Historical Contexts of the National Marine Sanctuaries

Edited by Bruce G. Terrell

Fathoming Our Past

Historical Contexts of the National Marine Sanctuaries
Book Design: Auralea Krieger

NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program

1995, 2007

SSMC IV

1305 East West Highway

Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

ISBN 978-1-4243-4417-8

LCCN 2007924975

For additional copies please contact:

NOAA/National Marine Sanctuary Program

1305 East West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910
Contributors

John Broadwater

Kekuena Kikiloi

Matthew Lawrence

Wayne Lusardi

Deborah Marx

Joylynn Oliveria

 Julie Taomia

Bruce G. Terrell

Hans Van Tilburg
I wish to extend thanks to all of the folks in the National Marine Sanctuary Program whose contributions and 

patience made this second edition possible. In particular, I would like to thank Charly Alexander, Daniel J. Basta, 

Walt Bonora, John Broadwater, Angela Calos, Matthew Dozier, Matthew Lawrence, Wayne Lusardi, Deborah Marx, 

Robert Schwemmer, Robert Steelquist, Matt Stout, Sharon Sirkis and Hans Van Tilburg. 

I would also like to thank Sandra Nitchie, Auralea Krieger and Kelly Royall.

 - Bruce G. Terrell

Acknowledgments

iv
vi List of Illustrations

vii Forward – Daniel J. Basta

viii Preface – John Broadwater

ix Editor’s Preface to

 Second Edition – Bruce Terrell 

x Introduction 

Part I: Historical Contexts 

Native Peoples ............................................................ 2 

European Colonial Period ............................................ 3

American Period .......................................................... 4

Regional Economic Activities ....................................... 5

American Naval History................................................ 6

Part II: National Marine Sanctuaries

Northeast Region

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary....................12

Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank 

 National Marine Sanctuary ...................................16

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary...........................22

Southeast Region

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary.....................24

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary....................27

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary......31

West Coast Region

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.................32

Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank

 National Marine Sanctuaries.................................35

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary..................41

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary..............47

Pacific Islands Region

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale

 National Marine Sanctuary ...................................52

Papahanaumokuakea

 Marine National Monument ..................................56

 Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary...................61

Postscript...................................................................65 

Bibliography .............................................................66

Contents

v
Native Americans in Coastal Carolina ..................................................2

Shipwreck...........................................................................................3

Sixteenth Century Spanish Ships at St. Helena....................................3

English Galleon...................................................................................4

Snow ..................................................................................................4

Steam Power.......................................................................................5

Coastal Schooner................................................................................5

Whaling Boat ......................................................................................6

Multi-masted Schooner.......................................................................6

USCSS Bibb........................................................................................7

Nineteenth Century Man of War...........................................................8

Waterman ...........................................................................................9

Alpena Harbor.................................................................................. 13

Archaeologist Documenting Maid of the Mist.................................... 14

Boston Harbor Historic View ............................................................. 16

Fishing Boats at Boston Harbor........................................................ 17

Steamer Portland............................................................................. 18

Bark Catalpa of New Bedford ........................................................... 19

Gloucester Fishing Schooner............................................................ 20

Sonar image of Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. Crary......................... 21

Clash Between USS Monitor & CSS Virginia ..................................... 22

Recovery of USS Monitor’s Gun Turret............................................... 23

Sixteenth Century Spanish Sailors.................................................... 25

Europeans and Native Americans in the New World .......................... 26

Europeans in New World .................................................................. 27

Key West.......................................................................................... 28

State of Florida Marine Archaeologists.............................................. 30

Makah Fishermen ............................................................................ 32

Bark Austria..................................................................................... 33

Wreck of the General M.C. Meigs...................................................... 34

Aleut Baidarkas ............................................................................... 35

USS Dolphin .................................................................................... 37

Indigenous European Watertcraft...................................................... 38

Pacific Coast Lumber Chute ............................................................. 39

Sampans along the California Coast ................................................ 40

Ohlone Tule Raft Canoe .................................................................... 41

Monterey Bay................................................................................... 42

California Shore Whaling Station ...................................................... 43

Chinese Indigenous Watercraft ......................................................... 44

Navy Airship USS Macon.................................................................. 46

Chumash Tomol ............................................................................... 47

1840s Santa Barbara ...................................................................... 48

Nineteenth Century Santa Barbara Waterfront .................................. 49

SS Winfield Scott............................................................................. 50

Wreck of Schooner Comet................................................................ 50

Reconstruction of Traditional Hawaiian Fishpond .............................. 52

Whaling in Hawaiian Islands............................................................. 53

Battle of Midway.............................................................................. 59

Polynesian Watercraft....................................................................... 60

List of Illustrations

vi
“Americans today have no past. They live in the moment, think in the moment, and hence 

have no sense of the future. Without a past there is no future.” ~Studs Terkel (Radio broadcast, National Public Radio, 2006)

The volume you hold in your hands provides an instrument for considering the meaning of our nation’s maritime heritage 

as viewed through the lens of our nation’s national marine sanctuaries. Although only a glimpse, it allows us to consider 

the past and the future of the mosaic of American culture. “Fathoming Our Past” helps us define why our maritime heritage 

is important to us as a community and a nation. It also tells us about who we are and why it is worth our efforts to preserve 

and interpret heritage resources for future generations.

At the National Marine Sanctuary Program we use a focus on heritage resources as a tool to encourage a way of thinking. 

“Fathoming Our Past” presents the compelling role of the ocean in humanity’s journey. We want to engage society’s attention 

and to excite the mind by telling stories that bring all Americans to look seaward. By refocusing our vision, we see the 

interconnectedness of the heritage and natural resources of the ocean.

In this way NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program strives to propel the evolution of the discipline of maritime archaeology 

as a “means to an end” to help all Americans engage in behaviors that conserve our oceans. 

 

 Daniel J. Basta

Director

NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program

Foreward

vii
The publication of Fathoming our Past: Historical Contexts of the National Marine 

Sanctuaries in 1994 was a significant milestone for NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary 

Program in the development of a comprehensive, system-wide maritime heritage 

resource management strategy. This concise, but thorough, historical study also provided 

sanctuary program management with a framework from which to develop maritime 

heritage goals for their site management plans.

Even as the book was in publication, the program was growing. Since the first printing, 

three sanctuaries have been added. As this second edition goes to press, President 

Bush has dedicated the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument 

as the fourteenth managed area in the program. With the addition of the Northwestern 

Hawaiian Islands, NOAA will be responsible for managing as large an area of federal 

lands as the National Park Service—only NOAA’s lands all are submerged. This revised 

edition of Fathoming our Past includes the new sanctuaries as well as updated 

information on the original 10. 

Although the first national marine sanctuary was a shipwreck, little program-wide 

emphasis was placed on maritime heritage resources during the first two decades 

of the program’s existence. During the late 1980s, however, a maritime archaeologist 

and in 1991 a maritime historian, were hired at the national program level. In 1992, 

a maritime archaeologist was hired to manage USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. 

With the publication of Fathoming our Past the National Marine Sanctuary Program 

formally defined its comprehensive program for identifying, protecting, and interpreting 

maritime resources within the sanctuaries. The designation of the Thunder Bay National 

Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve in 2000 and the hiring of additional 

maritime specialists at several sanctuaries bolstered the nascent heritage program. 

In 2001, the NMSP Maritime Heritage Program was established, with an acting program 

manager and a “working group” composed of key personnel at headquarters and a 

maritime heritage coordinator designated for each sanctuary. In 2004, the Maritime 

Heritage Program was fully implemented, with a program manager, a council charter 

and a Maritime Heritage Program working group.

The Maritime Heritage Program’s mission is to provide, promote and explore 

our maritime heritage through a national program embracing heritage resources 

in our evolving coastal and marine stewardship. The major goals are to:

n Promote maritime heritage to reveal broader knowledge of historical

and cultural resources.

n Promote and coordinate the location, inventory, and assessment of maritime 

heritage resources throughout the National Marine Sanctuary System and out 

to the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

n Promote and coordinate the protection and preservation of maritime heritage 

resources throughout the National Marine Sanctuary System and out to the 

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

n Promote a better understanding of and appreciation for maritime heritage 

resources through a comprehensive education and outreach program.

n Promote, coordinate and conduct archaeological research directed at maritime 

heritage resources throughout the National Marine Sanctuary System out to the 

U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

The national marine sanctuaries also coordinate with NOAA’s Preserve America Initiative. 

Preserve America is a White House initiative that seeks to encourage preservation of the 

country’s historical and natural heritage and to encourage contemporary uses including 

heritage tourism. Several of the national marine sanctuaries have Preserve America 

communities that adjoin their maritime boundaries.

This revised and expanded edition of Fathoming Our Past primarily focuses on the first 

goal, although it is relevant to the other four as well. NOAA invites you to read this book 

with an eye toward assisting us with our goals or to implementing a similar program 

elsewhere. We encourage your comments on this publication as well as on our Maritime 

Heritage Program. 

 

 John D. Broadwater, Program Manager 

 NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program 

Preface

viii
Humans have a place in the sea. We work on it, play in it and our activities 

affect its health. The sea has given us sustenance and has made possible 

economics and societies. It has been a source of adventure and a venue 

for nations to settle their scores. Many of the people engaged in working on 

the sea were non-literate and left no record of their lives. Fortunately, the 

seabed can still tell the stories of humankind’s life on the ocean. 

Past cultures have left traces of their presence on the seabed. Early 

prehistoric peoples harvesting resources along their coastlines retreated 

to the uplands as melting polar ice caps forced the sea level to rise. The 

evidence of their endeavors is now buried in mud and sand beneath the 

water. The remains of centuries of seafaring, too, rest on the sea floor. 

While fragmented and fragile, careful study is presently unlocking many 

previous mysteries.

As the “ocean agency,” NOAA is committed to protecting the subset 

of the submerged human past that is in the national marine sanctuaries. 

This publication places these important heritage resources in context with 

their time, place and contemporary historical background. The National 

Marine Sanctuary Program uses the concept of “maritime heritage” as the 

umbrella term that covers our discussions of man in the sea. Historical 

resources are those objects which remain in place to remind us of 

historic activities such as lighthouses, navigation markers, or historic 

wharves, docks and piers. Archaeological resources are the remnants of 

humankind’s quest, whether it be prehistoric trash middens buried under 

meters of sediment or a shipwreck collapsed upon itself on the seabed. 

Some of these resources await the systematic uncovering and examination 

that can unlock questions about past ways of life and historic or legendary 

events. Others are there for all to visit and to experience wonder at the 

drama of maritime tragedy. Traditional stories and practices and living 

remnants of ancient and often indigenous populations are discussed as 

Cultural heritage resources. 

Taken together, these things tell us about humankind’s adventure on the 

earth and on the sea. NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program embraces 

the responsibility to both unlock these stories and to protect their physical 

remains for the benefit of the American people.

Editor’s Preface to Second Edition

ix
Much of the American story has evolved around water. Historically, 

waterways were our main travel routes. Most European settlements in 

colonial America developed on navigable waterways. Protected harbors 

enabled ship-borne economic exchange. Port towns accumulated 

warehouses, stores and taverns. Populations grew as trade expanded. 

Settlement marched inland, giving way to more towns. Diverse ports 

such as Boston, New York and San Francisco became destinations for 

ships of commerce and war. 

A predictable by-product of such human endeavor is the deposition of 

waste. Building foundations, human remains, and discarded and lost items 

— from tools and household utensils to personal items — usually found 

repose in the ground. Modern researchers now illuminate many aspects 

of our predecessors’ lives through careful excavation and analysis of 

such remains. Archaeological sites are sealed time capsules that provide 

windows to the past, allowing us to glimpse the lives of earlier peoples and 

wonder how they lived, worked, played, and died.

Our waters, likewise, preserve important evidence of our ancestors’ past. The 

river and ocean floors preserve remnants of sites where people lived and of 

the vessels with which they conducted trade and fought wars. Ships, boats, 

wharves, lighthouses, prehistoric sites, and a myriad of other maritime 

treasures lie covered by water, sand, and time.

In 1966 Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act that 

established the responsibility of federal agencies to protect the historic 

resources on public lands within their aegis. This act and several others 

form the foundation of the heritage resource management programs 

of federal agencies. Under the guidance of the National Park Service, 

these laws form part of the Federal Archaeological Program. Other acts 

that compose the program include the Archaeological and Historical 

Preservation Act of 1974, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act 

of 1979, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1988 and the Sunken Military 

Craft Act of 2005.

NOAA’s commitment to the protection and preservation of heritage 

resources is also stated in the Marine Protection, Research, and 

Sanctuaries Act of 1972. National Marine Sanctuary Program regulations 

emphasize that NOAA will manage these resources consistent with the 

Federal Archaeological Program.

While only two of the national marine sanctuaries focus exclusively on 

maritime heritage resources, nearly all the sanctuaries contain historical 

shipwrecks or other maritime heritage resources. One of the sanctuary 

program’s goal is to locate and inventory the maritime archaeological 

resources within the sanctuaries as well as documenting events that have 

taken place in the past. In response to Section 110 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act, the sanctuary program is mandated to survey, identify, 

and inventory each sanctuary’s maritime heritage resources. These include 

all properties and sites possessing historical, cultural or archaeological 

paleontological significance.

The 1994 publication of Fathoming our Past was a significant milestone 

in the development of a comprehensive, system-wide maritime heritage 

resource management program. As with the original, the intent of this 

revised and updated edition is to educate sanctuary personnel and visitors 

to the sanctuaries about historical events that took place in those regions. 

This study also identifies potential areas in which further archaeological 

research should be conducted.

This document is also, in part, a response to the Secretary of the Interior’s 

recommendations that agencies managing public lands should produce 

a historical contexts study. Historical context studies break the past down 

into themes and historical eras. This enables readers to compare events 

in different places that occurred at the same time. They are also useful 

for developing archaeological survey strategies, and save time and money 

needed to locate sites. Once a shipwreck site has been found, contextual 

studies help to identify vessels and cargo.

Introduction

x
Section I of Fathoming Our Past offers a broad chronology of American 

maritime history as it relates to national marine sanctuaries. Each 

chronological context contains an overview of regional economic activities, 

historic and regional watercraft, and regional naval activities and battles. 

The contexts are:

Native Peoples (Approximately 20,000 years before present to 18th century) 

This section includes both prehistoric people and the native peoples later 

encountered by European explorers. Since pre-contact native peoples had 

no written language, our understanding of their past is based on other 

sources. Our primary information comes from archaeological excavations. 

Traditional stories (and language itself) retold from generation to generation 

also often provide genealogical and social information. Finally, chronicles 

of European and American travelers describe native peoples’ ways of life 

through Western eyes.

European Colonial Period (16th to 19th century) 

The dates of early European presence in various regions of the United 

States vary. The Spanish and Portuguese were the earliest maritime 

explorers in 15th and 16th century America, while the British became active 

by the end of the 16th century. Other European countries also undertook 

New World adventures during these centuries. The European Colonial 

context covers European exploration and colonization in North America. 

Its endpoint varies as each geographic region was incorporated into 

the United States.

American Period (18th to early 20th century)

This period begins at a region’s inclusion into the United States and extends 

into the 20th century. One of the criteria for eligibility to the National 

Register for Historic Places requires that a property be at least 50 years old 

to be considered for inclusion. Therefore, discussions of historical contexts 

will extend through World War II.

Section II applies these historical contexts to each sanctuary in the 

National Marine Sanctuary System. Each sanctuary overview concludes 

with a discussion of known and potential archaeological resources, and 

recommends future resource management needs.

A priority level of high, moderate, or low is assigned to each sanctuary to 

indicate the level of attention that should be devoted to that sanctuary’s 

heritage resources. Factors that establish the assigned priority level include 

the probable number and type of archaeological resources and potential 

threats to the resources.

Prehistoric and historic archaeological materials comprise perhaps the 

most vulnerable of our submerged assets. Unlike living resources, they are 

non-renewable. While a damaged reef or organism may be replenished, a 

damaged archaeological resource becomes a blank page in the historic 

record. The relationships in which groups of artifacts are found teach us how 

people lived and how they used the objects around them. When we disturb 

this crucial relationship, we destroy critical information about our past. 

Protection and management of the heritage resources within our national 

marine sanctuaries preserves these important chapters in our national story 

for now and for future generations.

xi

Part I

Historical Contexts
Native Peoples

The Pleistocene Epoch, which began about 2 million 

years ago, was a climatologically dramatic period 

of successive ice ages, the last occurring between 

10,000 and 20,000 years ago. During that time, sea 

levels are thought to have been much lower than they 

are today. The time between the last ice age and the 

present is known as the Holocene Epoch.

During the ice ages, much of the Earth’s water 

was held in vast ice sheets that extended from the 

planet’s polar and alpine regions towards the equator. 

In North America, a large glacial ice cap covered the 

Great Lakes, the upper Midwest, and New England, 

while a second ice cap extended over much of 

western North America.

The concentration of water into glaciers caused a 

significant drop in the planetary sea level, revealing 

the bridge of land between Eastern Asia and North 

America known as the Bering Land Bridge. During 

the Late Pleistocene glacial peak, the sea level was 

approximately 300-400 feet lower than it is today. 

Modern researchers believe that archaeological 

evidence of human activity may exist at this nowinundated area on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Concurrent with Pleistocene glaciations, early people 

spread throughout the Americas, adapting to regional 

environments and developing unique cultures. Some 

of these people settled near the sea. As the ice age 

ended and the glaciers melted,a corresponding rise 

in sea level would have forced humans and animals 

to migrate further inland and to confront different 

ecosystems. Depending on the effects of the rising 

sea level, the physical record of a people’s early 

coastal existence could now exist off the modern 

coastline. Archaeological study of sites located on 

these submerged coastlines may make it possible to 

gain new insight into the subsistence and culture of 

these earliest Americans.

The first groups to enter the American continent 

during the Holocene belonged to the Paleo-Indian 

cultural stage. While debate is ongoing, prehistoric 

humans are known to have entered the New World at 

least 12,000 years ago. Some scientists believe that 

they hunted and followed the migrating herds of such 

prehistoric mammals as mammoth and giant bison.

About 8,000 years ago a cultural and climatological shift ushered in the Archaic cultural stage. This 

is a period in North American pre-history characterized by the use of flaked stone tools, similar to the 

Mesolithic period in Europe. The Archaic stage 

occurred at different times in different regions of the 

continent. During the final retreat of the glaciers, circa 

8,000 to 7,000 years ago, ancient tree lines reached 

their highest latitudes and temperate climates 

extended far into Canada and the sub-Polar regions. 

These people had a more sophisticated stone toolmaking technology than did the Paleo-Indians and 

in some regions developed the capability to make 

pottery and specialized basketry. They became more 

sophisticated in their means of hunting, gathering,

and processing food. These people also made greater 

use of the resources of their riverine and coastal 

environments.

During this period, the sea level continued to rise 

to about the level it is today. Later cultural stages, 

variously called Formative, Woodland, or Ceramic 

stages evolved between approximately 3,000 years 

ago and contact with Europeans and saw the development of sophisticate deconomies, technologies, 

cultural patterns, and tribal divisions.

The aboriginal peoples of America suffered a harsh 

and lasting effect from their European “discovery.” Many Indian groups attempted to maintain 

traditional affiliations and lifeways after contact 

with the Spanish, English, and French. But whether 

gradual or immediate, they were all changed by contact with the newcomers.

Early European visitors recorded what they witnessed 

of native cultures. Their logs, diaries, drawings, and 

letters often contain our only historic record of the 

appearance and cultural practices of these people 

before their cultures were affected. Even before the 

American Revolution, native populations, already 

decimated by European diseases, began to be 

pushed out of their lands. War and forced resettlement 

crowded tribes together into often unfamiliar places 

causing cultural stresses that radically altered 

traditional practices.

The Europeans affected Native American material 

culture and practices. Iron tools replaced stone, bone 

and antler implements whose use and design had 

evolved for millennia. Many tribes adapted horses, 

which were introduced by Spanish conquistadores. 

Coastal tribes, who subsisted by fishing, changed 

their techniques and technology by adapting iron 

hooks and harpoon heads. Some groups used 

European-type boats in preference to their traditional 

watercraft.

Archaeological study of submerged prehistoric 

archaeological sites may provide information on 

early human migrations and settlement across 

Paleo-coastal land masses into the Americas. 

(Library of Congress)

2
European 

Colonial Period

In the 15th century many European states commissioned maritime expeditions to seek alternate 

trade routes to the Orient. Sweeping advances in 

maritime technology and a better understanding 

of navigation and ocean currents enabled Europe’s 

maritime nations to send explorers toward the Orient 

and the Americas to find new trade routes and to 

establish bases from which to secure a larger share 

of the wealth of trade.

Spanish — Columbus’ Spanish-sponsored voyages 

to the Caribbean Islands and South America at the 

turn of the 16th century were an early indication 

that an undiscovered frontier (as the Europeans 

saw it) existed across the Atlantic Ocean. The 

Spanish exploration and colonization of America was 

essentially a by-product of an effort to improve trade 

with the Orient. Soon, the European sea powers were 

competing with each other to establish colonies and 

to exploit the various regional resources.

While the French sought furs and the English sought 

fishing grounds and timber, the Spanish quested for 

gold, silver, and Christian souls. Between the 16th 

and 18th centuries, the Spanish shipped their New 

World-mined gold and silver in yearly flotas (fleets) to 

Spain to finance their European wars.

The Native American peoples could not compete 

militarily with the more technologically sophisticated 

Europeans who sought either to assimilate or 

conquer them. Even the most advanced civilizations 

of the Americas—the Aztecs and Incas—fell shortly 

after their initial contact with the Spanish.

The Spanish were the earliest Europeans to attempt 

colonization in North America. Within a few years of 

Columbus’ first voyage in 1492, numerous Spanish 

vessels were exploring and mapping the Americas. 

