This summer a team of nautical archaeologists from Texas A&M University will conduct an underwater survey on four shipwreck hulls lying in Shelburne Bay, Shelburne. This project will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Kevin J. Crisman, associate professor of the nautical archaeology program at Texas A&M, and director of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation, in conjunction with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
The goal of this project is to record and document four shipwreck hulls in an effort to understand early Lake Champlain steamboat construction. The shipwrecks are believed to be the abandoned hulls of Burlington (1837), Whitehall (1838), and two other currently unidentified steamboats of the early nineteenth century. To date, very little research has been done on early steamboat construction, and these wrecks will provide us with valuable information on that subject.
Kevin Crisman (INA/TAMU)
Caroline Kennedy (TAMU)
