Fall Field School 2023: FKNMS

3D rendering of the HMS Loo shipwreck site at Looe Key, Florida, FKNMS.

Graduate student recording iron ballast from the HMS Loo shipwreck site (NOAA FKNMS).

The Maritime Studies 2023 fall field school took place in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, specifically Summerland Key, Florida. Over the course of 2-weeks, Dr. Jen McKinnon and Dr. Nathan Richards worked with students, staff, and our partners at FKNMS Matthew Lawrence (ECU, 2003) and Brenda Altmeier, investigated a number of sites on American Shoals and Looe Reef. The focus of this work concentrated on the documentation of HMS Loo (Looe), which sank on a reef during a patrol for the Charleston Station in 1744 during the War of Jenkin’s Ear. Other sites included the possible 19th century wooden schooner North America, which sank in 1842, as well as the American Shoals Lighthouse, and two U.S. Navy PV-1 Venture bombers that crashed during training operations from the Naval Air Station – Key West. The waters surrounding American Shoals and Looe Reef were surveyed with a magnetometer and side scan sonar to determine if any more sites or features were located within the sanctuary. Along with the underwater sites themselves, the team also recorded artifacts held in museum collections related to HMS Loo, among others.

ECU faculty and Matthew Lawrence observe an abandoned “chug” vessel at Crane Point (NOAA FKNMS).

In addition to the above underwater sites, the remains of Cuban “chugs” were recorded near Crane Point for the Crane Point Museum and Nature Center in Marathon, Florida. These handmade watercraft carried migrants across the Florida Straits to reach the democratic shores of the United States. Three-dimensional models were made of these sites and can be viewed using the link below.