From their bases in Mexico, the Caribbean, and 

Central and South America, such 16th-century 

explorers as Juan Ponce de León and Hernando 

de Soto investigated American coastal waters and 

shores in the Atlantic, while Ferdinand Magellan 

explored the Pacific Ocean.

Spanish settlers came as soldiers, religious missionaries, and administrators. Their intention was 

to educate and organize the native populations and 

to live off the fruits of their labor. Produce raised 

and exported by native labor included tobacco 

and products from cattle such as hides and 

tallow. In 16th-century North America, the Spanish 

settled primarily along the southeastern Atlantic and 

southern Gulf of Mexico coasts. After 1769 they 

settled throughout central and southern California, 

establishing political presidios and Catholic 

missions. The great northern arc of the Gulf of Mexico 

west of Pensacola was left largely unexplored until 

the coming of the French in the late 17th century, 

after which Spainish colonists moved north of the Rio 

Grande. By the 18th century Spanish political power 

had waned and they gradually gave up territory to the 

English, French, and Americans.

British — England first sent vessels westward into the 

North Atlantic in the 15th century, first establishing 

fisheries at Iceland and Greenland. English fishing 

craft eventually moved westward to the productive 

fishing grounds off Labrador and New England. 

John Cabot, a Venetian sailing for England, stepped 

onto the shores of the New World in the early 16th 

century.

Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world and 

his attacks on Spanish shipping in 1579 signaled the 

beginning of the challenge of Protestant Europeans 

to the colonial hegemony of 

Catholic Spain and Portugal. 

Elizabethan England became 

a world economic power at 

the turn of the 17th century 

as private companies were 

formed to carry on maritime 

trade with the Orient. It was in 

this atmosphere that Queen 

Elizabeth I sanctioned early 

expeditions to settle the New 

World.

After several false starts such 

as the ill-fated “Lost Colony” 

at Roanoke Island in 1587, 

English settlements took 

root along the North American seaboard at such places 

as Jamestown in 1607 and 

Plymouth in 1620. Even at 

this early time, the Native 

Americans they encountered 

had already been depopulated by European disease 

and their culture affected by 

earlier Spanish visits. 

The European-wide advances in navigation and 

ship design enabled the Spanish to explore a world 

here-to-fore unknown to them. Following the brief 

decades of exploration the Europeans conquered 

native peoples and extended their European empires 

into the Americas and East Indies. 

(Library of Congress)

Shipwreck was an inevitability as Europeans navigated 

uncharted American waters in increasing numbers.

(Library of Congress)

3
The English colonies of the 17th century provided an 

economic benefit for the crown through the production 

of tobacco, sugar, ship stores, and other agricultural 

produce. Additionally, the colonies provided an export 

market for English goods. The colonies were also the 

focus of an extensive slave trade. Enslaved Africans, 

already subject to an established slave trade by the 

South American Spanish and Portuguese, were forced 

to work the large plantations in harsh environments 

where the English yeoman class could not be 

coaxed to work. To protect its new found wealth, 

Britain expanded its military strength. By the 1700s 

it possessed the most powerful navy in the world.

In the 18th century, the ports of Boston and New 

York were important economic centers for the British 

colonies in America. Commercial networks were 

developed in which the agricultural produce of the 

colonies was transported from inland rivers and bays 

to coastal port cities and thence to England. English 

goods found their way into the American hinterlands 

by the same routes.

Other European Colonies — In the 17th and 18th 

centuries other European powers such as France, 

Holland, and Russia challenged the English and 

Spanish colonial presence in North America. Like 

England, France established colonies along the 

Atlantic coast and in the West Indies. Beginning with 

the Sieur de La Salle in 1685, French settlers and fur 

traders filled the void left by the Spanish along the 

northern Gulf of Mexico coast. By 1710 the French 

had established forts at Matagorda Bay and Mobile.

The early French interest in the great fishing banks off 

Nova Scotia led to a series of settlements in Canada. 

An extensive fur trade was established inland at 

Quebec along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. 

There, the native tribes exchanged furs trapped in the 

interior for French iron tools, weapons, and trinkets.

French explorer Samuel de Champlain learned of 

the existence of the Great Lakes from the Indians 

with whom he traded, and by 1630, had traveled to 

Lakes Ontario and Erie developing a profitable fur 

trade. French fur traders and Jesuit missionaries had 

soon explored most of the Great Lakes region. They 

built forts and trading posts along the Mississippi 

River, encroaching upon the boundaries of Spanish 

influence around the Gulf of Mexico. The tendrils of 

European presence now entangled various Native 

American tribes in an extension of European conflicts 

on American soil. The prize was the North American 

continent and its vast resources.

Through the last quarter of the 18th century, the 

European colonies in the New World pursued their 

various interests. Whether for economic, religious, 

or military reasons, most of their travel through 

the country was on water. The relationship of 

landscape to waterways determined the placement of 

settlements and forts. The bays and rivers were the 

Europeans’ highways.

American Period

The American Revolution re-shuffled the roles and 

territorial holdings of the European powers in North 

America. The British colonies had become powerful 

enough, economically and politically, to challenge 

the English crown. Aided by French military and 

naval assistance, American colonists fought for 

and achieved, their independence. Much of the 

Revolution’s conflicts involved naval activities. 

Naval battles raged on the Great Lakes, the Atlantic 

seaboard’s coastal harbors and rivers, and in the 

Caribbean Islands.

The United States grew rapidly in the 19th century. 

As the interior regions were settled, many earlier 

peoples and their political influences were pushed 

out. The Native Americans were divided and pushed 

on to reservations or to less desirable lands. Spain 

and France were pressured to part with their colonial 

territories. The French possessions in the TransMississippi West were sold to the United States in 

the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In the Southeast, 

Sixteenth-century English sea captains 

challenged Spanish and Portuguese hegemony 

in the New World. (Library of Congress)

Ship technology adapted to economic needs as smaller 

merchant craft were needed to trade with inland river 

ports. Two-masted snows were mainstays of 18th-century 

coastal shipping. (Library of Congress)

4
Coastal schooners carried bulk goods between 

small ports and commercial centers.

(Library of Congress)

Southwest, and Far West the Spanish also lost their 

lands through political and military conflicts with the 

United States and revolutions in Mexico. What had 

been Spanish Florida was made a U.S. territory in 

1821. Texas was acquired in 1845 and California 

and the Arizona/New Mexico territories in the 1850s. 

The Civil War subsequently confirmed the role of the 

United States as a naval power. Throughout the last 

half of the 19th century and into the 20th, the U.S. 

exerted its economic and military influence in the 

Pacific realm and much of the rest of the world.

Regional Economic Activites

Economic growth, stimulated by waterborne trade, 

influenced America’s national expansion in the 18th 

and 19th centuries. Prosperity encouraged a rapid 

population influx from Europe and also stimulated 

technological innovation such as steam-powered 

engines, the cotton gin, and factory production, 

which further fueled economic development. 

Growth was reliant upon the relationship between the 

coastal seaports and the inland estuarine waterways. 

Watercraft transported raw agricultural produce from 

inland regions by rivers and canals to manufacturing 

centers and port cities on the coast. Tobacco, wheat, 

corn, rum, indigo, rice, and hemp were among the 

main agricultural exports. Raw materials including 

coal, iron-ore, stone, and lumber were shipped to 

manufacturing centers where they were converted into 

usable industrial materials and manufactured articles.

In return for raw exports, merchants and planters 

imported manufactured goods from the eastern ports 

and from Europe. Iron tools, glass, and bricks allowed 

them to build fine homes and commercial buildings. 

Luxury items including fabrics, dishes, and wines were 

essential to the new social elite in the coastal port 

cities. These goods also made life in the hinterlands 

more bearable, contributing to the creation of a 

backwoods upper class.

To sustain high agricultural productivity, many early 

American planters, particularly those in the South, 

relied on cheap slave labor. A colonial trade network 

was established in the 1600s by the English who 

traded iron, silver, Indian textiles, and beads to 

African kings in return for slaves, either captured in 

raids against enemy tribes or who were from their 

own tribes. Chained and crowded into dank ship 

holds, nearly two million souls died of disease and 

unsanitary conditions as they were transported to 

America for a life of forced labor. Slave importation 

was banned by the U.S. government by 1808. Even 

after the prohibition on slave trade, many thousands 

continued to be smuggled into the southern ports, 

primarily at Charleston and New Orleans.

A diverse range of resources were harvested and 

exported throughout the history of American maritime 

commerce. As it grew, America required a greater 

network of commerce to sustain and propel itself. 

Fishing was one of the earliest American industries. 

America’s abundant waters fed the coastal 

populations and provided lucrative exports. The 

bounty of life that makes many of the banks and 

reefs subjects of today’s national marine sanctuaries 

made the same banks desirable as fishing grounds. 

Many of those grounds were known to local fishermen 

centuries before they were actually surveyed.

The American fur trade spanned from the 17th to 

the 20th century. In the 17th century, English and 

French traders exported furs from the interior regions 

of the Northeast. Throughout the 18th and 19th 

centuries, traders (mostly French) traversed the 

Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley regions in search 

of furs while the English and Russians exploited the 

Pacific Northwest’s resources. 18th century New 

England-Yankee merchants saw the fur trade as a 

way to recoup their financial losses incurred during 

the Revolution. 

After hunters decimated the fur seals in the South 

Atlantic, New England-based vessels sailed around 

Cape Horn and hunted Pacific coast otters and seals. 

News of a Chinese market for furs in the late-18th 

century caused New England ship owners to intensify 

the hunt for fur-bearing sea mammals in the Pacific. 

A triangular trade between the American East Coast 

port cities, the West Coast, and China developed 

in which Pacific fur pelts were often traded to the 

Chinese for tea and silks. These, in turn, were sold 

or traded in western markets in Europe and America. 

For most of the 18th century, sealers obliterated 

countless communities of sea otters and seals.

Steam power reduced shippers’ dependence on prevailing 

currents and winds, opening up new trade routes. 

(Library of Congress)

5
Whaling, like the seal trade, was primarily a Yankee 

trade. Americans began systematically hunting 

whales in the 17th century in the near-shore waters off 

Massachusetts’ coast. The whale populations were 

soon over-hunted and the whalers rapidly fanned 

out into the North and South Atlantic waters. By the 

late 18th century, whalers had already moved into 

Pacific waters and were largely responsible for 

informing the Western world of the existence of the 

vast Pacific island groups.

Whalers settled many of the South Pacific islands in 

the early 1800s as way-stations for supplies and for 

hiring native man-power. The Sandwich (Hawaiian) 

Islands were among the most frequented of the 

supply stops.

Missionaries soon arrived in the whalers’ wake to 

Christianize the native peoples and to introduce them 

to the “benefits” of Western civilization. New England 

whalers often stayed away from their home ports for 

several years at a time as they ranged between the 

Bering Sea, Japanese waters, and the South Pacific. 

Initially they hunted Sperm and Blue whales, but after 

those populations were depleted they hunted many 

other species, including sea elephants and walruses.

The requirements of the many American maritime 

industries produced numerous specialized watercraft. 

Unique American vessel types evolved from the 

largest merchant ship to the smallest fishing boat. 

Many of the ships and boats that were initially used 

in American waters in the 17th and 18th centuries 

were of European origin and design. Such vessels 

as Spanish galleons and English frigates carried 

on commerce and warfare in the Atlantic, Gulf, and 

Pacific waters. Smaller shallops, sloops, and galleys 

provided transportation, commerce, and fishing 

platforms in the coastal and inland waters.

American watercraft types were also influenced 

by Native American and Chinese boats. Native 

American dugout log canoes influenced many regional 

American small craft such as Louisiana’s pirogue 

and the Chesapeake Bay region’s pungy and 

bugeye schooners.

By the 19th century distinctive American packets, 

clippers, and other large multi-masted ships carried 

ocean-going commerce. Smaller specialized vessels 

such as sloops, schooners, barks, snows, and 

brigs undertook coastal trade, fishing, and whaling 

activities. By the end of the century, many of these 

vessels had supplemented their sail power with 

steam engines, and new ship designs soon evolved 

around new forms of combustion engines.

American Naval History

An inevitable consequence of national intentions to 

enforce policies with navies is the destruction and 

loss of ships. Throughout American military history, 

there has been no shortage of either confrontations or 

sinkings. Many of America’s continental wars involved 

conflicts in home coastal and inland waters.

Naval forces of many colonial powers were present in 17th- and 18th-century American waters. 

Conflicts that originated on the far-off European 

continent were often played out in the waters of 

the New World. Seventeenth century English privateers raided Spanish treasure flotas in the Caribbean 

and Pacific. The perennial wars between England and 

France saw several eras of conflict in American coastal 

waters, and Dutch naval squadrons raided and captured English ports and ships between New York and 

the Chesapeake Bay region.

During the American Revolution naval operations 

took place in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, the Great 

Lakes and Lake Champlain. The British navy tried to 

strangle the colonies economically by blockading 

ports, raiding American shipping, and supporting its 

army’s field campaigns.

The initial efforts to form an American navy met with 

spotty success. A small American naval force was 

initially formed by George Washington in 1775 for 

the purpose of capturing British supply ships. 

The Continental Navy, which was created by Congress 

to defend the colonies, languished due to inept 

administration among other factors. Perhaps the most 

successful American naval enterprise was credited 

Multi-masted schooners came into use in the 1880s in 

the American coastal trade. (Library of Congress)

Yankee whalers were largely responsible 

for informing the western world of the 

existance of the vast Pacific island groups.

(Library of Congress)

6
to Benedict Arnold in 1776 on Lake Champlain. 

His victory over the British at the Battle of Valcour 

Island encouraged the French to enter the war as an 

American ally.

In addition to the Continental Navy, many of the 

colonies formed state navies. Using small, shallowdraft sail-galleys, these mosquito navies harassed 

British naval operations and helped defend inland 

and coastal regions. Many were sunk; not in battle, 

but by their own crews who scuttled them when their 

capture seemed imminent.

Citizen boat owners also recruited crews and engaged 

in commerce raiding and smuggling. Armed with 

letters of marque, these vessels probably struck the 

most effective blows against the English, capturing 

more than 2,000 British merchant ships.

French and Spanish naval support also aided the 

American cause. The Spanish victory at Pensacola 

in 1781 ended an effective British naval presence 

in the Gulf region. More significantly, the French 

navy in the Caribbean occupied the English navy 

while the Compte de Grasse’s blockade of the 

Chesapeake and subsequent victory at the Battle 

of the Capes ensured the American land victory at 

Yorktown, Virginia.

Continued French-British naval aggressions after the 

Revolution proved detrimental to U.S. commerce in 

the late 1700s. Because of the U.S. refusal to cooperate with French trade sanctions against England, 

many American commercial ships cunducting trade 

between the Caribbean Islands and England were 

harassed and confiscated by French commerce raiders. The United States built several frigates, including 

the USS Constitution, to confront openly the French 

revolutionary government’s attempts to extort tribute 

money. This undeclared naval war was known as the 

“Quasi-War” with France.

The War of 1812 erupted as a result of unresolved 

trade and land disputes between the British and 

Americans. Another cause was American resentment 

of England’s forced impressment of sailors from 

American ships in the Atlantic. Several ship-to-ship 

battles took place that while resulting in a host 

of American naval heroes, had no serious tactical 

effect. By 1813 the British navy had imposed a 

blockade of American ports which rendered the 

American navy ineffective.

As in the Revolution, American privateering was an 

important weapon against English shipping. Various 

fast schooners and sloops were employed to run the 

English blockade of ports and to harass shipping. 

The Americans also employed shallow-draft, armed 

galleys to defend inland rivers and coastal regions 

and to support land operations.

Lakes Champlain and Erie were again sites of conflict 

between fleets of inland sailing ships. Oliver Perry’s 

victory over the British on Lake Erie in 1813 and 

MacDonough’s victory at Lake Champlain in 

1814 gave control of the Northwest Territories to 

the United States and opened the Great Lakes to 

American trade.

Pirates threatened American coastal commerce in the 

decades following the War of 1812. Bands of internationally feared criminals were based on coastal 

barrier islands from Louisiana to Florida and the 

Caribbean islands. All along the Atlantic coastal waters 

of the Americas, pirates terrorized ships of commerce 

with murder, pillage, and sinkings. The U.S. Navy’s 

West Indian Squadron hunted them for three years 

and by 1825 had either destroyed or dispersed the 

pirates from both the Florida Keys and the Gulf Coast 

barrier islands.

A circumstance that enabled the piratical activities was 

the presence of numerous revolutionary governments 

in former Spanish colonies in Central and South 

America. As the pirates were dispatched, the U.S. 

Navy continued to protect commercial interests that 

had developed because of the new security on the 

seas. Naval protection permitted the development 

of such industries as whaling, fishing, the seal and 

otter fur trade, and inter-coastal commerce. During 

the first half of the 19th century the Navy halted 

the illegal importation of African slaves, supported 

military operations against the Seminoles in Florida 

in the 1830s and 1840s, and supported the army in 

the Mexican War in the 1840s.

The U.S. Navy also conducted peacetime activities 

in the decades before the Civil War. The expansion 

of American commerce created a need for accurate 

charts of American and foreign coasts to ensure safer 

travel and trade. President Thomas Jefferson first 

initiated the task of mapping the United States’ coast 

by creating the Survey of the Coast in 1807. The 

U.S. Exploring Expedition was organized to map the 

Antarctic and Pacific American coastlines in 1832. 

The U.S. Exploring Expedition used small naval 

sloops to chart the Pacific coast and the Antarctic, 

as crews of sailors and scientists braved ice, gales, 

and hostile native peoples to record coastlines, 

currents, natural phenomena, and meteorological

information. The Coast and Geodetic Survey that

The U.S. Coast Survey Ship Bibb exhibited a 

transitional technology as wooden sailing ships 

incorporated steam power for propulsion. Initially 

built as a revenue cutter in 1847, Bibb was 

transferred to the Coast Survey (the predecessor 

of NOAA). The ship continued surveying for the 

U.S. Navy during the Civil War. 

(Library of Congress)

7
was later created to conduct surveys and to study 

the oceans was the forerunner of the modern 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Eleven of these important surveys took place in 

the 25 years before the Civil War. Much of what 

was learned from these expeditions now forms 

the foundations of our modern ocean science. 

The American Civil War was one of the most formative 

events in the nation’s history. The Union and 

Confederate navies played an important role in the 

strategic plans of both sides and ultimately affected 

the outcome of that war. Naval conflicts took place 

throughout the nation’s coastal and inland waters.

Naval and maritime activities took place on several levels 

during the Civil War. The Union navy adopted a policy 

to blockade southern ports known as the “Anaconda 

Plan.” In response to the blockade, Southern naval 

and independent merchants relied on fast, steampowered blockade runners to smuggle much-needed 

arms and supplies into Southern ports.

Another Southern response was the development of 

steam-powered, ironclad rams, based on the CSS 

Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack). Designed to ram 

enemy ships after they had disabled them with their 

cannons, they were of a simple, box-like design that 

could be built by carpenters rather than the more 

skilled (and scarce) shipwrights. They were intended 

for the protection of strategic southern ports located 

on coastal and inland waterways. 

The Union navy countered by developing armored 

riverboats and turreted gunboats, of which the 

USS Monitor was the seminal model. Utilizing the 

revolutionary design conceived by Swedish inventor 

John Ericsson, iron monitors challenged Confederate 

rams and shore fortifications.

The Confederate government also revived the 

reliable practice of privateering. Using governmentissued letters of marque, Southern commerce raiders 

hunted out and captured Northern merchant vessels 

in an economic war against the Union. Commerceraiding was possibly the most successful Confederate 

naval tactic. Numerous specially designed steampowered sailing ships were constructed in Europe and 

clandestinely sold to the Confederates. Such 

commerce raiders as the CSS Alabama, CSS Florida

and the CSS Shenandoah were responsible for the 

near-total destruction of the U.S. whaling industry 

and the merchant marine—a blow from which the 

country did not recover until the early 20th century.

To compensate for its relative lack of ships, the 

Confederacy developed such innovative weapons 

as torpedo boats, submarines, and floating mines. 

These visionary weapons of the Civil War formed the 

basis for many of the naval technologies used by 

20th century powers.

The post-Civil War American Navy lapsed into a state 

of torpor as a result of economic problems, antiquated 

attitudes, and petty personality conflicts. The ships 

that had been considered technologically advanced 

during that war became obsolete and outmoded in 

comparison to the European navies’ steel warships. 

Not until the last decade of the 19th century did the 

U.S. Navy develop the advanced steel battleships 

that would make it the muscle behind 20th century 

American diplomacy.

At the end of the 19th century, the antagonism that 

had simmered for most of the century between Spain, 

her Caribbean territories, and the United States, now 

boiled over. The United States, its citizens angered by 

the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana 

harbor and the passionate imperialistic rhetoric of 

publisher William Randolph Hearst’s “yellow” press, 

invaded Cuba in 1898.

Even though the naval actions of the SpanishAmerican War were fought in foreign waters (Manila 

Bay in May 1898 and Santiago, Cuba in July 1898), 

the war’s impact at home was seen in the renovation 

of numerous U.S. coastal fortifications, many of 

which had been built as defense against the British 

in the Revolution and the War of 1812. With each 

subsequent war, the fortifications were reinforced and 

armed with increasingly modern artillery.

Although Spain’s centuries-old imperial hold on 

Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines was broken, 

America now embarked upon its own empire-building 

adventure. Caribbean and Pacific islands were 

annexed from the vanquished Spanish to make naval 

bases and coaling stations.

The years between the Spanish-American War and 

World War I saw many technological advances in naval 

ship design. Benefiting from new advances in iron and 

steel manufacturing, American and European navies 

developed specialized warships like dreadnought 

battleships, torpedo destroyers, and submarines.

Nineteenth-century American men-of-war 

patrolled the world’s oceans protecting 

American commercial and political interests. 

