Maritime Services

Facilities

Bought by East Carolina University in 1974, Eller House was dedicated to prominent Naval Historian Rear Admiral Ernest McNeil Eller. It was given to the Maritime Program in 1991 and has been its home ever since. Eller contains the offices of five program professors, one administrator, two program archaeologists, and our DPAA Research Fellow. It also supports a lecture room with seating for fifteen and computer lab equipped with a variety of software for student use. See here for more information on the History of Eller house and Admiral Eller.

 

Queen Anne’s Revenge Lab

The Queen Anne’s Revenge Project is a cooperative effort led by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources that seeks to investigate, interpret and preserve the remains of the Blackbeard’s flagship. Visit their site for more information.

 

Capabilities

Our personnel have extensive experience working with local, state, federal, and international groups and agencies (from avocational groups to UNESCO, and including NOAA, NPS, and DPAA), and are usually juggling projects in the USA, and internationally.

 

Remote sensing:

 

  • Marine and terrestrial gradiometry and magnetometry;
  • Side scan sonar operations (400, 900, 1200kHz); and,
  • Terrestrial and marine metal detection.

 

Site recording (phases I-III):

 

  • Traditional site drafting (terrestrial and underwater);
  • Terrestrial and underwater photomosaic production and photogrammetric recording;
  • Site excavation (operation of induction dredges and air lifts);
  • CAD-based site reconstruction;
  • Position fixing capabilities (GPS, cadastral survey, GNSS system utilization);
  • Drone-based survey;
  • Artifact analysis;
  • Maritime cultural landscape analysis; and,
  • In situ preservation activities (including galvanic corrosion analysis).

 

Other services:

 

  • Historical and archival research;
  • Oral historical and ethnographic research;
  • Cultural resource database design and construction;
  • National Register nominations;
  • GIS preparation;
  • Site risk assessment;
  • Maritime museum exhibits and media design/support;
  • Citizen science programs;
  • Cultural heritage management consultation; and,
  • Material culture stabilization and conservation.

 

Services through affiliates:

 

  • Diving safety and logistics; and,
  • Boating operations.

 

Dive Safety

Diving and dive safety instruction is provided, but we advise students to have basic certification in place before arrival. AAUS Scientific Diver Certification is a prerequisite for participation in underwater archaeology field schools. Techniques employed in underwater archaeological research are taught in the field schools where valuable research work and finds are made. The underwater fieldwork is intellectually and physically demanding, and fitness is a necessary requirement, as it is not recreational diving.

The purpose of this office is to ensure safe and effective diving and boating practices and to provide support for the research, educational, and recreational diving and boating programs on campus. Please see their website for additional information or contact the director, Mark Keusenkothen.