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The flagship of I. G. Baker & Company, which controlled much of the trade that flowed to Fort Benton and the upper reaches of the Missouri River, the "Red Cloud" had served as an agent of change in the West through which it traveled. Through the story of the boat and its owner, Annalies Corbin casts new light on the role of entrepreneurs and steamboats in the development of the West.
The "Red Cloud" was a symbol--and a source--of the trading...

For almost a millenium, a modest wooden ship lay underwater off the coast of Serce Limani:, Turkey, filled with evidence of trade and objects of daily life. This second volume on the ship's discovery focuses on the excavation, conservation, and study of the glass found in its wreckage.

This book forms a final report on the underwater excavations I directed at Yassi Ada, Turkey, during the summers of 1961 through 1964 for the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The excavation was the first to have been completed on the floor of the Mediterranean of a wreck with substantial hull remains. This pioneering work required the ingenuity, effort, and generosity of many people and institutions.
The seventh- century ship was chosen for primary excavation not only for its lesser depth, which allowed longer working dives, but also because Throckmorton had uncovered...

In 1671, Dutch diplomat and scientist Nicolaes Witsen published a book that served, among other things, as an encyclopedia for the "shell-first" method of ship construction. In the centuries since, Witsen's rather convoluted text has also become a valuable source for insights into historical shipbuilding methods and philosophies during the "Golden Age" of Dutch maritime trade. However, as Andre Wegener Sleeswyk's foreword notes, Witsen's work is difficult to access not only for its seventeenth-century Dutch language but also for the vagaries of its author's presentation. Fortunately for...

This book is a guide to the study of the most marvelous structures ever built by humankind-wooden ships and boats. It is intended for nautical archaeologists and for anyone charged with documenting and interpreting the remains of wrecked or abandoned vessels. It will also be of value to historians, authors, model builders, and others interested in the design and construction of wooden watercraft of the past. The text is divided into three parts. The first introduces the discipline and presents enough basic information to permit the untrained reader to understand the analysis of ship and boat...

In 2001, while vacationing on Panama s Pacific coast, maritime archaeologist James P. Delgado came upon the hulk of a mysterious iron vessel, revealed by the ebbing tides in a small cove at Isla San Telmo. Local inquiries proved inconclusive: the wreck was described as everything from a sunken Japanese "suicide" submarine from World War II to a poison-laden "craft of death" that was responsible for the ruin of the pearl beds, decades before.
His professional interest fully aroused, Delgado would go on to learn that the wreck was the remains of one of the first successful deep-diving...

A hundred and fifty years ago, naval warfare entered a new phase with the introduction of ironclad vessels. On March 9, 1862, the USS "Monitor," prototype of this new class of warships, fought the Confederate ironclad CSS "Virginia" at Hampton Roads, Virginia, after the "Virginia" had ravaged the Union fleet blockading the James River, sinking larger, seemingly more powerful wooden warships in a potent demonstration of the power of an armored, heavily-gunned, steam-powered warship.In the world's first clash between iron-armored warships, "Monitor" and "Virginia" exchanged gunfire at close...