(Library of Congress)

8
Although their maritime commerce had been 

curtailed by the Allied command of the seas, the 

German Navy remained a threat. The submarine or 

U-boat was Germany’s most potent naval weapon 

in the First World War, hunting the supply and troop 

convoys that were regularly shipped from America’s 

eastern coastal ports. In 1918, five U-boats crossed 

the Atlantic and harassed American shipping by 

laying mines and sinking several ships.

Between the world wars, the U.S. Navy experimented 

with a number of aviation technologies including 

aircraft carriers and rigid lighter-than-air craft. Based 

on WWI German zeppelins, large dirigibles were 

developed that could launch and retrieve small 

airplanes. Four of these “aerial aircraft carriers” were 

used in the 1920s and ‘30s. They were, however, 

found to be impractical as fleet support and unsafe 

in all but the most placid weather. Most of the U.S. 

Naval dirigible fleet, including the USS Akron, USS 

Shenandoah and USS Macon were eventually lost in 

fatal accidents.

Foreign aggression was brought to America’s shores 

in World War II when Japanese planes attacked Pearl 

Harbor on December 7, 1941. By the battle’s end, 

most of the U.S. Pacific fleet was destroyed. In addition, five Japanese midget submarines and numerous 

aircraft littered the seabed of Oahu’s waters.

Japanese attacks on the mainland West Coast 

were few. A Japanese submarine shelled a shore-side 

refinery near Santa Barbara, California. Also, high 

altitude bombs were launched with the intention 

of droping them into the western American interior 

to start fires. These efforts were, for the most part, 

ineffective and caused few casualties.

A more serious threat arose from the Japanese 

occupation of two islands in the Alaskan Aleutian 

Island chain. The U.S. Army and Navy expended much 

effort to remove a Japanese force from Kiska and 

Attu Islands between 1942 and 1943.

On the east coast, German U-boats had stalked 

English and Allied shipping off the Atlantic and Gulf 

of Mexico since the European war began in 1939. 

German submarines also preyed on U.S. shipping in 

what became known as the Battle of the Atlantic.

The U-boats, sank nearly 400 unprotected merchant 

vessels within sight of the American coastline. This 

commercial disaster was due in part to time-wasting 

disagreements within the naval high command, lack 

of appropriate warships, lack of convoy tactics, and 

failure to institute blackouts at coastal communities. 

By 1943, a concerted cooperative effort between 

U.S. and Canadian navies, and the Coast Guard’s 

aircraft and ships broke the back of the German 

U-boat campaign in the Atlantic.

The preceding overview of American maritime history 

presents a perspective of events that took place in the 

regions of the modern national marine sanctuaries. 

In the course of these events, many ships were sunk. 

Each of those shipwrecks potentially contains a 

record of our predecessors’ ways of life. Likewise, the 

rising prehistoric Holocene sea levels that covered 

the sites of the earliest Native American’s existence 

may also hold keys to the unknown past. These 

submerged remains bear mute witness to past lives; 

stories that may be given voice by the archaeologist 

and historian—only if these sites are protected for 

future generations.

The study of maritime history coupled with underwater 

archaeology provides insight into maritime societies and 

their extended cultures. (Library of Congress)

9

Part II

National Marine Sanctuaries
Thunder Bay National 

Marine Sanctuary 

Written by Wayne R. Lusardi

Designated to protect a historically significant col-

lection of shipwrecks and other submerged cultural 

resources, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary 

in northeast Michigan was built upon one of 11 

preexisting state underwater shipwreck preserves. 

It is the first national marine sanctuary located in a 

freshwater environment, and only the second, after 

USS Monitor, expressly created for the protection 

of cultural resources. Located on Michigan’s Lower 

Peninsula, Thunder Bay contains 448 square nauti-

cal miles of Lake Huron bottomlands. The sanctu-

ary’s office is located in Alpena, a Preserve America 

Community. Resources are submerged in depths 

of up to 195 feet of water, and though none have 

restricted access, all are protected by state and 

federal legislation.

The nearly 200 shipwrecks in and around Thunder 

Bay have long been recognized as one of the most 

significant such clusters in American waters. They 

represent virtually every type of watercraft used on 

the Great Lakes since the era of settlement and 

westward expansion commenced in the 1830s. The 

popularization of scuba diving in the 1960s made 

these shipwrecks available for exploration, but also 

facilitated unchecked looting. The state of Michigan, 

consequently, recognized the need to preserve 

submerged cultural resources in the four bordering 

Great Lakes and established a system of underwater 

preserves in the early 1980s (Thompson and 

Lusardi 2004). Thunder Bay was further designated 

a national marine sanctuary in October 2000, with 

the mission not only to protect the resources, but to 

promote the development of visitor and interpretive 

facilities, educational programs, and outreach events 

that increase knowledge and appreciation for Thunder 

Bay’s shipwrecks and their connection to regional 

and national maritime heritage (NOAA 1999).

Native Peoples

Humans have occupied Michigan’s Lower Peninsula 

since the last glacial retreat, some 11,000 years 

ago (Shott and Wright 1999). Prehistoric peoples, 

however, probably did not arrive in the areas 

surrounding Thunder Bay until the Late Archaic 

period (5,000 to 2,500 before present). Although 

Great Lakes’ water levels were considerably lower 

than seen today, native peoples hunted and camped 

along the shorelines, near river mouths, and around 

sinkholes to take advantage of the abundant 

natural resources including fresh water, berries, 

nuts, game, birds, fish, and shellfish (Pott 1999). 

Archaic fishing equipment found in upper Great 

Lakes archaeological sites includes bone and copper 

fishhooks, gorges and spears, and notched pebble 

net sinkers (Cleland 1982). Large-scale fishing and 

lake travel began during the Woodland Period when 

indigenous peoples recognized the value of water 

transportation, and their technologies and traditions 

often reflect this maritime connection. Michigan’s first 

mariners navigated small open boats, particularly 

dugout and bark canoes, that provided an effective 

means for trade and communication as well as 

platforms for hunting, fishing, and gathering aquatic 

resources from the region’s biologically rich wetlands 

(Pott 1999).

Native mariners considered Thunder Bay a potential 

hazard centuries before European contact. Archae-

ologists recovered nearly 300 shale discs from sev-

eral Late Woodland sites near the mouth of Thunder 

Bay River in Alpena, and 53 discs were incised with 

symbols recognizable in Algonquian ideography 

and mythology. The figure of Me-she-pe-shiw is well 

represented. A mythical panther that lived beneath 

the waters of Lake Huron, it was believed to cause 

storms with immense and deadly waves by thrash-

ing its long tail through the water. Native travelers 

were mindful to sacrifice dogs or tobacco to appease 

Me-she-pe-shiw before beginning long voyages 

across Thunder Bay (Cleland et al. 1984).

The place name of Thunder Bay also has its roots 

in native mythology. According to oral tradition, the 

daughter of an Ottawa chief and her suitor while 

canoeing across Thunder Bay were killed by a jealous 

brave, much to the dislike of the Manitou, or Great 

Spirit. A roar of thunder and flash of lightning followed, 

and the tribes knew the Great Spirit was mightily 

offended. Nevermore would they trust themselves on 

the waters of what, from then on, was known as the 

Bay of Thunder, or Thunder Bay (Haltiner 2002).

European Colonial Period

Jean Nicolet, the first European to enter what is today 

Michigan, traveled by canoe through the Straits of 

Mackinac by way of the Ottawa and French Rivers 

in 1634. French Jesuits established the Raymbault 

mission at Sault Ste. Marie in 1641, but relocated to 

St. Ignace 30 years later after realizing the strategic 

importance of the straits (Heldman 1999). Adrien 

Joliet was likely the first European to see Thunder 

Bay during his paddle along the eastern shore of 

Lake Huron in 1669 (Tongue 2004). In August 1679, 

Father René-Robert Cavelier La Salle constructed the 

45-ton Griffin at the Niagara River above the falls to 

explore and colonize the upper lakes. On his upward 

journey, La Salle became perhaps the first European 

to experience the wrath of Thunder Bay. According 

to Father Louis Hennepin’s journal, a violent storm 

Northeast Region

12
was encountered there and all took to their knees 

in prayer, save the pilot, who instead “did nothing all 

that while but curse and swear against M. La Salle, 

who as he said had brought him thither to make him 

perish in a nasty lake, and lose the glory he had 

acquired by his long and happy navigations on the 

ocean (Hemming 1992, Quaife 1944).” Griffin was 

lost in northern Lake Michigan the following month, 

becoming the first of thousands of historic craft to go 

down in the Great Lakes.

Seafaring traders, trappers, and missionaries followed 

in Griffin’s wake, adopting or exchanging Native 

American technologies, often using bark canoes and 

dugouts (Feltner and Feltner 1991, Halsey 1990). 

When English explorers began entering French 

territories and tensions between nations heightened, 

both flags scrambled to construct fortifications 

and outposts at strategic locations throughout the 

Great Lakes. The Straits of Mackinac, only 90 miles 

northwest of Thunder Bay, saw extensive colonial 

activity, and Fort de Buade was established at 

St. Ignace in the 1680s to discourage English fur 

traders from the north. The French abandoned the 

outpost in 1705, but established Fort Michilimackinac 

on the southern shore of the straits in 1715 (Heldman 

1999). The fort survived the French and Indian War 

(1754-1761), though was ultimately surrendered 

to the British in September 1761 (Pilling and 

Anderson1999). The British remained at the straits 

until the signing of the Jay Treaty in 1796 following the 

close of the American Revolution when all territories 

were ceded to the newly established United States 

(Feltner, and Feltner 1991, Tongue 2004).

Although French and English travelers passed by 

Thunder Bay throughout the Colonial Period, no 

vessels are reported lost in the immediate area. Fur 

traders also visited Thunder Bay, though no historic 

terrestrial sites predating the 1830s have been 

discovered in Alpena County. The earliest colonial 

vessels lost in the vicinity of Thunder Bay occurred 

when the British sloop Welcome from Fort Mackinac 

was lost in the straits in 1781 (Feltner and Feltner 

1991), and the warship HMS Hope stranded on the 

south shore of Drummand Island in 1804, some 65 

miles north of Alpena. The earliest reported wrecks 

in the actual waters that would become Thunder Bay 

National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve 

were during the American Period.

American Period

The Great Lakes provided a natural corridor for the 

exploration, colonization, and development of both 

the United States and Canada, connecting the 

Atlantic Ocean with the heartland of North America. 

The areas surrounding northeast Michigan and the 

Upper Peninsula were interconnected by sea-lanes 

long before a system of roadways and railroads were 

effectively established. Abundant natural resources, 

inexpensive land, and a non-hostile national border 

encouraged the development of lakefront communi-

ties early in the 19th century. Transient fishermen first 

inhabited the islands near Thunder Bay in the 1830s, 

after which traders and lumbermen established the 

town of Alpena on the mainland (Boulton 1876). 

Inhabitants used the Thunder Bay River and Lake 

Huron to transport raw materials and finished 

products, and altered the coastal landscape to 

accommodate their trade.

The first lighthouse on Thunder Bay Island was erected 

in 1831, though it collapsed before completion, 

and a new light was erected the following year 

(Tongue2004). Alpena County was first surveyed in 

1840, the same year a lighthouse was established at 

Presque Isle. The region has always had an extensive 

maritime heritage, relying on vessels for commerce, 

communication, and transportation. Thousands of 

schooners, steamers, and other vessels plied the 

freshwater seas carrying immigrants and finished 

goods westward, and returning to American industrial 

centers like Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo 

with raw materials including copper, iron ore, coal, 

and grains. Fish, then lumber, and ultimately cement 

were extracted, processed, and shipped from Alpena. 

Lighthouses and lifesaving stations were established 

on Middle and Thunder Bay islands, Sturgeon Point, 

and Presque Isle to protect and rescue mariners 

in distress. Countless ships, nonetheless, never 

reached their destinations, and foundered in 

heavy seas, collided with other vessels in fog, were 

crushed by ice formation, were stranded ashore, 

burned and sank, or were intentionally abandoned 

along shorelines at the end of their careers.

Alpena Harbor birdseye view, 1880. 

(Michigan State Library.)

13
Maritime Heritage 

Resources Inventory

Shipwrecks are perhaps the most dramatic symbols 

of Thunder Bay’s maritime heritage. Analogous to 

living museums preserved beneath the waves, they 

can reveal much about a people’s culture, technology, 

economic, and social heritage. A time capsule from an 

exact point in history is produced because shipwrecks 

are usually the result of a single catastrophic event. 

Materials such as rope, wood, ceramics, and steel 

are remarkably preserved over long periods of time, 

especially in the cold, fresh waters of Lake Huron. 

Several 19th century sailing craft are virtually intact, 

with masts still standing, rigging still in the masts, 

and artifacts located exactly as they were the day 

the vessels sank. Other sites are considerably more 

disturbed as a result of the initial wrecking process, 

subsequent salvage efforts, natural processes and 

erosion, and modern looting. The materials from a 

wrecked vessel can be extensive, and strewn about 

the lake bottom over vast areas. Sites located in 

shallow, dynamic environments are particularly 

susceptible to movement and degradation, and are 

consequently more difficult to identify or interpret, 

though are no less important than their deepwater 

counterparts (O’Shea 2004).

The earliest shipwreck found in Thunder Bay is the 

paddle wheel steamer New Orleans. Built in 1838 

on the hull of the burned steamer Vermillion, New

Orleans ran aground west of Sugar Island on June 

15, 1849. Fishermen from Thunder Bay and Sugar 

Islands rescued the passengers and crew, and most 

of the cargo and machinery was later recovered. 

The primary section of bilge was archaeologically 

documented in 2002 (Vrana 2004), though the 

majority of the vessel has not yet been located and is 

presumably dispersed along the reefs between Sugar 

Island and North Point.

Early steam paddle wheelers are prime examples 

of the transition from sail to steam. Most were 

designed to carry large cargoes in their holds, while 

the upper works were elaborately decorated and 

furnished to accommodate ticketed passengers. 

In addition to New Orleans, two other paddle 

wheelers, Benjamin Franklin (1850) and Albany

(1853), met their demises on Thunder Bay Island 

and Presque Isle respectively. All three vessels were 

extensively salvaged and little remains but the lower 

hull structure, though Franklin’s shafts, boilers, and 

machinery remain on the lake bottom.

Large two- and three-masted wooden schooners 

are well represented in the sanctuary’s shipwreck 

assemblage. The quintessential workhorse of the day, 

thousands of schooners sailed the lakes in the late 

19th century, and dozens were lost around Thunder 

Bay. Known as canalers, the sail boats were designed 

with dimensions specifically to allow passage 

through the Welland Canal connecting Lakes Erie and 

Ontario. The hulls configured as nearly as possible 

to the locks’ dimensions, and even the bowsprits 

were hinged to allow maximum hull length, and 

thus, carrying capacity. Smaller schooners, usually 

involved in more local endeavors, are also found at 

Thunder Bay. Maid of the Mist (1878), for example, 

was contracted to haul cedar posts from Alpena 

County to Detroit when it washed ashore in a gale 

at Huron Beach. The 15-year-old vessel was involved 

in a dozen mishaps before its ultimate demise, and 

evidence of large-scale repair is preserved in the 

archaeological record.

Steamers and their tows are also well represented in 

the sanctuary, particularly on North Point, a geologic 

feature that extends over a mile from shore and rises 

to depths as shallow as five feet. Galena (built in 

1857) went ashore on North Point carrying a cargo 

of lumber on September 24, 1872, and quickly broke 

apart. Much of the machinery, furniture, bedding, 

and crew’s possessions were removed from the 

wreck, and the engine was later salvaged for use in 

another vessel. Wreckage tentatively identified as 

having originated from Galena lies intermingled with 

materials from later lost ships, including the wooden 

lumber steamer B.W. Blanchard and its tow, the 

wooden schooner barge John T. Johnson that went 

aground on North Point during a blinding snowstorm 

on November 28, 1904.

Perhaps the most tragic accident to have occurred 

in Thunder Bay happened in August 1865 when the 

passenger freighter Pewabic was run into and sunk 

by its sister vessel Meteor with loss of life estimated 

between 30 and 125 people. No explanation for the 

collision has ever been revealed. Weather conditions 

were favorable and the vessels were in sight of one 

another for several miles before impact. Though 

injured, Meteor was able to continue to Sault Ste. 

Marie after rescuing many passengers from the water. 

Pewabic went down with several hundred tons of 

valuable copper and iron ore in its hold. Search and 

salvage efforts began almost immediately, though 

the wreck was not discovered until June 1897. Much 

of the cargo was recovered using armored divers, 

submersible bells with manipulator arms, and bucket 

Sanctuary archaeologist documents wreck of 

Maid of the Mist, wrecked 1878. (TBNMS)

14
cranes, though at great cost as several divers perished 

on the wreck from drowning or decompression 

illnesses. Located in 180 feet of water, Pewabic

today is visited only by technical divers or remotely 

operated vehicles.

Even with more accurate charts and advanced 

positioning and lifesaving equipment, modern 

freighters still occasionally sink in Lake Huron. 

Isaac M. Scott went down with all hands during the 

infamous storm of 1913 when eight vessels and 194 

seamen perished in Lake Huron alone. Scott sits 

upside down like many of its contemporaries and 

is currently not penetrable (Hemming 1992). D.R. 

Hanna (1919), W.C. Franz (1934), Viator (1935), 

and Monrovia (1959) all went down resulting from 

collisions in the busy shipping lanes off Thunder Bay. 

The German freighter Nordmeer, Thunder Bay’s most 

recent large shipwreck, ran upon a shoal and stuck 

fast in 1966. Attempts to free the vessel failed, and 

in a few harsh winter seasons, ice all but destroyed 

the steel vessel.

Shipwrecks are not the only submerged cultural 

resources located in Thunder Bay. Structural features 

and cultural landscape alterations are also evident 

on the lake bottom. Cribs, docks, pier footings, 

pilings, and structural features are located near 

the Alpena waterfront, off North Point, and around 

the many islands in the bay. Fishing net stakes, lost 

navigational aids, refuse, and sunken log booms 

also occur within sanctuary boundaries. Additionally, 

dozens of vessels that became stranded on various 

shoals were eventually recovered, but not without 

leaving behind jettisoned cargo, lost salvage 

equipment, dredged channels and other scars on 

the lake bottom.

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Prehistoric: Submerged prehistoric sites have not 

yet been located in Thunder Bay, though they 

undoubtedly exist along currently inundated shorelines or adjacent to submerged sinkholes and 

forests. In partnership with NOAA, the Institute For 

Exploration conducted extensive side-scan sonar 

surveys of portions of the sanctuary in 2001 

and 2002, followed by remotely operated vehicle 

investigations of several submerged sinkholes with 

the hope of locating prehistoric cultural remains. 

The sinkholes, now submerged, were once exposed 

along the shores of glacial Lake Stanley, predecessor 

to Lake Huron, from 10,000-8,000 years before 

present and would have provided both shelter and 

habitable areas for late Pleistocene mammals and 

perhaps Paleo-Indians (Coleman 2001). Though no 

cultural remains were identified, further investigations 

are warranted.

Historic: Of the nearly 200 historic craft reported 

lost in and around Thunder Bay, only 50 have been 

located and identified. Only a small percentage of 

the sanctuary has been systematically surveyed, 

and areas such as Thunder Bay and Sugar Islands, 

Middle Island, and North Point likely contain large 

numbers of shipwrecks awaiting discovery. Perhaps 

the most historically significant vessel known to have 

been lost in Thunder Bay is the steamer Congress. 

Built in 1861 and used as a Civil War troop transport, 

a newly introduced mode of creating steam by 

petroleum oil was tested in the ship in 1868 just a 

few months before it was wrecked on North Point on 

October 26. Congress is the only veteran of military 

service known to be lost in Thunder Bay and it likely 

represents a technological innovation that has not 

been identified in the archaeological record of the 

Great Lakes.

The small paddle wheel steamer Don Quixote foun-

dered on Lake Huron in October 1836 (Mansfield 

1899), though precisely where remains a mys-

tery. If within the sanctuary, Don Quixote would 

predate the earliest discovered wreck there by 13 

years. The whaleback Clifton and straight-back 

Choctaw, both built in 1892, are two vessels lost off 

Thunder Bay that represent a type of craft unique to 

the Great Lakes. Whalebacks, invented in 1888 by 

Captain Alexander McDougall, were steel-hulled bulk 

carriers with rounded decks and long, snout-like bows 

resembling the hulls of early submarines (and whales). 

Only 41 were constructed, most before 1893 when 

it was realized the design of their rounded decks 

and narrow hatches made unloading cargo from the 

hold difficult (Devendorf 1996). Similar to whale-

backs, straight-backs featured more vertical sides 

and fuller bows. Clifton foundered with all hands 

southeast of Thunder Bay in 1924, while Choctaw

went down following a collision in 1915 off Presque 

Isle. Locating one or both vessels would not only 

reveal a great deal of historic information, but would 

generate a considerable amount of media attention 

and public outreach.

Vernacular craft were locally built, owned, and oper-

ated, and were generally too small to require enroll-

ments. Little is known regarding their build, operation, 

or loss. These vessels were indeed one of a kind, 

and their discovery would contribute greatly to the 

understanding of local shipbuilding technologies.

15
Gerry E. Studds

Stellwagen Bank 

National Marine 

Sanctuary

Written by Deborah Marx and Matthew Lawrence

Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank National Marine 

Sanctuary is located at the mouth of Massachusetts 

Bay, 25 miles east of Boston, three miles southeast of Cape Ann, and three miles north of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Congress designated the 842 

square-mile area encompassing Stellwagen Bank 

and Basin, Tillies Bank and Basin, and the southern 

portion of Jeffries Ledge a national marine sanctuary 

in 1992. The sanctuary’s most prominent feature is 

The Stellwagen Bank, a glacially deposited sandbank 

created by the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet that 

covered much of New England during the last period 

of glaciation. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine 

Sanctuary lies astride the maritime routes connecting the historic ports of Gloucester (a Preserve 

America Community), Salem, Boston, and Plymouth 

to the Atlantic Ocean. A rich collection of maritime 

heritage resources rest on the sanctuary’s seafloor in 

the form of historic shipwrecks.

Native Peoples

Around 12,000 years ago, groups of migratory 

humans known as Paleo-Indians, inhabited southern 

New England. The retreat of the Ice Age glaciers 

21,000 to 16,000 years ago allowed these people 

access to Stellwagen Bank, which rose above the 

surrounding ocean as a result of lower sea levels and 

the rebound of the Earth’s crust after the recession of 

the heavy ice sheets. 

The area’s environment was similar to present day 

Cape Cod with lakes, swamps, marshes, beaches and 

sea cliffs. Spruce and poplar trees as well as grasses 

likely covered Stellwagen Bank and supported 

grazing mammals that ranged in size from small deer 

to giant wooly mammoths and mastodons. These 

animals provided the Paleo-Indians with food and 

raw materials for clothing, shelter, and tools. 

Stellwagen Bank remained accessible to the PaleoIndians for approximately 1,000 years. During this 

time, people likely utilized the bank for hunting 

land and marine mammals, fishing, and gathering 

shellfish and vegetation. The Paleo-Indians may 

have established seasonal camps to support these 

activities. It is unclear whether the Paleo-Indians 

crossed to Stellwagen Bank on foot via the tip of 

Cape Cod or made use of early watercraft such as 

dugout or skin canoes. 

Roughly 10,000 years ago, the retreating ice sheet 

raised sea levels further inundating Stellwagen 

Bank. As water slowly covered the bank, wind, 

currents, and waves continued reshaping the bank’s 

glacial deposits through erosion and re-deposition. 

The rising sea levels prevented the late Paleo-Indian 

and Archaic peoples from gathering resources in the 

sanctuary; instead they turned to the productive 

marine ecosystems rimming Massachusetts Bay. The 

abundance of the marine environment supported a 

growing population, which added agriculture to its 

developing set of skills. 

Native Americans developed complex societies in 

New England during the approximately 12,000 

years of human habitation prior to the arrival of 

Europeans. At the time of European contact Penobscot, Abenaki, Pequot, Massachusett, Narragansett, 

Wampanoag, and Confederated River tribes inhabited the region surrounding Massachusetts Bay. These 

coastal tribes utilized the marine environment as their 

ancestors had, but it is unlikely that they ventured 

into the sanctuary’s waters considering the wealth of 

resources close to shore. While not in direct contact 

with the first colonizing Europeans, Native American 

populations in New England suffered heavily from 

the introduction of European diseases. The foreign 

diseases weakened the native populations, ultimately 

preventing large-scale resistance against encroaching European colonists.

European Colonial Period

Europeans first entered into the maritime history 

of Massachusetts Bay in the 16th century when 

fishing fleets from France, England, and Portugal 

sheltered behind Cape Ann or Cape Cod after being 

blown off the Grand Banks. After discovering the 

bounty of New England’s waters, fishermen began 

visiting the fishing grounds off New England every 

spring and summer. Fishermen established small 

seasonal outposts on land to process their catch and 

repair their vessels. At the season’s end, ships filled 

with mackerel, cod, and salmon returned home with 

a valuable commodity for sale in Catholic Europe. 

Many types of merchant and naval ships crowded 

colonial Boston’s harbor. (Library of Congress)

16
Small sloops and dories were used in the 

Massachusetts Bay and Stellwagen Bank fisheries. 

(Smithsonian Institution)

At the beginning of the 17th century, Europeans 

looked to New England as a source for wealth, either 

in the form of precious metals or other natural 

resources. Exploration revealed little gold or silver, 

but emphasized the wealth that came from products 

from New England’s forests. In particular, the English, 

hampered by Spain’s power in the Caribbean arena, 

established a foothold in New England to exploit 

these resources with more permanent settlements. 

Colonists could work year-round to stockpile fish, 

furs, and timber for seasonal export. The new 

settlements also created markets for manufactured 

English goods thereby generating further profits for 

the mother country.

English settlement in North America during the 

17th century focused on two areas, tidewater Virginia 

and coastal New England. Colonists successfully 

settled in Virginia in 1607, but attempts to colonize 

New England in 1602 and 1607 failed. Ultimately, 

the 1620 arrival of the Mayflower with its cargo of 

English Puritans succeeded. Once the Puritans saw 

the feasibility of the colonial enterprise, more religious 

exiles set out for Massachusetts. Following the 

initial Puritan migration, non-secular English colonists 

began arriving in Massachusetts, and by 1640 

settlements existed around Massachusetts Bay at 

Newbury, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead, and 

Plymouth. Each of these locations depended upon 

the sea for its survival. Increasingly hostile Indians 

along with dense forests and poor soil prevented the 

colonists from pursuing agriculture inland. 

Most of the enterprising Englishmen and women 

who settled New England had little knowledge 

of the sea prior to their arrival in North America. 

Faced with the reality of their situation, colonists 

acquired fishing and shipbuilding skills for survival. 

America’s rich maritime tradition was born out of 

necessity and its roots soon became deeply buried 

in the waters of Massachusetts Bay. Early colonists 

supported themselves and the colony as fisherman 

and subsistence farmers. The abundance of cod and 

herring in Massachusetts Bay allowed the settlers 

to fish relatively close to shore from small sailing 

vessels such as pinks and shallops. Hard work and 

determination kept the colonists alive during the 

harsh winters as they slowly pushed back the North 

American wilderness.

Unrest in Europe created opportunities for colonial 

trade between New England and the other English 

colonies in the New World. Colonists stepped into 

trading niches left open by the English Revolution 

and Dutch wars. However, trading with the far-flung 

English colonies required larger ships. Shipbuilding 

gradually grew from its small open fishing boat 

origins to vessels of 100 to 300 tons with up to three 

masts. Massachusetts rivers and sheltered harbors 

provided the necessary geographic assistance for 

the construction of these larger vessels. In particular, 

Boston became the prominent port in New England 

because of its location at the mouth of Charles 

River, which afforded access to the interior forests 

for shipbuilding timber and other forest products. 

Merchants congregated around the shipbuilding 

enterprises on the Charles River forming a nucleus 

of transportation and trade at Boston. 

By the beginning of the 18th century, Boston and 

its surrounding communities became the focus of 

the “Great Migration” as European settlers escaped 

economic, religious, and political persecution in 

their homeland. As the population expanded, new 

settlements sprouting from the landscape relied on 

waterborne transportation and trade as the basis 

for economic prosperity. Most New Englanders 

were involved with maritime life either directly 

or indirectly. The processing of fish and lumber 

for export to the Caribbean colonies provided 

employment for colonists inhabiting population 

centers, while farmers in the hinterlands raised 

livestock for shipment to the Southern plantation 

colonies. New England’s trading fleet exchanged 

its homegrown commodities for molasses, rum, 

tobacco, and sugar, which were frequently traded to 

England for manufactured goods. 

The European Colonial period, from approximately 

1602-1760 was characterized by exploration and 

growth that began on the shores of Massachusetts 

Bay and radiated outward to the rest of New England. 

The early settlers who migrated to New England to 

escape homeland hardships developed the region 

into a vital trading center. The foundation of these 

trading ventures was the initial struggle to survive the 

harsh and foreign wilderness the colonists confronted 

by reaping the bounty of Massachusetts Bay. 

17
American Period

The advent of hostilities between Great Britain and 

the North American colonies in the 1770s changed 

Massachusetts Bay from a prosperous fishing 

ground to a place of conflict during the American 

Revolutionary War. The strength of the Royal Navy 

allowed the British Army to occupy Boston unopposed 

from the sea, but General George Washington saw 

an opportunity to take advantage of the supplies 

inbound to the British troops. He chartered a 

small fleet of commerce raiders who sortied out of 

surrounding ports to capture British prizes and seize 

their supplies for the Continental Army. Throughout 

the war, smuggling and privateering augmented 

normal maritime commerce over Stellwagen Bank. 

Vessels that had previously engaged in fishing 

and trading raided British shipping to supply the 

beleaguered revolutionaries. American shipping did 

not go unmolested, either: the Royal Navy attempted 

to blockade Boston and its neighboring ports, but 

small American sloops and schooners regularly 

smuggled goods with great success. The many small 

anchorages around Massachusetts Bay made it 

impossible for the British to close off trade. 

After the war’s end in 1783, merchants and 

shipbuilders shifted their priorities away from the 

speedy privateers, to more beamy vessels with 

greater carrying capacity. Fishing fleets returned to 

the offshore banks in search of their quarry, while 

merchants pursued commerce with the freedom to 

trade anywhere in the world. America’s neutrality on 

the high seas suffered from the continued hostilities 

between Britain and France. Infuriated by the 

seizure of American ships and seamen, Congress 

passed the Embargo Act in 1807, which prevented 

merchants from trading with other foreign countries. 

The embargo decimated Massachusetts’ blossoming 

maritime trade, forcing some merchants to return to 

smuggling. Continued hostilities between America 

and Great Britain led Congress to ratify President 

Madison’s declaration of war in 1812. Unwilling to 

miss out on an opportunity to revive their declining 

fortunes, Boston and Salem fielded several dozen 

privateers to intercept British shipping. 

Massachusetts’ merchants and sea captains not 

only participated in the trade of the Atlantic world, 

but also mounted long trading missions to bring 

home the products of the Far East during the 19th 

century. These voyages often required multiple stops 

to acquire trade goods desired by Indian and Chinese 

merchants. On the way to the Orient, ship captains 

traded cargoes of dried or salted fish and timber 

products loaded in Boston or Salem for sugar, coffee, 

steel, and even opium. After several years away from 

a Massachusetts port, a successful venture would 

return with fine porcelain, tea, and spices much 

desired by the American market.

Massachusetts’ mariners were not solely concerned 

with the profit at the end of the voyage, many were 

also interested in the ocean they sailed upon. During 

the early to mid-19th century men such as Nathaniel 

Bowditch of Salem, refined the art of navigation and 

made practical observations on wind and currents 

that aided mariners everywhere. Another like-minded 

mariner, hydrographer Henry S. Stellwagen of the 

United States Office of Coast Survey, furthered the 

knowledge of the ocean realm. In 1854, Stellwagen 

charted the undersea bank in the middle of 

Massachusetts Bay, known by fishermen for centuries, 

with a sounding lead and careful navigation. Along 

with Edward Cordell, the men mapped the bank 

between Cape Cod and Cape Ann and named it 

Stellwagen Bank. 

Boston reached its shipbuilding apex during the 

mid-19th century, as the city’s shipyards turned 

out some of the world’s fleetest sailing vessels, 

the clipper ships. These vessels traveled great 

distances across the oceans carrying passengers 

to the Pacific gold fields and returning with hides 

and exotic woods. Ultimately, economies of scale 

embodied by the oceanic windjammers and coastal 

schooners pushed the clipper ship from the scene. 

The infiltration of railroads into the Northeast 

further changed the nature of the region’s maritime 

activities. Water-borne transportation of cargo 

increasingly focused on the shipment of bulk cargos 

such as coal, lumber, granite, and ice. Multi-masted 

schooners soon dominated the sailing vessel traffic 

over Stellwagen Bank.

The maritime dependence of Massachusetts slowly 

eroded during the 19th century as the Industrial 

Revolution changed America’s landscape. Many of 

the wealthiest merchants began investing in the increasingly mechanized production of iron, clothing, 

and shoes. Early on, Massachusetts’ many glacially 

created rivers turned waterwheels that provided 

the mechanical power for increased production. 

18

The Steamship Portland was lost 

with all hands in 1898. (LARC)
The development of the steam engine further 

expanded New England’s manufacturing power, developing Boston into a manufacturing center as well 

as a seaport. Steam engines also greatly affected 

maritime transportation in and out of the Boston region. Once steam engines became capable of handling the difficult conditions of oceanic navigation, 

Boston served as the coastal and oceanic steamship hub of New England. Passenger steamships left 

Boston daily, connecting the growing metropolis with 

New York, Maine, and Europe. Ultimately, steam tugs 

towing barges forced the great sailing schooners out 

of the coastal bulk cargo trade by providing greater 

carrying capacity and speed.

Fishing has been one of the principal activities of 

the people living around Massachusetts Bay since 

the last Ice Age. Indians gathered shellfish and 

caught fish with spears, hooks, and weirs. Native 

tribes even engaged in shore-based whaling when 

the circumstances were right. Europe’s awareness of 

the New England fishery extends back to the 16th 

century, prior to the first North American colonies. 

The first Massachusetts colonists readily exploited 

the fishery resources offshore of their settlements for 

both sustenance and trade. Along with timber and 

furs, dried fish became one of the chief exports of the 

Massachusetts colonies. Initially, fishermen stayed 

close to land exploiting the fish stocks in areas such 

as Jeffries Ledge and Stellwagen Bank. Coinciding with 

the construction of the larger trading vessels and the 

peopling of North America, colonial fishermen began 

building their own larger sloops and schooners to 

give them access to the fishing grounds farther out to 

sea. Fishing vessels returned to port laden with cod, 

which were then split and dried. The curing process 

created a durable foodstuff that was in high demand 

in Continental Europe and the Caribbean Islands.

As Massachusetts’ trade network expanded in the 

18th and 19th centuries by supplying increasing 

quantities of fish to the world markets, New England’s 

fishing craft developed to exploit the incredibly rich 

fishing grounds on the Georges and Newfoundland 

Banks. Increasingly speedy schooners raced the 

short fishing season to secure as many trips to 

the fishing banks as possible. Racing to the fishing 

grounds ultimately led to the heroic fishermen’s races 

out of Gloucester that pitted American schooners 

against Canadian schooners for boasting rights and 

national prestige. This focus on speed under sail led 

to construction of glorious vessels capable of carrying 

mountains of sail. 

The penetration of railroads into New England and 

the use of ice for refrigeration at the end of the 

19th century brought about changes in regional 

fishing practices. Rail transportation’s speed allowed 

American consumers inland to enjoy fresh ocean 

fish for the first time. Fishermen began returning to 

the near shore Massachusetts Bay fishing grounds 

to harvest a wider variety of fresh fish including 

haddock, halibut, and flounder. Smaller fishing 

schooners made day or overnight trips to Stellwagen 

Bank, bringing the fish back to port before it spoiled. 

Additional technological changes in vessel design, 

propulsion, and fishing methods also changed 

the New England fishery. Fishermen outfitted their 

schooners with auxiliary diesel engines initiating a 

transition to solely engine-driven trawlers. These 

vessels also utilized improved net technology to 

capture the dwindling fish stocks in the bay.

In addition to fishing, whaling provided New 

Englanders with a valuable export commodity. 

Initially, large pods of humpback and right whales 

inhabited the waters surrounding Stellwagen Bank. 

The animals’ seasonal proximity to shore allowed 

fishermen to hunt them using rowed small boats. 

The fishery’s success during the colonial period 

made Boston the center of the whale oil and baleen 

market. As the inshore fishery over-exploited the 

local whale population, whalers sailed further out 

into the Atlantic to hunt their quarry. Adapting to the 

challenges of the open ocean, whalers increased the 

size of their vessels to extend their range. During the 

18th and 19th centuries, whaling activities moved 

further offshore where large ships pursued whales all 

the way into the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean. 

Oftentimes these extended voyages took two or more 

years, but when the hold was full of whale oil the 

ship would return to one of the many ports around 

Massachusetts Bay and sell its hard-earned cargo to 

Boston merchants for export. 

Connected directly to the first colonists’ dependence 

upon maritime transportation, shipbuilding has 

always been a major regional economic activity in 

New England. Shipbuilding centers surrounding the 

sanctuary first concentrated at Newbury, Salem, 

Essex, and Boston during the colonial period, but 

nearly every other small port on Massachusetts Bay 

launched two or three vessels a year. Shipbuilding

represented America’s first manufacturing industry. 

Shipwrights transformed the raw materials from 

Massachusetts’ forests into the most complex 

machines of the time period. As the fishing industry 

and commercial export trade increased so did the

Massachusetts-built ships, such as the bark 

Catalpa of New Bedford, carried much of 

America’s maritime trade in the 19th century. 

(Library of Congress)

19
demand for more and larger ships. Even conflicts 

such as the American Revolution spurred on New 

England’s shipbuilding business. 

By the 18th century, New England-built vessels 

made up twenty percent of all registered vessels 

in America. During the mid 19th century, Boston 

shipbuilding reached its peak while in competition 

against the shipyards on New York’s East River to 

build the fastest clipper ships. However, by the end of 

the 19th century, shipbuilding in Boston had slowed 

considerably from its pre-Civil War high. Higher labor 

costs prevented Boston’s shipyards from successfully 

competing against the Maine yards to construct the 

large multi-masted wooden schooners in demand. 

North of Boston in the Essex County shipyards, 

shipbuilding on a smaller scale continued to expand 

into the 20th century. These yards were responsible 

for building the Massachusetts’ fishing fleet. At the 

start of the 20th century, Massachusetts’ shipyards in 

the Boston area transitioned into steel construction. 

Shipbuilding in New England continued to prosper 

through World War II with naval shipyards operating 

in Quincy and around Boston. From small woodenhulled dories to steel-hulled destroyers, New England 

adapted to changing technology and produced some 

of the finest vessels afloat.

Maritime Heritage 

Resources Inventory

Uncounted prehistoric and historic archaeological 

sites lie within the Gerry E. Studds Stellwagen Bank 

National Marine Sanctuary. Ancient geologic and 

glacial processes once exposed the sanctuary’s 

seafloor to the sun, allowing it to support flora 

and fauna utilized by the Paleo-Indian peoples. 

Rising sea levels covered the sanctuary within 

several millennia of its exposure, moving Native 

American habitation to the shores around Massachusetts Bay. The arrival of Europeans in the 

New World dramatically amplified the quantity of 

maritime traffic on Massachusetts Bay. The sanctuary’s position at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay 

places it astride the historic shipping lanes and 

fishing grounds for such ports as Gloucester, Salem, 

Boston, Plymouth, and Provincetown. These ports 

have been centers of maritime activity in New England for over 300 years. As a result, the sanctuary 

is a repository for this nation’s maritime heritage 

resources in the form of shipwrecks. 

Since the sanctuary began investigating its maritime 

heritage resources, archaeologists have located over 

a dozen shipwreck sites. Historical records indicate 

that several hundred vessels likely sank within the 

sanctuary’s vicinity ranging from wooden-hulled 

multi-masted schooners to modern day steel-hulled 

fishing vessels. Past research expeditions have used 

remote sensing technology such as side scan sonar, 

remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and autonomous 

underwater vehicle (AUV) to locate and identify 

shipwreck sites. Archaeologists have also used 

SCUBA to investigate shallower shipwreck sites such 

as the five-masted coal schooner Paul Palmer that 

caught fire and sank off Provincetown in 1913. 

In 2002, a team of NOAA scientists confirmed that 

a shipwreck in the sanctuary was the side paddle 

wheel passenger steamship Portland. The steamer, 

built in 1889 by the New England Shipbuilding 

Company of Bath, Maine for the Portland Steam 

Packet Company, ran between Portland, Maine and 

Boston, Massachusetts from 1890 to 1898. At 280 

feet long, the steamship was one of the largest and 

best-appointed vessels afloat in New England during 

the 1890s. The steamship was lost with all hands on 

November 27, 1898 during a fierce storm. 

Remains of the Portland include its intact wooden 

hull, which has survived from the main deck level 

down to the keel, along with machinery features such 

as portions of both paddle wheels, its steam engine, 

walking beam, and wooden A-frame. Smaller cultural 

artifacts such as plates and cups lie scattered inside 

and outside the hull. The Portland’s hull is festooned 

with red and white anemones and is home to schools 

of cod and pollock. In 2005 the Portland became 

the first shipwreck in Stellwagen Bank National 

Marine Sanctuary listed on the National Register of 

Historic Places.

Another visually spectacular site contains the wrecks 

of the 274-foot-long four-masted schooner Frank 

A. Palmer and 267-foot-long five-masted schooner 

Louise B. Crary, which sit upright on the seafloor 

connected at their bows after a collision in 1902. 

Both vessels were built around 1900 in Bath, Maine 

for the coal trade between the Chesapeake Bay and 

New England. The Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. Crary

collided on December 17, 1902 in Massachusetts 

Bay en-route to Boston from Newport News, Virginia 

with full cargos of coal. Eleven of the 21 sailors 

onboard the schooners perished during the accident 

or from exposure while awaiting rescue in a lifeboat. 

The distinctively-bowed Gloucester fishing 

schooner was popular in Massachusetts Bay 

fishing communities in the early 20th century.

(Library of Congress)

20
In 2006 the shipwreck of the Frank A. Palmer and 

Louise B. Crary joined the Portland on the National 

Register of Historic Places.

The sanctuary plans to continue its efforts to 

inventory and assess its maritime heritage sites 

using side scan and multibeam sonar, magnetom-

eters, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous 

underwater vehicles. These high-tech tools allow 

the archaeologists to interpret for the public the 

sanctuary’s beautiful and dramatic shipwrecks that 

document New England’s maritime history. 

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Prehistoric - Paleo-Indian cultural remains have not 

been located to date on Stellwagen Bank. The area 

had the potential to support habitation and use of 

Stellwagen Bank before its inundation of seawater 

10,000 years ago. The likelihood is high that human 

or animal remains might be located in the future. 

The possibility of finding Paleo-Indian cultural items 

on Stellwagen Bank is enhanced by the report of 

the recovery of mastodon skeletal remains by local 

fishermen. Further geologic study, site modeling, 

and sampling will be conducted on Stellwagen Bank 

to determine the potential for locating prehistoric 

cultural remains in the sanctuary. 

Historic – Archival research will likely expand the 

number of reported vessel losses in Massachusetts 

Bay. Additionally, local fishermen hold a wealth of 

knowledge about wrecks their nets have encountered 

over the years. Combining these two research 

techniques with remote sensing surveys will 

undoubtedly reveal further shipwreck sites. Most of 

the shipwrecks located in the sanctuary date from 

the mid-19th century to the present, but sanctuary 

archaeologists believe that wrecks from earlier 

periods are also likely to be found as they make a 

thorough investigation of its seabed. 

Side scan sonar image the collided 

schooners Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. Crary. 

(NOAA/SBNMS and NURC NA&GL)

21
Monitor National 

Marine Sanctuary

Written by John Broadwater

The site of the sunken Civil War ironclad warship USS 

Monitor was designated in 1975 as America’s first 

national marine sanctuary. The sanctuary consists 

of a circular area one nautical mile in diameter, 

centered on the Monitor’s remains, approximately 

16 nautical miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, 

North Carolina. This area is often referred to as the 

“Graveyard of the Atlantic” because literally hundreds 

of vessels have been lost there due to storms, human 

error, and acts of war. 

Cape Hatteras is the easternmost point of land along 

the Atlantic coast, a characteristic that makes the 

area, even today, a hazard to coastal navigation. 

At Hatteras, the warm, northward-flowing Gulf 

Stream collides with the cool, southerly Labrador 

Current, creating confused seas as the currents mix 

and form eddies. These sea conditions contribute 

to the frequent formation of sudden and often 

furious storms that can catch mariners unaware. 

Even after the development of accurate navigational 

instruments, countless sailing ships foundered or 

were driven aground by fierce Hatteras storms. 

The seabed in the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary 

is sandy and relatively flat and featureless, with sparse 

areas of exposed rock. The Monitor’s hull, with its 

mantle of corals and sponges, is an active artificial 

reef supporting numerous animal and plant species.

American Period

The Monitor lies so far offshore that no known 

prehistoric or early colonial activities are associated 

with the sanctuary. The predominant human activities 

in the area were coastal vessel traffic and fishing, 

which is still true today. Site surveys indicate that the 

wreck of the USS Monitor is the only archaeological 

resource within the sanctuary. 

The Monitor was the first of a series of designs by 

Swedish inventor John Ericsson for shallow-draft, 

turreted, ironclad warships built for the Union Navy. 

The “monitors,” as they were collectively known,were 

intended to operate in shallow bays, sounds, and 

rivers against fortifications and ships guarding 

entrances to Southern ports.

On March 6, 1862, the Monitor was towed from 

the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Hampton Roads, Virginia. 

The Federals intended to challenge the Confederate 

shore batteries protecting the vast anchorage at 

Hampton Roads and Norfolk. They were also aware 

that the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly 

USS Merrimack) was being completed near Norfolk. 

The Monitor arrived on the evening of March 8, just in 

time to witness the results of the Virginia’s destructive 

maiden voyage. The Union Navy’s James River Flotilla 

was in ruins and disarray. The sailing frigate USS 

Cumberland was sunk, the USS Congress was 

burning, and the steam frigate USS Minnesota was 

hard aground. This first day of the Battle of Hampton 

Roads shocked Washington and the Northern public 

much as would Pearl Harbor, some 80 years later.

As the Virginia sailed out to finish the Minnesota

on the morning of March 9, the crew was startled 

to see the odd “cheese box on a raft” profile of the 

Monitor, lying in wait to protect the stranded ship. 

The two lumbering, smoke-belching ironclads tangled 

in a battle that would change the future of naval 

warfare. After four hours of pounding, often at pointblank range, the vessels retired, virtually undamaged. 

Although there was no clear victor, the Monitor had 

succeeded in preventing further destruction to the 

Federal navy’s blockade ships.

The Monitor and Virginia were prototypes of a new 

age of iron and steam, presaging the inevitable 

future of naval technology. Rolled-iron armor plates 

and rifled cannon firing high-velocity exploding shells 

soon rendered wooden-hulled warships obsolete. 

Sail power was slow and ineffective compared to 

steam-powered screw propellers as steam power 

provided more speed and maneuverability, and was 

not dependent upon the direction or velocity of the 

wind. The Monitor ably demonstrated the advantages 

of the armored, rotating gun turret, which provided 

protection for its gun crews while allowing the Monitor

to train its guns on a foe without having to maneuver 

into precise firing position.

Both vessels succumbed within the year to causes 

unrelated to battle. The Virginia was scuttled by its 

crew as the Confederates abandoned Norfolk in May, 

1862. The ship was not sufficiently seaworthy to 

head south for a friendly port and it drew too much 

water to navigate up the James River to Richmond. 

The Monitor, too, was vulnerable to heavy seas. 

While under tow to Charleston, South Carolina, the 

ironclad sank during a storm off the North Carolina 

coast on December 31, 1862. 

The clash between the ironclads USS Monitor and 

CSS Virgnia alerted European sea power nations 

to the effectiveness of the new iron and steam 

warship technology. (Library of Congress)

22
The sanctuary’s offshore location virtually precludes 

any possibility of prehistoric or early historic resources. 

The Monitor’s hull was the only object located during 

a survey of the entire sanctuary utilizing side scan 

sonar and magnetometer. 

When discovered in 1973, the Monitor posed an 

immediate problem for concerned resource managers. 

Lying 16 miles off the coast of North Carolina, 

Monitor was well outside the three-mile territorial 

seas within which federal antiquities legislation could 

be invoked to protect an historic wreck. The Monitor

was quickly listed on the National Register of Historic 

Places while numerous organizations and individuals 

sought a means of protecting the warship from 

looting or salvage. Fortunately, the Marine Protection, 

Research, and Sanctuaries Act, passed the year 

before the Monitor’s discovery, contained the required 

jurisdictional language. Under the authority of the act, 

on January 30, 1975, the Secretary of Commerce 

designated the Monitor a national marine sanctuary, 

to be protected and managed by the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Monitor

later received the distinction of becoming a National 

Historic Landmark.

A photomosaic of the site, prepared by the U.S. 

Navy in 1974, showed the Monitor lying upside 

down in 235 feet of water, resting on its famous 

armored gun turret, which separated from the hull 

during sinking. The iron hull was in a deteriorated 

state as a result of natural processes and possible 

human-induced events. During World War II the U.S. 

Navy may have mistaken the Monitor wreckage for 

a German U-boat and depth charged it. Nearly 50 

years later, in 1990, the hull suffered structural 

damage when an anchor from a sport fishing vessel 

was dragged through the site. 

Since its discovery and designation, dozens of 

scientific and private expeditions have been 

conducted to the Monitor under permits issued by 

NOAA. The initial management plan for the sanctuary 

called for ongoing archaeological assessment of the 

Monitor and the reinforcement and protection of its 

fragile remains. In the early 1990s, however, NOAA 

determined that the Monitor’s hull was disintegrating 

at a higher rate than expected rate due in part to 

the anchoring incident but also to weakening and 

collapse of key hull structural components. As a result, 

the National Marine Sanctuary Program increased its 

efforts to document changes to the site and began 

investigating engineering and management options 

for the wreck. In 1998 NOAA submitted to Congress 

a long-range, comprehensive preservation plan 

entitled, “Charting a New Course for the Monitor”. 

This plan called for stabilization of the inverted hull 

and selective removal of key components for longterm conservation and exhibition.

Beginning in 1998 NOAA, in partnership with 

the U.S. Navy, The Mariners’ Museum, and other 

organizations, conducted a series of recovery 

expeditions, following the recommendations of the 

long-range plan. In 1998 the Monitor’s four-bladed 

iron propeller was recovered and transported for 

treatment to The Mariners’ Museum, NOAA’s principal 

museum for all documents and artifacts concerning 

the Monitor. In 2001 the 35-ton Ericsson steam 

engine was recovered, followed in 2002 by the 

successful recovery of the Monitor’s famous gun 

turret, which weighed a massive 236 tons.

Shortly after recovery of the propeller, The Mariners’ 

Museum announced plans to design and build 

the USS Monitor Center. This $30-million center, 

which opened in 2007 interprets the USS Monitor

and CSS Virginia within the contexts of the 

American Civil War and 19th-century naval technology. The center also includes a conservation 

laboratory where Monitor artifacts are treated, some 

requiring an estimated 10-15 years of conservation. 

A new management plan is in development for 

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. This plan will 

take into account the current condition of the wreck, 

the need for additional research, 

the desire for public access, and 

other factors that are part of 

the National Marine Sanctuary 

Program’s strategic goals.

Recovery of gun turret of USS Monitor, August 2002. (MNMS)

23
Gray’s Reef National

Marine Sanctuary

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary is situated 

approximately 17.5 nautical miles east of Sapelo 

Island, Georgia, at a depth between 50 and 70 feet. 

The 17 square nautical mile “live bottom” reef was 

historically known by local fishermen as the Sapelo 

Ground, but has been renamed for Dr. Milton B. Gray, 

a prominent zoologist who conducted studies in 

coastal Georgia.

Native Peoples

Archaeological studies of coastal Georgia suggest 

that Paleo-Indians lived here about 12,000 years 

ago. Coastal island sites also indicate the presence 

of Archaic peoples about 8,000 years ago. The 

technological sophistication of the region’s Archaic 

culture is seen in its use of fiber-tempered pottery 

2,000 years before it was used by other southeastern 

groups. This culture, which subsisted primarily on 

fishing, is thought to be related to a “parent culture” 

in the Caribbean (Forbis 1975).

The earliest 16th century Spanish missionaries en-

countered the native Guale people. Georgia’s coastal 

region is still sometimes known as the Guale coast. 

Hostile to the Spaniard’s attempts to enslave them, 

the Guales were poor candidates for the Spanish 

Jesuit Christian missions. The tribe was driven out after 

the 1670s and replaced by the Yamassee tribes who 

supported the British incursions into the area from 

the Carolinas. The coastal tribes were accomplished 

canoe builders and fishermen who subsisted on 

the resources of the inland waters. By the mid-18th 

century, disease and English aggression had virtually 

exterminated the Yamassee people (Gibson 1980).

The Creek tribe had replaced the Yamassee in the 

coastal region by the early 18th century. James 

Oglethorpe, who encountered them in 1733 de-

veloped a good relationship with the Creek and 

was permitted to build the trading town Savannah. 

In the 1830s, the American government evicted 

the Creek in order to open western Georgia to 

American settlement.

European Colonial Period

Spanish—The Georgia coast was initially included 

in Spain’s claim to Florida. After failed attempts to 

settle the area in the early-16th century, Governor 

Pedro Menendez de Aviles built a series of coastal 

forts to serve as bases to protect Spain-bound 

treasure fleets (or flotas) that traveled up the Florida 

Straits towards the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras. 

Other missions built on various coastal islands met 

marginal success trying to Christianize and manage 

the local Indian populations.

The southeastern coastal region was an arena of 

conflict between the Spanish and English through the 

mid-18th century as both European powers sought 

to control the coast. Although their skirmishes were 

usually played out on land, ships and other coastal 

watercraft supported both sides.

English—During its several centuries of conflict with 

Spain, Britain encroached on the Spanish claim to 

coastal Georgia. Oglethorpe’s settlement at Savannah, 

near the mouth of the Savannah River, provided 

England with a deepwater port that provided access 

to the pine forests of the interior. The forests provided 

naval stores such as timber and pitch for the ships of 

the English navy.

Warships supported the conflicts between the 

British and Spanish during the late-17th and early18th centuries. During the English Colonial Period, 

sailing periaugers of the provincial navy patrolled the 

waterways between Port Royal, South Carolina, and 

St. Augustine, Florida, looking for runaway slaves. 

Periaugers were shallow draft sailing vessels unique 

to the southeastern Atlantic coast and the Caribbean 

islands. The name referred both to dugout canoes 

and to shallow-draft planked boats.

Until the American Revolution, settlement in Georgia 

occurred primarily in the coastal region. Rice, indigo, 

lumber products, and naval stores were the economic 

mainstays and were all exported by ship. Savannah 

was the main colonial port for coastal Georgia and 

most trade took place between that port and the 

British colonies at Charleston and Barbados. A large 

portion of early Georgia’s population was composed 

of freed indentured servants from Barbados and the 

British Caribbean.

American Period

As with coastal commerce, naval activities associated 

with the Georgia coast brought watercraft traversing 

across the Gray’s Reef sanctuary region. During the 

18th and 19th centuries, Savannah was considered 

a strategic port and various attempts were made to 

blockade and capture it.

During most of the American Revolution, Savannah 

was in British hands. The only direct confrontation 

with the English came in 1779 during an unsuccessful 

French attempt to blockade the mouth of the 

Savannah River off Tybee Island in which the French 

fleet was dispersed by a sudden gale.

Small-scale naval conflicts often occurred as 

small, fast American privateers raided English 

shipping in both the sounds and coastal waters. 

Privateering was a favorite tactic among nations with 

extensive seacoasts and small naval forces. Under 

Southeast Region

24
government-issued letters of marque, privatelyowned ships were used to hurt the enemy by waging 

a war on commerce. Privateering was essentially 

government-sanctioned piracy. This pattern of naval 

warfare was again conducted against the British in 

the War of 1812.

Georgia’s coastal settlement continued after the 

Revolution. As the native tribes were pushed to the 

west, inland settlers stimulated trade. Towns grew up 

the Savannah River at Augusta and Petersburg on the 

Georgia side and Hamburg on the South Carolina 

side. Raw upland produce such as tobacco, cotton, 

and lumber were shipped downriver to Savannah and 

thence to larger, regional commercial centers such as 

Charleston, Boston, and the West Indies.

In the 19th century, new port towns developed at 

Brunswick on St. Simon’s Sound and Darien on the 

Altamaha River. Darien became a large national 

lumber supplier. Most coastal vessels carrying 

produce in and out of Georgian ports passed through 

or near the Gray’s Reef area.

Much of Georgia’s maritime commerce was sustained 

by black labor. Many slaves and some free black 

sailors worked on inland vessels and aboard coastal 

schooners and fishing boats. Following the Civil War, 

black fishermen manned much of coastal Georgia’s 

regional commercial fishery, as was the pattern in 

much of the South (Goode 1887).

The vessels used in the 18th and 19th century 

coastal commerce were primarily small sloops and 

schooners. Cotton and rice were the main coastal 

exports while naval stores such as pitch, timber, and 

spars were valuable inland exports.

Most early-19th century fishing was relegated to the 

local Savannah and Charleston markets. The postwar improvement in steam and rail service made it 

possible to ship fish to northern markets in winter 

months. The principal offshore species that were 

caught on the Sapelo Ground were black sea bass, 

flounder, red snapper and various jacks. Until the 

late-19th century, fish were usually caught on hand 

lines and were kept in live wells built into the boat’s 

deck. Seine nets were introduced in the 20th century. 

An influx of northern fishermen encroached on the 

area in the 1880s, after the northern grounds were 

overfished. By the 1880s, Savannah was the primary 

market for Georgia and northeast Florida’s fisheries 

(Goode 1887).

Many distinctive boat types evolved on the coastal 

southeast. The sinuous rivers and sounds of the inland 

coastal regions demanded shallow draft vessels that 

could serve as passenger transport or bulk cargo 

carriers. Boats were propelled by all means available 

including poling, rowing and sailing.

Vessels such as dugout canoes, periaugers (multi-log 

canoes), and flat-bottomed bateaux were modified to 

fit their required tasks. Small sloops and schooners 

were used for the offshore fisheries and the coastal 

trade. These were often little more than open boats 

with short foredecks and a single fore and aft gaffsail (Fleetwood 1982).

The regional coastal trade saw the introduction of 

the finely crafted single-mast Bermuda sloops that 

originated in the West Indies in the 18th and early19th centuries. In the late 1880s, numerous northern 

“smack” schooners infiltrated the area, as New 

England fishermen came south to fish for black bass 

during their own slack seasons (Chapelle 1951).

By the early 1800s Savannah was a regional 

shipbuilding center constructing numerous two and 

three-masted schooners, brigs, and ships for local 

use. Locally built vessels were used in 19th-century 

coastal trade between Charleston, Savannah, and 

smaller coastal towns such as Darien, Brunswick, 

and Fernandina in Florida.

Coastal Georgia’s steamboat heritage is, perhaps, 

best known by its association with the construction 

of the first transoceanic steamship, SS Savannah in 

1819. Many small inland steamers were also used 

at Savannah to navigate the numerous rivers and 

sounds. Larger coastal steamboats were used to 

carry passenger traffic between Savannah and other 

southern coastal cities. While steamboats moved 

much southern passenger traffic, sailing vessels 

tended to carry bulk goods. The introduction of the 

railroad in the mid-1800s usurped much of the 

passenger traffic and carriage of perishable goods.

Savannah was an important southern port during 

the Civil War and was blockaded by the Union Navy 

early in the conflict. While the Confederate navy 

maintained a strong squadron of gunboats and 

ironclads at the city, they never confronted the Union 

blockaders at the river’s mouth or offshore. Union 

patrol vessels prevented blockade runners from 

entering the river to re-supply the Confederates.

Sixteenth-century Spanish sailors met with 

marginal success in the Christianization and 

enslavement of the coastal Guale Indians. 

(Library of Congress)

25
The Georgia coast again became a focus of naval 

activities during World War II. The southeastern U.S. 

coastal waters were part of the battleground for the 

Battle of the Atlantic. In 1941 and 1942 several 

German U-boats sank Allied merchant vessels near 

the present sanctuary’s boundaries. In April 1942, 

three merchant vessels were sunk in waters adjacent 

to Gray’s Reef, immediately off St. Simons Island.

Maritime Heritage Resource

Inventory

There are scant reports of human cultural remains 

at the the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. 

Recreational divers and scientific researchers have 

not yet reported the presence of historic shipwreckrelated objects. Commercial fishermen have 

periodically reported recovering skeletal remnants of 

prehistoric American camel in their nets. Since there 

is the possibility of human populations existing at the 

time of such Paleo-era fauna, archaeologists from 

University of Georgia are studying the hard-bottom 

reef for evidence of Paleolithic human remains. 

Search results have, thus far, been inconclusive.

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Prehistoric—During the last glacial stage of the 

Pleistocene, Georgia’s coast extended approximately 

59 to 66 miles farther out into the ocean than it does 

today and the region of Gray’s Reef existed as an 

exposed land form. Recent geomorphological studies 

reveal that the sanctuary’s submerged land forms 

include river valleys, submerged terraces, and hardbottom outcrops, all of which are potential prehistoric 

activity sites.

Based on findings from nearby land sites, prehistoric 

cultural remains in the sanctuary could include shell 

middens (refuse piles) which could contain PaleoIndian and Archaic stage food and botanical remains. 

Additionally, cultural materials such as stone tools, 

flakes, and ceramics from the Archaic Period could 

also remain. Habitation and camp sites may also be 

preserved beneath the submerged substratum. 

Historic—The potential for historic cultural remains is 

slim but not negligible. Previous NOAA surveys of the 

small sanctuary have revealed no obvious historic 

shipwrecks (personal comment Mark Frieze 1992). 

Additionally, few hazards exist within the sanctuary 

that would threaten navigation such as shallow reefs, 

unusual weather patterns, currents, or proximity 

to land forms. Fishing vessels wrecked by storms 

or accidents are perhaps the most likely historical 

resources to be found within the sanctuary.

26
Florida and Caribbean natives initially saw 

contact with the Spanish as an opportunity to 

trade for exotic goods. (Library of Congress)

Florida Keys National

Marine Sanctuary

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated 

in 1990, contains 2800 square nautical miles of 

state and federal waters and bottomlands. Created to 

protect threatened marine life, habitats, and corals, 

this sanctuary incorporates the already established 

Key Largo and Looe Key national marine sanctuaries 

and protects all of the waters surrounding the Keys 

except for those already protected by other state and 

federal programs. NOAA and the State of Florida work 

together to manage both the natural and maritime 

heritage resources of the sanctuary. The sanctuary’s 

educational interpretive center, the Dr. Nancy Foster 

Environmental Complex is located in Key West, which 

is a Preserve America Community.

Native Peoples

The Florida Keys consists of a series of coral reefs, 

which are separated from the Bahama Banks by the 

Florida Straits and the Bahama Channel. The reefs 

cap Pleistocene-era limestone islands.

Scientists debate the earliest Late-Pleistocene and 

Holocene sea levels in the region because of a lack 

of data about Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultural 

periodsites before about 8,000 years ago. They are in 

better agreement concerning more recent events.

The sea was at its lowest level (100 meters) by 

15,000 years ago. By the time of man’s probable 

appearance in the region around 12,000 to 10,000 

years ago, melting glaciers had caused sea levels 

to rise. At this time the exposed land was hard 

bedrock that would later provide the foundation for 

coral reefs. Fresh water springs (or seeps) may have 

been exposed at this time. By 8,000 years ago, 

the sea level was approximately 8.5 meters below 

present and the shoreline extended between three 

and seven kilometers from today’s shoreline. The 

sea level had risen to its current levels by 2,000 

years ago (Murphy 1990).

The earliest Paleo-Indian people are thought to have 

arrived in South Florida around 12,000 years ago. 

Since most of the area of their supposed habitation 

is now under the sea, little is known about their 

material culture.

The Early Archaic cultural period is represented 

between about 9,000 to 7,000 years ago. This area of 

habitation, too, is mostly submerged. Archaeological 

evidence of human occupation in South Florida 

emerges at about 7,000 to 4,000 years ago. At this 

period there is no archaeological evidence of the use 

of ceramics, a marker used to identify a cultural shift. 

During the Archaic period, Florida Bay and Biscayne 

Bay are thought to have been freshwater lakes, 

around which native settlement would have occurred. 

The sea level rise between 4,000 and 2,000 years 

ago would have inundated this environment (Minerals 

Management Service 1990b).

As a result of global warming and sea level rise, 

the Keys were islands by about 4,000 years ago. 

The Calusa culture appears in the archaeological 

record in the southern Florida region at about the 

same time. Their subsistence was based on hunting 

and gathering resources from the estuarine and 

marine environments. They used dugout canoes for 

transportation over large geographical areas and for 

fishing and hunting.

The variety of natural resources and the temperate 

climate permitted the Calusa people to develop a 

complex socio-political network. They traded with 

other native groups, some as faraway as the Antilles 

and Cuba. They also dug an extensive network of 

canals on the South Florida mainland for navigation 

and irrigation. Contact with the Spanish in the 16th 

and 17th centuries devastated the Calusas who 

eventually died from European disease, warfare, and 

slave raids.

The Seminoles moved south into the region in the 

19th century. First living in the swampy tangles of 

North and Central Florida in the early 19th century, 

they were composed primarily of refugee Creek 

Indians and runaway Negro slaves. Known for their 

canoe craftsmanship, Seminole traders descended 

the rivers to Spanish coastal and island posts where 

they exchanged skins, furs, dried fish, beeswax, honey, 

and other articles for European manufactured goods, 

fabrics, and liquor. They sometimes navigated as far 

as the Bahamas and Cuba.

27
In the late 18th century, the Spanish sent small sloops 

to the southwest Florida coast to trade with the natives 

for seals. They used seal fat to coat the bottoms of 

their ships hulls to keep the ever-present shipworm 

from devouring the hulls in the tropical waters.

Forced towards Florida’s southern extremities by 

the pressure of American settlement, the Seminoles 

attacked white coastal settlements in the 1830s. 

They often singled out crews manning lighthouses 

and even attacked the lightship anchored on 

Carysfort Reef from their canoes. In 1834, the US 

embarked on the second of the Seminole Wars to 

open the Florida coast to American settlement. One 

of the most prolonged of American wars, this guerilla 

conflict resulted in over 1500 deaths and lasted 

more than 10 years.

European Colonial Period

The Florida Keys were originally named Los Martires

by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon who first 

noted them during his 1513 exploration of the Gulf 

of Mexico. The gnarled rocky islands appeared as 

suffering martyrs from the distance.

Over the next two centuries the islands continued to 

be noted by the Spanish, but as navigational hazards 

rather than potential colonization sites. As the gold 

flotas left Mexico and Havana on their yearly voyages 

to Spain, they sought the northerly current of the 

Florida Straights and Bahama Channel. This route 

connected the fleets with the prevailing westerly 

trade winds off the Carolinas that blew them home. 

The seemingly placid Caribbean weather often turned 

vicious and many treasure-laden ships were dashed 

on the reefs and shoals in violent hurricanes such as 

that of 1622 which wrecked some 10 galleons along 

the Florida Keys reefs.

In the 1700s, English men-of-war in their global 

conflict with Spain began passing through the 

straights of Florida from their bases in the Caribbean 

islands. Many English ships were lost in this area 

such as the frigate HMS Looe, which was lost in 

1744 in a storm near Big Pine Key—now the site of 

the Looe Key section of the the Florida Keys National 

Marine Sanctuary.

In the 1770s, Key West (originally Cayo Hueso) was 

a watering stop for ships transiting the Gulf and 

Atlantic. Significant island settlement did not occur 

until after the War of 1812.

American Period

From the end of the American Revolution in the 1780s 

until the 1830s, the islands of coastal Florida and 

the Caribbean were a haven for remnants of divided 

native tribes, white renegades, and pirates. 

Bahamian shipwreck salvagers, black spongers, and 

Spanish fishermen settled in small communities on 

the Keys to exploit the western side of the Straits. 

After the United States took possession of Florida 

in 1821, Key West was made an official wrecking 

and salvage station and became the economic 

and federal governmental center for the region. 

Essentially a frontier town, Key West was known as a 

rough, lawless place for much of the 19th century.

The Florida Keys’ historic economy was primarily 

focused around maritime activities. In the 18th century, 

Spanish-Cuban fishermen fished the flats around the 

Keys and made temporary camps on the various 

islands. Key West was the main 19th century market 

town for the Keys’ fisheries. Most of the produce was 

then sent across the Straits to Havana, the economic 

center for the region. In addition to fish, watermen 

also caught sea turtles and harvested sponges. The 

sponge grounds extended the length of the Keys from 

Biscayne to the Tortugas (Goode 1887).

The regional antebellum fisheries were considered 

unique among other American fisheries in that 

there were many black fishermen and boat owners. 

Most were Bahamians who recognized the more 

favorable business conditions on the American side 

of the Straits. Also present were West Indies Blacks, 

Spanish Cubans, Bahamians of English descent, and 

expatriates of various European nationalities who 

had been shipwrecked or jumped ship.

A distinct boat type developed around the Key fisheries. 

The Key West smack (or smackee) was a small slooprigged fishing boat used almost exclusively by the 

Keys fishermen and it was known throughout the 

northern Gulf of Mexico. It was characterized by its 

Key West’s 19th-century economy was built 

upon such maritime industries as ship 

chandlery, shipwreck salvage, and fishing.

(Library of Congress)

28
open cockpit, internal live fish well, full hull and fixed 

keel. The design of the Key West smack was reputedly 

of Bahamian origin (Goode, 1887).

Another significant industry in the Florida Keys was 

shipwreck salvage. The earliest European inhabitants 

of the Florida Keys were 19th century wreckers from 

the Bahamas. When the U.S. government sought to 

regulate and earn revenue on salvaged wrecks in the 

early 1800s, many Bahamians settled in the Keys 

and became the ancestors of today’s “Conchs.”

The Keys provided a constant source of income for 

the wreckers. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the 

Florida Straits were the primary route used by vessels 

leaving America’s New England ports to trade with 

French and British islands in the West Indies and 

Antilles. After New Orleans became a major 19thcentury American port, coastal trade also passed 

through the Straits enroute to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The poor navigation skills of coastal boatmen, poor 

knowledge of shoals, and unpredictable hurricanes 

provided conditions ripe for shipwrecks.

Wreckers made their fortunes on recently grounded 

or sunken vessels. They were obligated to save crews 

and to assist distressed vessels. When salvaging 

ships, the wreckers received a percentage of the 

value of the rescued cargo.

Wrecking was so lucrative that a US wrecking 

station and customs house was established in 

Key West in 1821. A community soon grew on the 

island to accommodate the wrecking industry in 

spite of the lack of freshwater. Other stations and 

communities were established at Cape Florida 

on Key Biscayne and on Tavernier Key. Because a 

combination of storm direction and treacherous 

reefs caused numerous wrecks between Careysfort 

and Alligator reefs, Indian Key became a popular 

community for wreckers as well.

In 1826, three lighthouses were erected in the Keys 

to reduce the hazard to navigation. Lights were built 

at Cape Florida, Sand Key, and Key West and later 

Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas. A light ship was also 

anchored at Carysfort Reef. The light keepers were 

prevented from participating in salvage to ensure 

that they did their duty and did not “accidentally” 

mislead vessels onto reefs. The duty was hazardous 

with threats from weather and Indian attacks often 

imperiling the keepers. Lights so improved navigation 

that by the second half of the 19th century the 

wrecking industry had faded.

The Florida Keys were first considered to have 

militarily strategic significance in the 1820s. Pirates 

in the Gulf and Caribbean hid among the coastal 

islands and Key West became a base for American 

naval patrols against the pirate bases. During one 

such patrol, the schooner USS Alligator was lost near 

Key Largo. Following the elimination of the pirates, the 

Navy abandoned Key West. It was later reoccupied in 

the 1830s during the Seminole Wars. In the Seminole 

Wars the Navy used steam warships and open 

launches for early amphibious attacks on the natives 

and renegades. The Seminoles were so embedded 

in the thick tangle of mangroves and everglades 

that the campaign was reduced to guerrilla warfare. 

Following the wars the Navy established a coaling 

station at Key West.

The Keys’ military value was made even more 

apparent during the Civil War. Fort Taylor at Key West 

and Fort Jefferson at Dry Tortuga were essential to the 

Union naval blockade of the Southern ports. The forts 

served as coaling stations and bases from which to 

harass and capture Confederacy-bound blockaderunners coming out of Havana.

Key West was again used as a naval-supply base 

during the Spanish-American War in 1898. The island 

was a principal depot for the shipment of men and 

supplies in support of the Cuban campaign. Key West 

and the Dry Tortuga Islands were both used as naval 

coaling stations in that campaign.

In the 20th century, the U.S. Navy recognized the 

strategic value of Key West in the protection of the 

Panama Canal. America’s role as a two-ocean naval 

power was reliant upon the canal for quick movement 

between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. During 

World War I, Key West became a submarine and naval 

aviation training base.

The base was expanded during World War II for 

training and to accommodate blimps and aircraft. 

Blimps were used successfully as mine layers, 

ship escorts, and other anti-submarine roles. They 

scouted for German U-boats that preyed on allied 

shipping in the Gulf Stream. German submarines 

sank many tankers and freighters in and near Florida 

Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

29
Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has 

documented numerous sites which are interpreted for 

community education and outreach. The Shipwreck 

Trail Project, a joint NOAA/State of Florida initiative, 

provided interpretive dive slates and brochures to 

inform both diving and non-diving visitors about 

the maritime heritage of the Florida Keys’ waters. 

Shipwrecks on the trail include the 1733 wreck 

of the San Pedro, the late-19th century SS City of 

Washington (present at Havana Harbor during the 

destruction of the USS Maine) and the remains of 

the WWII destroyer escort USS Amesbury (DE066).

The sanctuary has several other historic shipwrecks 

of special interest. One of the richest salvaged 

shipwrecks found in US waters is the site of the 1622 

Spanish galleon wreck Nuestra Senora de Atocha

which has been salvaged by the late Mel Fisher and 

his family since the 1980s. Another wreck that was 

archaeologically documented 

by a Fisher family enterprise 

is the remains of the Henrietta 

Marie, lost in 1700, which is 

one of the few slave ships ever 

excavated. Across the length 

of the Keys are the remains 

of at least twelve ships of the 

“New Spain Fleet” that sank in 

July 1733. Florida’s Bureau of 

Archaeological Research has 

published a booklet describing 

the history and archaeological 

remains of these ships (Florida 

Division of Historical Resources, 

2005). A shipwreck representing 

the Keys’ modern historical 

period is the Queen of Nassau 

located in over 200 feet of water 

off Islamorada. This ship was originally built in 1904 

as the Canadian Fisheries Commission patrol vessel 

HMS Canada. It later became the fledgling Canadian 

Navy’s first school ship. The HMS Canada was later 

renamed the Queen of Nassau and was sold to a 

commercial company, but it sank while being towed to 

a refitting yard in 1926.

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Prehistoric—Most potential coastal Paleo-Indian sites 

in the Florida Keys are likely to be submerged (MMS, 

1990b). Little archaeological investigation has been 

conducted in the Keys thus far to identify submerged 

prehistoric sites. An extreme Holocene shoreline 

that coincides with the earliest period of possible 

Paleo-Indian habitation (approximately 12,000 years 

ago) is expected to exist at the 50-meter bathymetric contour off the Florida Keys. Early Archaic sites, 

from around 8,000 years ago, are also thought to 

be submerged and may exist at about the 8.5-meter 

contour. If cultural remains are present, they are likely 

to be covered by about 10 meters of sand (MMS, 

1990b). Late Archaic sites after 2,000 years ago and 

historic-era Native American cultural remains may 

also exist in the shallow-water regions and mangrove 

areas of the sanctuary. A sinkhole uncovered in nearby southern Dade County known as the Cutler Fossil 

site, contains 5000- to 10,000-year-old remains of 

extinct animals in association with human cultural 

artifacts. This suggests that human cultural remains 

could exist farther offshore. The discovery of PaleoIndian or Archaic cultural remains in South Florida 

would be very significant to the study of the Paleoecology, human adaptation, and early native culture 

of the region. 

Historic—Because of the high frequency of Spanish 

treasure wrecks in the waters of the Florida Keys, much 

attention has been paid to the history of shipwrecks 

in the sanctuary region. While many of these wrecks 

have been located, few have been archaeologically 

documented. Although the potential resource base has 

been diminished by treasure salvage in the 1960s as 

well as numerous hurricanes, archaeological studies 

may still reveal important information about maritime 

history of the Florida Keys. Studies of remaining 16th 

and 17th century Spanish flota shipwrecks would be 

significant to our knowledge of the era of Spanish 

exploration and colonization. They could provide data 

on 16th- through 18th-century ship construction and 

supply insight into the lives of European sailors and 

the early Spanish economy in America. Shipwrecks 

of the 18th and 19th centuries may also contain 

important cultural information about the growth of 

American commerce, economy and material culture.

The ease of access to shallow water shipwrecks and 

the excellent visibility make the sanctuary an excellent 

location to educate people about the maritime heritage 

of the area. It is a premier “classroom in the sea.”

30

State of Florida marine archaeologists 

map shipwreck in Florida Keys National 

Marine Sanctuary. (Florida Bureau of 

Archaeological Research)
Flower Garden Banks 

National Marine Sanctuary

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is 

the only sanctuary located in the Gulf of Mexico (the 

Florida Keys sanctuary borders on the Gulf). It contains the northern-most living coral reef on the United 

States’ Continental Shelf. Composed of two separate 

reefs, the combined area covered by the reef formations totals 41.7 square nautical miles. Both East 

and West Flower Garden Banks are approximately 

120 miles off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. 

Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Previously accepted projections of human habitation 

in the New World have suggested that there would be 

little probability for prehistoric archaeological sites 

in the Flower Garden Banks. The area was seaward 

of the Holocene shoreline and was inundated by the 

presumed period of human habitation at 13,000 years 

ago (Flower Garden Banks Final Environmental Impact 

Statement 1991). As more evidence is considered that 

pushes New World human populations back beyond 

that date, a re-evaluation of the banks sea-level history 

may change assumptions about the area’s prehistoric 

characterization.

The lack of shallow reefs or obstructions that could 

threaten ships results in a lessened probability of 

historic shipwrecks. The primary historical activity at 

the Flower Garden Banks has been fishing. The banks 

were fished for snapper and grouper beginning in 

the 1880s by commercial hook-and-line-fishermen. 

Cultural remains and/or historic shipwrecks associated 

with late 19th- or early 20th-century maritime activity 

could possibly exist at Flower Garden Banks, but have 

not yet been reported by divers. 

31
West Coast Region

Olympic Coast NMS

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary is located 

along the northwest coast of Washington state. Its 

landward boundaries extend from Koitlah Point on 

the Strait of Juan de Fuca, around Cape Flattery and 

south to the southern tip of Copalis National Wildlife 

Refuge north of Gray’s Harbor. The sanctuary extends 

westward to the 100-fathom isobath and contains 

nearly 2,605 square nautical miles. The sanctuary 

is adjacent to the Makah, Quileute, Quinault and 

Hoh Indian Reservations landward and the boundary 

of Canadian and US waters to the north. An area 

of relatively undeveloped and pristine beauty, the 

sanctuary was designated to provide protection for a 

vast array of living and non-living biological resources 

that includes habitats for whales, otter, fish stocks 

and seabirds. The sanctuary is also host to centuries 

of distinctive Native American culture and is the site 

of over 180 recorded historic ship losses.

Native Peoples

The sanctuary’s western boundaries extend 25 to 40 

miles offshore and include most of the Continental 

Shelf. Two of three submarine canyons were likely 

Pleistocene river systems and the third is a relict of 

the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The seaward portion of the 

shelf consists of a smooth slope while the near-shore 

area is characterized by rocky shore-cliffs, islands, 

sea stacks, and submerged pinnacles resulting from 

headland erosion. The erosion is brought on primarily 

by severe winter storms which can create waves up to 

eight meters high near the shore (Wesson, 2003).

The sea level 20,000 years ago was about 120 meters 

lower than present. Glacial melt caused a rapid rise 

so that the sea level was only approximately 20 

meters below present by 8,000 years ago and reached 

modern levels about 2,000 years ago. Researchers 

believe that between 8,000 and 2,000 years ago the 

regional sea levels actually may have been at least four 

meters above modern sea level. This is also supported 

by Indian oral tradition (Wesson, 2003).

Human migration across the Bering land bridge 

into the New World is believed to have occurred 

anywhere between 12,000 and 30,000 years ago. 

Some researchers suggest that an additional maritime-based culture hugged the land bridge shore 

and entered the Americas using watercraft during 

this period as well (Wesson, 2003). Such populations would certainly have navigated along the 

Olympic Peninsula’s shoreline establishing camps 

onshore. Archaeological research along the terrestrial boundaries of the sanctuary is inconclusive about 

the earliest human habitation. The oldest known sites 

appear around 4,000 to 8,000 years ago. 

The distribution of historically known Native American 

tribes along the coastal Olympic Peninsula includes 

the Makah tribe to the northwest and the Quileute, 

Hoh and Quinault tribes in succession to the South.

Linguistic studies suggest that the Salishan language 

speaking Quinault and the Chimakuan-speaking 

Quileute and Hoh groups were the original inhabitants 

of the Olympic Peninsula. There are culturally-based 

suggestions that the Makah were a relatively late 

arrival to the Olympic Peninsula. The Wakashanspeaking Makah are closely related to the Nootkan 

culture and language that originates across the Strait 

of Juan de Fuca on Vancouver Island. Both the Makah 

and the Quileute have traditions that speak of bitter 

fighting. The Makah are a traditional maritime culture 

that derived most of their sustenance from whaling 

and sealing. The other tribes may have hunted whales 

to a lesser degree and depended more on other 

resources including inland fishing. They also had 

different cultural traditions than the Makah (Renker, 

1989). These things suggest a different cultural origin 

of the Makah than of the surrounding tribes.

All of the Northwest tribes are renowned for their expert 

utilization of locally abundant wood for tools, shelter 

and watercraft. They created elaborate decorative 

and cultural motifs. Much has been learned about 

Makah craftsmanship from archaeological remains 

of the Ozette village site at Cape Alava that date from 

about 500 years ago. The region’s tribes were known 

for their ocean-going dugout canoes. The Makah, in 

particular, were able to voyage for days out of sight of 

land to hunt whales. 

Contact with foreign cultures may have occurred quite 

early for these coastal tribes. Traditional stories and 

archaeological remains of iron and steel implements 

suggest early incidental contact with Japan. This is 

supported by an account of three Japanese sailors 

whose ship was washed ashore near Point Grenville, 

Washington in 1834. The rest of their crew dead, they 

had drifted for a year before wrecking upon the coast. 

The Quileute who found them helped get them to 

British sanctuary at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia 

River (Brooks, 1875, Gibbs, 1968, Keddie, n.d.).

Spanish sailors Bruno Heceta and Don Juan Francisco 

encountered local Native Americans during a 1775 

expedition to the region. Other ship-bound Europeans 

and Americans followed as westerners spread out 

along the western North American coastline to hunt 

seals, otters and whales. American contact was 

disastrous for the Indians, resulting in the decimation 

of Indian populations from disease. By 1855 most 

of the tribes were consigned to reservations by the 

U.S. government. 

European Colonial Period

The Spanish first explored the Pacific coast in the 

16th century. After his 1592 expedition to the region, 

Juan de Fuca’s name became associated with the 

strait that separates Canada and the US. However, 

it is unclear whether he ever saw the body of water 

32

Makah whaler Lighthouse Joe. c.1910

(Library of Congress, USZ62-109749)
himself. The Spanish did not attempt to exert 

influence over the area until the late 18th century. 

In fear of Russian and English fur traders’ incursions 

into their claimed territories, the Spanish belatedly 

sought to secure their own claims on Western North 

America. In 1792 they briefly established outposts 

at Nootkah Bay on Vancouver Island and at Neah 

Bay at Cape Flattery. They were, however, too late. 

(Weber 1992) 

During Captain James Cook’s 1778 expedition to the 

region, sailors traded cheap trinkets to the natives 

in exchange for otter pelts. Accounts of vast profits 

made selling the pelts to the Chinese at Canton (later 

in their voyage) tipped off European and American 

business interests that there was a potential value 

to exploiting that trade. Merchant ships from the east 

quickly converged on the Northwest Coast.

Spain negotiated to share the Northwest with Great 

Britain and attempted to set a boundary by placing 

a settlement at Neah Bay. The Spanish, however, did 

not have sufficient strength to maintain the region 

against mounting foreign incursions. The Spanish, 

after only six months, abandoned the Neah Bay 

settlement. American traders swarmed into the area 

to challenge Britain’s perceived hegemony and to 

trade with the tribes for otter pelts (Caruthers 1973). 

As the English established a permanent presence on 

the north shore of the strait in British Columbia, the 

Americans claimed primacy south of the strait.

American Period

The United States and Britain continued to quibble 

over the Northwest Oregon Territory through much 

of the early 19th century. Finally, the land that 

would become Oregon and Washington states 

became U.S. territory in 1846 with the 49th Parallel 

Compromise. The “Great Migration” along the Oregon 

Trail funneled many settlers to the Northwest. 

Settlements grew around Puget Sound as lumber 

became a moneymaking industry. The California Gold 

Rush attracted thousands of miners to California 

and sparked a need for Puget Sound timber. After 

Washington became a state in 1853, the pressure 

from American settlers moving into the area led to 

the placement of the tribes onto reservations. As 

commerce intensified in and out of the Puget Sound, 

the government erected lighthouses at critical nearshore shoals to improve navigation. The light at Cape 

Flattery’s Tatoosh Island was built in 1855 on Makah 

lands and was supplied from the Makah village at 

nearby Neah Bay. 

During the last half of the 19th century, increased 

shipping to and from Puget Sound resulted in 

increased incidents of shipwrecks along the Olympic 

Coast. The area is notorious for fog and rain, and 

winter storms are savage in their intensity. Ships 

having the misfortune to be caught near the shore 

risked destruction on the many uncharted submerged 

pinnacles. Many of the ships that wrecked along the 

Olympic Peninsula coast at this time were wooden 

sailing vessels. Ship-rigged “Down-easter” barks and 

multi-masted schooners entering and leaving the 

straits were frequently wrecked near the coast.

As the regional economy expanded at the turn of 

the century and communities evolved, other types 

of vessels appeared in the coastal waters. Steampowered ships brought trade from around the 

Pacific Rim countries. Iron-hulled ships were slow to 

enter use in this region due to the paucity of iron 

manufacturing on the Pacific coast. Timber was so 

plentiful and cheap that iron shipbuilding could not 

compete. Puget Sound shipyards such as the Hall 

Brothers, built ships of local timber to carry the 

lumber trade to the rest of the Pacific Rim. 

Smaller craft such as California coastal steamers 

and sail traders as well as wooden fishing boats plied 

the Northwest Coast waters. Many of these smaller 

craft based themselves at regional ports like those at 

Neah Bay and La Push and were sometimes owned 

by Native Americans. 

In 1888 three Gloucester schooners from Massachusetts were brought in to fish for halibut at the mouth 

of the Strait of Juan de Fuca influencing local fishing 

boat designs. The introduction of gas engines gave rise 

to Northwest Coast purse seiners. Regional fisheries, 

whalers and sealers also made use of locally produced boats, seeking popular game fish like salmon 

and steelhead trout (Chason 1981).

By the early 20th century Norwegian immigrants 

and their fleets of wooden, diesel-powered purse 

seiners based in the Puget Sound dominated 

salmon and halibut fisheries. Sport fishing also 

became more prominent when private citizens from 

the cities were able to afford their own powered 

boats. Salmon and steelhead trout were popular 

game fish (Chason 1981).

Bark Austria, lost at Ozette beach, 1887. 

(Bath Maritime Museum)

33
Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

The known ship losses of the Olympic Coast reflect 

a sample of the watercraft types in use at various 

times throughout the history of the Northwest Coast. 

The national marine sanctuary archaeological site 

database indicates more than 180 historic ships were 

lost in the vicinity of the Olympic Coast National Marine 

Sanctuary. Wreck environments range from shallow, 

near-shore regions along the Olympic Peninsula to 

the deep waters at the far western boundaries of the 

sanctuary. Historic shipwreck reports include 19th 

century square rigged ships, side-wheel steamers, 

coastal schooners, tugs, barges and both sail and 

engine-powered sealers and fishing boats. 

The causes of loss are many. As with other such nexus of 

shipping lanes, Cape Flattery has claimed many ships 

from collision. Navigational error and storms have led 

some ships onto the rocky coast. Others have simply 

vanished once leaving sight of Tatoosh Light at Cape 

Flattery. The earliest known wreck is the St. Nicholas, a 

Russian brig stranded on the beach north of La Push 

in 1808. Several significant shipwrecks are believed to 

have taken place within sanctuary waters including the 

St. Nicholas (1808), Lord Raglan (1854), Southerner

(1854), Pacific (1875), Commodore (1877), HMS 

Condor (1901), Prince Arthur (a.k.a. the “Norwegian 

Wreck”) (1903) and the W.J. Pirrie (a.k.a. the “Chilean 

wreck”) (1920).

The sanctuary has initiated several surveys to locate 

and document historic shipwrecks within its boundaries. 

A multi-year initiative to inventory historic shipwrecks 

within the nearshore area from Koitlah Point (in the 

Strait of Juan de Fuca), around Tatoosh Island and 

Cape Flattery, and south to Klaloch and Destruction 

Island located the physical remains of only four out 

of 10 historically reported shipwrecks. These surveys 

underscored the effects of the fierce winter storms 

in the region. Shallow water wrecks in this area were 

apparently demolished by wind and waves or covered 

in sand. Ships identified in these surveys included:

General M.C. Meigs – A WWII-era troop transport lost in 

1972 on Rialto Beach.

Emily Farnum – Only the railroad tie cargo of the wooden 

ship was located at the south end of Destruction Island.

Lamut – This 1919 U.S.-built freighter was owned by 

Soviet Russia when it sank during WWII at Teawit Head.

Temple Bar – Built in 1929, the Temple Bar was bound 

for Japan with a load of scrap metal in 1939 when it 

grounded near Quillayute Needles. 

Ellen Foster – Built in 1854 as a three-masted clipper, the 

Foster was carrying a load of railroad iron when it sank at 

the south end of Destruction Island in 1875.

Austria – The bark Austria was traveling in ballast to 

Tacoma when it grounded at Cape Alava. In order to 

save the, crew the captain ran it almost up to shore at 

the base of the Makah tribes village at Ozette.

The sanctuary has also initiated a search for potential 

submerged prehistoric and Native American archaeological resources. A sanctuary-sponsored assessment 

of the submerged geology of the sanctuary submerged 

bottomland indicates that Paleo-era shorelines may 

not be favorable for harboring archaeological remains. 

However, due to the possible sea level rise in this area 

prehistoric remains could be extant on the land areas 

adjacent to the sanctuary (Wesson 2003). 

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Prehistoric – Characterization of the Paleo-environment of the region suggests that sea levels may have 

been up to four meters higher than modern levels. The 

sanctuary partners with regional researchers to conduct terrestrial archaeological surveys to characterize 

the prehistoric habitation of the region. The Olympic 

Coast’s proximity to the supposed migration routes 

of the Bering landbridge makes it a critical area to 

search for evidence of early Asian migration into the 

New World.

Historic – Following the rise of the late 18th century 

fur industry, the Northwest Pacific Coast saw a rapid 

increase of European and American maritime commerce, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. Archaeological survey suggests that environmental conditions are not conducive to preservation in the shallow nearshore environments of the Olympic Peninsula. 

However, there is excellent potential for preservation in 

the sanctuary’s deep waters where historical records 

suggest that numerous ships were lost. Olympic Coast 

National Marine Sanctuary may concentrate on an 

archaeological survey here in future years.

“The WW II-era troopship General M.C. Meigs wrecked 

on the beach at Portage Head in January, 1972.” 

(OCNMS)

34
Gulf of the Farallones 

and Cordell Bank 

National Marine 

Sanctuaries

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary 

encompasses 948 square nautical miles of nearshore 

and offshore waters and seabed of the eastern 

Pacific. Located just a few miles from cosmopolitan 

San Francisco, it is north of and contiguous with 

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Central 

California. The name “Farallones” is Spanish for 

“small rocky islands” referring to the islands of 

that name. The Gulf of the Farallones, averaging 26 

meters in depth, constitutes the largest portion of the 

sanctuary. It lies over a wide part of the continental 

shelf that extends almost 30 nautical miles into 

the Pacific Ocean. The submerged granite ridge that 

forms the Farallon Islands interrupts the western 

edge of the gulf approximately 26 miles west of 

San Francisco. The sanctuary contains a wide range 

of environments, including nearshore wetlands, 

subtidal reefs and deep water. The bays and wetlands 

within the sanctuary include Bodega Bay, Estero de 

Americano, Estero San Antonia, Tomales Bay and 

Bolinas Lagoon. 

The continental shelf in the region of the Gulf of the 

Farallones sanctuary differs from Monterey Bay’s 

narrow shelf. Here, the shelf widens from six miles 

to almost 31 miles offshore before narrowing to less 

than one mile off Monterey. 

About 18,000 to 19,000 years ago, the Pleistocene 

sea level was at its lowest level of 125 meters below 

modern sea level leaving much of the region exposed. 

By 15,000 years ago melting glaciers caused a 

relatively rapid, but fluctuating sea level rise until it 

stabilized at about 20 meters below modern levels. 

Cordell Bank was, by then, submerged. The shoreline 

of this period, like Monterey Bay, was within 11/2 

miles west of the modern shoreline. The shore was 

marked by bays and estuaries along the coasts at the 

river valleys (MMS 1990c).

Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a 

submerged seamount discovered by George Davidson 

of the U.S. Coast Survey in 1853. It was named for 

Edward Cordell, also part of the U.S. Coast Survey, 

who mapped it in 1869. Cordell had assisted Henry 

Stellwagen with mapping Stellwagen Bank off of 

Massachusetts in 1854. The granite formation, which 

is located about 18 miles west of Point Reyes ranges 

from 50 to 200 meters in depth and covers about 397 

square nautical miles. During the lowest Pleistocene 

sea level, Cordell Bank shared the same sea level 

history as the nearby Gulf of the Farallones.

Native Peoples

As with the Monterey region, little is known and 

much is speculated about the Paleo-Indian people who inhabited the Central California coast in 

the late-Pleistocene/Holocene Epoch. The coastal 

region was inhabited about 11,000 years ago. Any 

nearshore sites would have been inundated by the 

rising sea levels. This event would have forced humans 

and animals to retreat inland. The people probably 

harvested a diversity of resources, hunting birds like 

cormorant, pelican, and goose mammals such as 

bear, mountain lion, deer and rabbit and sea mammals including sea otter, harbor seal and sea lion. 

They also likely harvested shellfish and caught fish in 

the lagoons and estuaries.

By about 8,000 years ago, the Archaic cultural shift 

occurred in which the people seemed less migratory 

and more sedentary in established villages. Terrestrial 

archaeological evidence indicates that some coastal 

groups relied more on the resources of the lagoons 

and marine environments, although the hunting of 

marine mammals declined in importance. Between 

5,500 and 1,000 years ago intense harvesting and 

processing of shellfish became more important as 

a food-gathering activity. As the Indians subsistence 

techniques changed, their stone tools became more 

refined (MMS 1990c).

The indigenous people who lived in the Marin County 

region by about 4,000 years ago were of the Penutian 

linguistic group, as were the coastal people of the 

Monterey Bay region. The Penutian-speakers were 

related to the Inland Miwok. The Coastal Miwok, like 

most other Central California groups, were a smaller 

tribe than their inland relatives. Their range extended 

from the coast of San Francisco Bay in Marin County 

to about five miles north of Bodega Bay. They lived in 

a temperate environment, subsisting on the tanbark 

oak’s acorns in addition to other seeds and roots. 

The Russian American Fur Company brought 

native Aleut otter hunters from Alaska. They 

netted, speared, and clubbed animals from 

their skin-covered kayaks, called baidarkas 

by the Russians. (Library of Congress)

35
They supplemented their plant diets with surf fish 

caught in dip nets and bay fish caught in woventule seines. They also hunted deer, elk, bear and 

numerous small mammals and rodents.

The Miwok lived near the coast and along the lagoons 

in conical, thatched huts that could hold nearly 10 

people. The Spanish encountered the Miwok in the 

1700s noting that — like the Ohlone groups around 

Monterey Bay — they used canoes made of bound tule 

rushes. These boats were gathered into cigar-shaped 

bundles and made into rafts and canoes. The natives 

used the craft for transportation and fishing in sloughs 

and bays. 

The 18th century encroachment of the Spanish into 

the region radically changed the native peoples’ 

culture. The Spanish immediately set up missions 

to Christianize the natives. The Europeans benefited 

from native neophyte labor in the mission fields and 

compounds. At first the natives came voluntarily, 

drawn by novelty, gifts and trade but after their 

experience with the harsh mission life they became 

harder to attract and many ran away or died.

European Colonial Period

Spanish – The Spanish first explored Central 

California’s coast in 1542. Subsequent voyages of 

exploration probed northward along the California 

coast past the Farallones before turning west toward 

the Orient.

Thirty-seven years after the initial Spanish exploration, 

England’s Sir Francis Drake challenged Spanish 

hegemony in the Pacific as he raided Spanish 

possessions and explored the California coast. He 

stopped to careen his ship, Golden Hind, on the 

beach of what is now known as Drake’s Bay. The 

natives greeted the scurvy-ridden crew with gifts of 

salmon, sturgeon and mussels. Before leaving the 

area, Drake’s crew visited the Farallon Islands, or 

Islands of Saint James as he called them, to gather 

seal meat and bird eggs. 

Spanish explorers missed finding the San Francisco 

Bay because of an optical illusion that made the 

hills extending across the East Bay appear as a 

single continuous land mass. While their navigators 

frequently used the Farallones and Point Reyes as 

reckoning landmarks, they failed to notice the bay 

until the later part of the latter 18th century.

The Spanish gradually realized the importance 

of occupying California by the 1770s as several 

European countries began to show a presence in 

the Pacific. Early in that decade they established a 

presidio and three missions around San Francisco 

Bay including Mission San Francisco. Mission-related 

settlements soon spread about the San Francisco 

Bay region. In 1775 Lt. Francisco de La Bodega found 

and named Bodega and Tomales Bays. In 1817 

Father Junipero Serra built a hospital mission across 

the bay in Marin County to serve sick Indians and the 

brothers of Mission Dolores. The rangelands of the 

hospital mission, San Rafael Arcangel, extended to 

the tip of Tomales Bay.

The Russians provided the greatest immediate threat 

to the Spanish empire in California. Hunting otter 

for furs in Alaska in the early 1700s, they gradually 

worked their way down the Northwest Coast, and by 

1783 they established a permanent base north of 

San Francisco. 

European and American desires for a piece of the 

fur trade were accelerated in 1776 when an English 

crewman from Captain James Cook’s expedition to 

the Pacific reported the lucrative trade of Califor-

nia’s otter pelts in China. Although the Spanish gov-

ernment succeeded, temporarily, in suppressing the 

trade, the potential profits were too big. European, 

Yankee and Russian traders all shipped California 

pelts to China.

By the early 1800s, the Russian-American Fur Com-

pany was firmly entrenched north of San Francisco 

at Romanzov on Bodega Bay. In 1812, as a result 

of Spanish harassment, the Russians established 

Fort Ross north of Bodega Bay. This self-contained 

Russian community became the base for the 

Russian fur trade. 

The Russians regularly transported native Aleut 

hunters from Alaska to California’s central coast and 

islands to set up temporary stations from which to hunt 

seals and otters. These expert hunters, transported to 

the sites on Russian ships, hunted from their native 

baidarkas. So named by the Russians, baidarkas

were wooden-framed, hide-covered kayaks, which 

the Aleuts handled with much skill and efficiency. 

Their Russian masters, however, failed to adequately 

supply them, and many, like one encampment in the 

Farallon Islands in 1819, were abandoned. Due to 

their own inefficient supply network across Siberia, 

the Russians quit their settlements by the 1820s. The 

western fur trade in California ended by the 1830s 

when the seal and otter populations were hunted to 

near-extinction. 

Like the Russians, the Spanish settlements were 

dependent upon imported foodstuffs that arrived by 

sea only sporadically. Invasive European animal and 

crop species coupled with Native American land use 

practices upset the local ecology. This resulted in a 

famine that nearly wiped out most of the mission 

Indians by the early 1800s.

Mexican – Mexico’s independence from Spain, won 

in 1821, altered California’s social and economic 

systems. While many Spanish and Mexicans settled 

into the privileged life of ranch owners (rancheros), 

many foreigners — especially Yankee traders and 

American expatriates — settled in the community 

that formed in Yerba Buena, a port town on the bay 

that became known as San Francisco. The Mexican 

government temporarily opened California’s ports to 

36
foreign vessels in hopes of generating revenues from 

import duties and foreign fur traders were soon joined 

by hide and tallow traders and whalers.

San Francisco Bay soon became a melting pot of 

different cultures. The door, once opened, could not 

be shut. The Mexican government frowned upon the 

permanent residence of foreign nationals but was 

unable to halt it. The people living in California during 

the 1830s and 1840s combined a mixture of Old 

World practices and New World influences to form their 

own unique culture. Colonists were joined by traders, 

seamen, trappers and merchants from around the 

world as Mexican rule became less enforceable. 

Mexico tried to reinforce its hold on the land by 

bestowing land grants to nationalists and foreigners 

willing to convert to Catholicism and become 

Mexican citizens. Mexican officials permitted the sale 

of former Russian lands to Americans like John A. 

Sutter and Stephen Smith in the early 1840s. In this 

manner much of California fell to the Yankee traders 

long before the first shots of the Mexican-American 

War were even fired.

As the fur trade was waning in the 1820s, the hide 

and tallow trade rejuvenated California’s economy. 

Yankee and European ships picked up cargos of 

cattle hides and barrels of rendered tallow from 

production sites at ranchos and smaller ports. These 

vessels often used San Francisco as a supply port 

and for storage until they made their trips around 

Cape Horn to the East Coast or to Europe.

San Francisco became a preferred base for whaling 

ships. The Orion was the first documented whaler 

to arrive in San Francisco Bay in 1822, but others 

followed within weeks. By the 1830s dozens of 

whaling ships were plying the Pacific, using San 

Francisco Bay as a provision and rest stop. 

The whalers also stopped at the Farallon Islands to 

obtain fresh water and wood. It is also probable that 

the islands served as the whalers’ base for smuggling 

and illegal trade. The abuse of trading privileges 

prompted the Mexican officials to reinstate trade 

restrictions in the 1830s and threaten more vigorous 

enforcement during the 1840s. By that time whalers 

comprised 21 percent of the United States merchant 

fleet and the Atlantic whale populations were already 

decimated. Their desire for a Pacific port-of-call was 

a primary motive for the annexation of California.

American Period

The acquisition of California’s ports was, by the 1830s 

and 1840s, deemed essential to the domination of 

the Pacific basin. The United States was not the only 

nation interested in San Francisco Bay — the English 

and French also sent navigators to map the coast 

and to observe political and maritime activities. 

All three governments sent emissaries to Mexico 

to negotiate a purchase. When President Andrew 

Jackson’s offer was rejected, Washington encouraged 

more Americans to move west and the U.S. Navy 

increased patrols in the region. 

American interest in California was made more 

obvious when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of 

the United States Exploring Expedition charted San 

Francisco Bay and the nearby coastline in 1841. 

A large American force remained in California until 

early 1843, and warships visited the Bay area 

between 1844 and 1845.

During America’s war with Mexico in 1846, 

Commodore John B. Montgomery of the USS 

Portsmouth captured San Francisco in a bloodless 

conquest. The U.S. Navy installed a blockade that 

disrupted trade but was never challenged by Mexico. 

As a result of the war, the U.S. Navy established a 

base at Mare Island in San Pablo Bay. 

Immediately after California gained independence 

from Mexico in 1846, merchants and politicians 

took action to recruit additional settlers to speed the 

Americanization process. In the spring of 1847, three 

military transports carrying nearly 600 volunteers 

passed through the Golden Gate to colonize the new 

territory. Several companies of soldiers were also 

sent to strengthen the fort at San Francisco.

The new American territory did not have to wait long 

for the population to grow. Following news of the gold 

strike at Sutter’s Mill on the American River, thousands 

arrived to seek their fortune in the gold fields. San 

Francisco Bay was truly the “Golden Gate” to the 

Sacramento Valley and the riches that the gold veins 

promised. The resulting gold rush was the single most 

formative event in California’s history, as well as a 

defining moment in American history.

After the 1848 gold strike, hundreds of vessels of 

varying size, rig and registry sailed or steamed into 

San Francisco Bay. Besides being a safe haven, 

the bay provided easy access to the rivers piercing 

the gold-laden Sierra foothills. Both raw and 

manufactured goods arrived by ship to support 

the burgeoning civilization. Lumber, bricks, food, 

machinery and labor all came in the holds of ships. 

The USS Dolphin, a navy brigantine research ship, 

surveyed parts of the California coast for 

Lieutenant Charles Wilkes’ U.S. Exploring 

Expedition in 1838. The fast hull design also made 

Dolphin useful in the suppression of the slave 

trade off Africa in the 1840s and in hunting pirates 

in the Caribbean and coastal American waters. 

(Library of Congress)

37
They brought everything to erect a civilization in the 

bucolic landscape. Many ships were abandoned as 

their entire crew jumped ship to work the gold fields. 

Passengers to California came by several routes. 

Some arrangements included overland treks through 

the jungles and deserts of Panama, Nicaragua or 

Mexico connecting the water routes between New 

York and San Francisco. These overland routes saved 

money and time but the journey was difficult and 

hazardous. The surest route was to sail the 18,000 

miles from New York to San Francisco via stormy Cape 

Horn, a voyage that usually took five months. Those 

that could afford to do so sailed around the Horn on 

the fast clipper ships, making the trip in less than 

100 days. Speed was important in order to reap the 

benefits of the boom in San Francisco, and passenger 

and cargo space commanded a hefty price. 

Steamships also carried the California-bound immigrants. The beginning of the westward rush coincided with the initiation of monthly runs by the Pacific 

mail steamers. The first to depart New York was the 

California, a 1,050-ton side-wheel steamer with 

accommodations for 60 salon passengers plus 150 

in the steerage. With the establishment of the Panama 

and Nicaragua routes, steamers could sometimes cut 

travel time from New York to just half as long as it took 

a clipper to sail around South America’s Cape Horn.

The increased population provided a new market for 

locally produced consumer goods in California. Before 

the advent of the transcontinental railroad in the 1850s 

and 1860s, most of the region’s food was brought by 

ship. Staples like butter, flour, fruit and vegetables 

came from the East Coast, Hawaii, Oregon and South 

America. Ice was transported from Alaska and coal 

made its way down the coast from Oregon and British 

Columbia, everything destined for San Francisco. 

After the initial turmoil of the Gold Rush and statehood, 

San Francisco again became an active homeport 

for whalers. During the 1870s, steam whaling ships 

operated out of the San Francisco city, initiating a new 

era in American whaling and making San Francisco 

the world’s principal whaling center. By the 1930s, the 

whaling industry entered a decline and businessmen 

turned to more lucrative industries like petroleum.

As San Francisco grew, an Inter-coastal trade grew 

between the bay communities and other coastal 

regions such as Bodega and Tomales bays and Reyes 

Point. Dairy ranches replaced the Mexican ranchos 

north of San Francisco, while privately-owned ranches 

on Tomales Point and Point Reyes produced butter and 

hogs for San Francisco’s population. Farmers provided 

cheese, butter, hogs, calves and lambs shipped by 

coastal schooners. In return they imported feed, grain 

and finery that entered through the city’s wharves. 

Schooners with names like Fourth of July, Frances 

Valentine and Alviso sailed a circuit between Point 

Reyes and San Francisco. The port of Bodega shipped 

locally grown potatoes, while Point Bonita at the tip of 

the Marin Peninsula remained isolated. 

Although they were generally considered too far 

away and in too hostile of an environment to support 

farming, the Farallon Islands still contributed to the 

local economy. Entrepreneurs attempted to make 

money by collecting gull and murre eggs on the islands 

and selling them in San Francisco for $1 apiece. A 

violent conflict erupted over the practice of some egg 

collectors who crushed existing eggs on their first visit 

to ensure the freshness of eggs gathered on future 

trips. Returning gatherers found that competitors had 

already smashed newly laid eggs for the same reasons 

and arguments led to open fighting and bloodshed. 

Eventually the Farallon Egg Company won a monopoly 

on the industry but the smashing of so many eggs 

nearly destroyed the native bird population.

Several other economic activities developed in the 

wake of the Gold Rush. During the Native American, 

Spanish and Mexican periods, fishing was smallscale and usually conducted by Indians for personal 

consumption. Following the Gold Rush, the industry 

grew rapidly along the coast in order to feed the 

thousands of new mouths. The Chinese were the 

first people to become involved in an intensive 

fishing industry.

Fishing primarily for shrimp, Chinese fishing villages 

and camps grew at Point San Pedro and Tomales Bay. 

Their fishing junks were common offshore sights in the 

1850s and 1860s. Of varying sizes and designs, the 

junks commonly exhibited steep sheer, high sterns, a 

broad beam and shallow draft. Their tall, matting sails, 

called “balanced lugs,” were easy to maneuver and 

permitted small crews. The Chinese fishermen also 

utilized small, flat-bottomed sampans built of redwood 

for inshore fishing. While sometimes propelled by sail, 

they were more commonly moved by sculling-oars. 

By the end of the 19th century, Genovese fishermen 

from San Francisco regularly fished at Drake’s Bay. 

They fished commercially for herring, oysters, salmon, 

crab, perch, striped bass, rock cod, tuna and sardines 

(Goode 1887).

Other immigrant fishermen from the Mediterranean 

Sea who fished out of the San Francisco region 

included Italians, Greeks and Yugoslavians. They all 

used the distinctive Mediterranean felucca individually 

manned boats that were plumb sterned with shallowdraft bottoms and a single, triangular lateen sail. The 

colorfully painted vessels used oars and sail, and were 

capable of sailing in the offshore waters. 

By about 1912, the felucca was replaced by the 

Monterey clipper, a slower but larger and more durable 

boat with a clipper bow. These sail- and later gaspowered boats had the capability for extended fishing 

expeditions and remained the standard small-fishing 

craft until the 1960s.

Wood was the primary construction material of the 19th 

century and the local supply was quickly depleted by 

the needs of the rapid population growth of the Gold 

Rush. A high value was, therefore, placed on imported 

lumber. Virtually the only way to transport wood in the 

19th century was by ship.

Many immigrant people brought their indigenous 

watercraft styles to the United States. The San Francisco 

Bay region’s Italian fishermen used their native feluccas. 

(Smithsonian Institution)

38
During the Mexican period in 1834, the northern 

missions had cut local stands of redwood, utilizing 

American J.B.R. Cooper’s water-powered sawmill 

on the Russian River. It is ironic that while a nearly 

unlimited supply of lumber grew near San Francisco 

in the 1840s, local settlers persisted in importing 

their lumber from the Hawaiian Islands. Several 

local mills operated in the region such as one built 

by Stephen Smith in 1843 in the redwoods east of 

Bodega. Other sawmills were soon established along 

the coast and bay shores with lumbering operations 

centered in the area between San Francisco and 

Humboldt Bay. In the Gold Rush days, lumber in San 

Francisco could cost $500 per thousand feet while 

it was only $10 from the mills along the Columbia 

River. Vessels also brought milled lumber from Santa 

Cruz (MMS 1990c). 

Loading the lumber presented logistical problems 

since most lumber ports were at inlets along the coast 

rather than in protected harbors. Schooners tacked 

into deep draws and coves as close as breakers 

permitted. Called “dog holes,” these anchorages 

could only accommodate the smallest ships. When 

moored at the bow and stern, they remained at the 

mercy of sudden gales.

Sometimes when inlets were too small or shores were 

too rocky, “sea-wagons” were moored under high cliffs 

to receive cargos. The lumber was lowered down onto 

these vessels via a wooden slide. Other times, the 

cargo was loaded directly into the vessels. Later a wire 

cable was sometimes stretched between the cliff and 

anchored on the seabed. The ships, lying underneath 

the cable, received materials from slings.

In the late-19th century, lumber cut along the banks 

of the Columbia River was sometimes towed to San 

Francisco in great rafts of wood up to 600 feet long, 

60 feet across and 26 feet deep, containing as much 

as 4 million board feet.

The discovery of fossil fuels led to commercial 

exploitation of oil in California in 1865. By 1901 

Standard Oil of New Jersey had developed a large 

oil refinery on the shores of San Francisco Bay. The 

company brought scores of new vessels carrying 

crude oil along the coast to San Francisco. During 

the 1920s, numerous oil, gasoline and kerosene 

tankers navigated the Pacific Coast.

Rum running also became a commercial venture at 

Point Reyes during Prohibition. Ships that carried 

contraband from Canada and Mexico remained 

offshore while cases of liquor were shuttled through 

the breakers. The beaches along Point Reyes became 

the most popular landing spots. Waiting trucks or 

small sailboats transported the liquor from the point 

to Tomales Bay to the north. Less visible, blackpainted motor launches eventually made numerous 

secret crossings to Tomales Bay and local residents 

regularly frustrated attempts by federal agents 

to block the illegal trade. The business flourished 

until the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933.

Navigation Improvements – With no navigational aids 

along the rugged coastline and islands, shipwrecks 

occurred with great frequency. On the recommendation of a U.S. Coast Survey report, construction on 

the Southeast Farallon Island lighthouse was begun in 1852. Building supplies were carried to the 

island by ship and hauled 300 feet up crumbling 

slopes to the site. The lighthouse was completed on 

January 1, 1856. 

Point Reyes was reputed to be the foggiest and 

windiest place on the California coast, but a planned 

lighthouse for the point was delayed due to the 

landowner’s excessive requested price. During the 

period of negotiations, 14 ships wrecked in the 

area. Construction began after the price dropped 

and the lamp was finally lit in December 1870. 

World War II – During World War II, the Mare Island 

Navy Yard’s dry docks were used to repair ships 

damaged in battle with the Japanese. The port 

facilities, spread throughout San Francisco Bay, made 

an ideal staging area for men and supplies needed 

in the Pacific. Although anticipated Japanese attacks 

never materialized, the threat of submarine attack 

prompted defensive actions throughout the region. 

The Navy maintained offshore patrols, the Coast 

Guard patrolled the shores. Army training camps 

and gun installations on Point Reyes guarded the 

beaches, and the Army Air Corps used other beaches 

for target practice. Submerged wire anti-submarine 

nets were also strung across the mouth of the bay. 

A war-related sinking occurred within the waters 

of the Gulf of the Farallones sanctuary when the 

Liberty-ship transport Henry Bergh rammed Southeast Farallon Island in 1944 loaded with 1,000 

returning, battle-weary veterans. Fortunately, everyone aboard made it to the island in landing craft 

although the ship was lost.

Milled lumber was passed from the high bluffs 

north of San Francisco Bay to waiting coastal 

schooners moored in tight “dog holes.” 

(Courtesy San Fransisco Maritime NMP, photo 

# E11.18,751, May Groaper Coon Collection.)

39
Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

Several inventories have been published of the historical shipwrecks in the Gulf of the Farallones region. 

The National Park Service has reported 136 wrecks 

in the Gulf of Farallones sanctuary waters. Several 

wreck sites in the intertidal zone have been located 

and inventoried by the National Park Service including 

the steamer SS Tennessee (actually within the Monterey Bay sanctuary), clipper King Philip and schooner 

Neptune (outside of sanctuary boundaries) (Murphy 

1982 and Delgado 1989). Minerals Management Services has also documented reports of numerous shipwrecks off the Central California coast, some within 

the sanctuary boundaries (MMS 1990). The California State Lands Commission has created a shipwreck 

database that includes an inventory of this region as 

well (http://shipwrecks.slc.ca.gov/). These works provide the foundation for an inventory of the submerged 

cultural resources in both Gulf of the Farallones and 

Monterey Bay national marine sanctuaries.

In 2002 a shipwreck in the Gulf of the Farallones 

sanctuary was found to be the source of periodic oil 

discharge from its aging bunker fuel tanks. The C-3 

freighter Jacob Luckenbach, originally the WWII era 

troop transport Sea Robin, collided with another ship 

and sank off the Golden Gate in nearly 200 feet of water. For years, periodic episodes of oil soiled beaches 

and seabirds were reported but no source could be 

identified. Following the discovery of its source, an 

intense 10-month oil recovery project removed 

approximately 100,000 gallons of oil. 

The Joint Management Plan review process between 

Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay 

sanctuaries identifies maritime heritage as a priority. 

Emphasis has been placed on developing a maritime 

heritage capacity that includes the ability to inventory 

and document maritime heritage that include archaeological and historical properties as well as specific 

cultural heritage associated with the sanctuary.

Potential Archaeological

Resources

Native American – Little is known about the PaleoIndians of coastal Central California. By 11,000 years 

ago, the generally accepted date of earliest human 

habitation, the sea level was already rising. The PaleoCoastal people may have either lived in the nearshore 

environment or lived inland and traveled to the shore 

to hunt marine mammals.

In order to learn the nature of Paleo-Coastal habitation on the exposed late-Pleistocene/Holocene 

Continental Shelf, geophysical studies and prehistoric site modeling should be developed based 

on previously published regional archaeological 

assessments. Site prediction and sediment sampling 

would establish previous shorelines and relict landforms. Any prehistoric cultural material would be of 

extreme significance. 

Cordell Bank is also a candidate for testing for 

prehistoric cultural material. An island existed here at 

the presently understood time of human habitation in 

coastal California. It is within the realm of possibility 

that maritime populations could have visited in Tulerush canoes or other watercraft.

Historic – Historically, the Farallon Islands and the 

mainland coast north of the Golden Gate have presented hazardous navigational obstacles to shipping. 

Today we are reminded of past shipwrecks in the place 

names. Such places as Franconia Bay, Noonday Rock, 

Duxbury Point and Duxbury Reef, are all named for 

shipwrecks. 

Year-round fog and dangerous winds and storms often 

led ships onto rocks and beaches to be pounded by 

the Pacific swells. Fierce currents have always swept 

in and out of the entrance to the Golden Gate. Ships 

were most vulnerable when trying to approach San 

Francisco or when trading along the coast seeking 

the shallow anchorages at Bodega, Tomales, Drake’s 

Bay and Bolinas Bay. Until the 20th century, existing 

charts were incomplete and sometimes misleading. 

Lighthouses, buoys and other navigational aids were 

nonexistent until the 1850s. Many known shipwrecks 

litter the ocean floor of the Gulf of the Farallones 

sanctuary and they may also be found in Cordell Bank 

National Marine Sanctuary although no known historic 

wrecks have been discovered to date. 

The earliest recorded wreck in the sanctuary area was 

a Spanish Manila galleon, San Agustin, which sank in 

a gale while anchored in Drake’s Bay in 1595. Several 

archaeological surveys have yet to provide conclusive 

evidence of the ship’s remains. Another loss, the 

Ayacucho, was a brig that was engaged in the coastal 

trade that was described by Richard Henry Dana in his 

book, Two Years Before the Mast. Reportedly wrecked 

within Drake’s Bay in 1841, she sank with a cargo of 

silks, brandy and other manufactured items.

Remnants of fishing stations, wharves and makeshift 

landings may also exist within the sanctuary. While little 

probably remains of the coastal lumber shoots that 

were built on the rocks, wrecked lumber schooners and 

equipment may exist at lumber operation dog holes. 

40

The sampan was the utility boat of choice for the 

Chinese fisheries along the central California Coast.

(Library of Congress)
Monterey Bay National

Marine Sanctuary

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary covers 

approximately 5,300 square nautical miles of seabed. 

It encompasses the bay and the adjacent coastline 

from Rocky Point above the mouth of the San 

Francisco Bay in the north to Cambria at the southern 

boundary. Its submarine canyon equals the size of the 

Grand Canyon and divides the bay into northern and 

southern halves. Although the sanctuary now extends 

across the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, the Gulf of 

the Farallones chapter addresses the history of that 

region. The sanctuary headquarters are located in 

Monterey, which is a Preserve America Community.

Native Peoples

Archaeological evidence of the Paleo-coastal cultural 

period in the Monterey Bay region between 10,000 

and 7,500 years ago is scarce. During this period, 

the shoreline rapidly receded from about six miles to 

about one mile beyond the present shoreline (MMS 

1990c). The rapid sea-level rise would have had a 

dramatic effect on the lives of the native populations, 

who would have been repeatedly uprooted and forced 

to move inland. 

It is thought that during this time a seasonal settlement pattern with more dependable subsistence 

practices caused an accompanying cultural adaptation. These Indian people lived around the 

lagoons and marshes of the coastal region and 

probably did not hunt large game as did their 

contemporaries in other regions of the continent. 

Instead, they likely hunted smaller game, fished and 

gathered shellfish and other food from the estuarine 

environments (MMS 1990c).

A new and distinctive pattern emerged at about 

2,000 years ago in which the earlier, probably Hokanspeaking group, were replaced or absorbed by a 

Coastanoan language-speaking people. These people, 

the probable ancestors of the Spanish contact-era 

people, are thought to have had a more sedentary 

economy and society that may have included labor 

specializations. Activities most likely focused on 

collecting and processing marine resources at stations 

and transporting them further inland to permanent 

villages, and specialized tools were developed as 

processing stations became more efficient. 

The various Native American groups who lived in the 

Monterey Bay area at the time of Spanish contact 

did not consider themselves to be related nor to 

have any political unity. They were lumped together 

as Coastanoans (coastal dwellers) by the Spanish 

who had little understanding of the native peoples’ 

cultures. Today, the fifty-odd groups are generally 

referred to as the Ohlone, a word similar to the 

Miwok word-Alchone or Olchone-meaning “people in 

the west.”

These people lived in the Monterey Bay region for over 

4,000 years before the arrival of the Spanish in the 

1700s. In addition to collecting acorns and shellfish, 

they hunted birds, fish, small mammals, seals, and 

sea lions. Their rich and stable environment permitted 

the native peoples to develop organized societies. 

They made clamshell disk beads and used them for 

currency in trading with other tribes, much like the 

Chumash to the south. The also traded other types of 

shell beads, obsidian, pine nuts and cinnabar. 

Spanish explorers described the boats used by the 

Ohlone people living around Monterey Bay. The Coast 

Miwok and Ohlone used canoes made from bundles 

of lashed tule rushes to fish and travel in the esteros 

or estuaries and sheltered bays. 

By 1810, Spanish influence had destroyed the social 

organization of the Ohlone. In their zeal to “civilize” 

the native people, they built missions at Santa Cruz, 

Monterey and Carmel to Christianize the natives and 

to turn them into farmers. The native farmers were 

refered to as “neophytes.” An attempt to transfer 

lands into the neophyte farmers failed and by 1830 

they were reduced to ranch hands or, in some cases 

were virtual slaves to wealthy rancheros. The Ohlone people of Central California used tule 

reed bundles to construct rafts and canoes for travel 

and fishing in the esteros and nearshore waters. 

(courtesy of San Francisco Maritime NHP, 

photo #A7.19,417)

41
European Colonial Period

Spanish – Although the Spanish first sighted California 

in 1542, it was only intermittently investigated until 

the close of the 17th century. In 1603, Sebastian 

Viscaino explored Monterey Bay in search of a 

suitable place for the Manila galleons to refit and 

find fresh food and waters after their long voyage 

across the Pacific. The bay was named in honor of 

Viscaino’s viceroy, the Conde de Monterey. For about 

two centuries thereafter the Central California coast 

received few foreign visitors. 

Renewed fear of the growing presence of English 

and Russian powers on the Pacific American coast 

prompted Spanish attempts to colonize the coast 

in the 18th century. Plans were made to find 

Viscaino’s harbor and to establish a religious and 

civil settlement there. Gaspar de Portola and Juan 

Crespi reached Monterey Bay by land in June 1770, 

and Father Junipero Serra followed several days later 

in the San Antonio to found the mission at Monterey.

Early mission life was difficult. Monterey was months 

away from the nearest supply base in New Spain. 

The missionaries frequently ran short of supplies 

because their supply ships (under 200 tons) were 

too small to carry more than a few months’ rations 

in their holds.

Several satellite missions were built after the founding 

of Monterey. In order to pursue more fertile lands and 

to keep the soldiers away from the native women, 

the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was 

moved five miles away from the Monterey presidio to 

a new site on the Carmel River. 

Mission Santa Cruz was founded in 1791 on the north 

shore of Monterey Bay. Prospects for that mission 

looked good until 1797 when nine convicts and 

their families, known as “undesirables,” arrived from 

Mexico and established an unsavory pueblo known 

as Branciforte. The Brancifortians encroached upon 

the mission lands, usurping pastures and corrupting 

many of the mission’s neophytes. 

The small Spanish settlement at Monterey became 

the capital of California in 1777. Since a presidio 

was located here, it was the center of regional 

government, and for a time, maritime trade.

The missions at Monterey Bay were sustained by Indian 

labor. There was no industrial base apart from the 

soap-making, leather-working, weaving, milling and 

blacksmithing that was done primarily by the native 

neophyte laborers. The Spanish were dependent upon 

shipments of supplies and manufactured goods from 

Mexico that arrived sporadically by sea and generally 

in insufficient quantities. 

The isolated settlers welcomed opportunities to 

trade with vessels, and the most desired trade items 

were California otter pelts. In the 1780s, Monterey 

was one of California’s primary trade centers. The 

missionaries acquired otter and seal pelts through 

barter with the local tribes.

The natives hunted otters from their tule rush canoes 

at the rookeries at Pillar Point, Point Ano Nueveo 

and Santa Cruz Point, but the animals often stayed 

offshore in the kelp in the southern areas of Point Sur 

and Cooper’s Point. The natives spread nets on the 

kelp beds and also used snares and clubs to hunt 

the otters. The Indians were the main otter and seal 

hunters until the Russians brought in Aleut Indian 

hunters during the Mexican Era. 

Spanish government frigates loaded pelts at Monterey 

and transported them to San Blas via Santa Barbara 

or San Diego. The skins were then sent overland to 

Mexico City to be dressed and stored until they could 

be transported to China by Manila galleons. In China 

the furs were often exchanged for quicksilver, which 

was needed in Mexico’s silver mines to help extract 

the metal. 

After English Captain James Cook’s voyage in 

1776, illegal foreign trade with the local Californians 

increased. The Russian-American Company hired 

skilled fur-hunting natives of the Alaskan Aleutian 

Islands to hunt between San Francisco and Monterey 

in 1808. The Aleut otter hunters used kayaks, called 

baidarkas by the Russians, which used a light frame 

constructed of thin strips of wood or whalebone and 

fastened together with skin sinews. Seal or sea lion 

skins were then stretched over the frame, the seams 

were sewn, and the skin surface was smeared with oil 

to make it waterproof. The boatmen, clothed in skin, 

fastened the lower edge of their jackets to rings around 

the vessel’s openings to keep the interior dry.

As a result of the fur trade, California was brought 

into the rapidly developing network of Pacific trade 

routes. From Yankee and European perspectives, a 

circular route between California, Hawaii and China 

was advantageous since it kept their cargo holds full 

of trade items. 

Mexican – After gaining independence from Spain 

in 1821, Mexico temporarily relaxed the trade 

restrictions set by Spain, primarily because the new 

government in Mexico City had no way to provide for 

its citizens. The settlers were instructed to rely upon 

their own resources, but the decree was of little 

Monterey was Central California’s governmental and 

economic center during the Spanish and Mexican 

Periods. (Library of Congress)

42
consequence because foreign traders were already 

exhibiting and increasing their presence. 

The secularization of church properties in 1833 

ushered in the rancho period. Qualified citizens who 

could prove their ability to support their holdings 

were granted between one and 11 league rancho 

(or Spanish) grants. These ranchos became virtual 

principalities since the Indian labor was cheap and 

cattle proliferated in the climate. The owners, called 

Californios, prospered and reportedly led lives of 

relative ease.

As otters were over-hunted, cattle hide and tallow prod-

ucts took over as the main economic export. The cattle 

were rendered to produce tallow used in candle and soap 

production. The hides, first soaked in seawater, were sundried before they were shipped to the East Coast or to 

Britain to be made into boots and shoes. The hide trade 

was chronicled in Richard Henry Dana’s classic book, Two 

Years Before the Mast, which was significant because it 

informed Eastern readers for the first time about the lu-

crative resources of the California coast. 

In 1833 the missions still controlled the best lands, and 

their cattle herds provided the bulk of the hides used 

for export. The privatization and redistribution of mission 

lands improved the production and trade process. Ships, 

such as the Alert, were said to have collected as many as 

40,000 hides each. The hide trade flourished until 1846 

when the U.S. blockade of Mexican-controlled ports 

brought the trade to a halt. 

American Period

Yankee Traders – The era of the Yankee traders on the 

West Coast spanned from the Spanish-Mexican periods 

to the American era. In spite of the Mexicans’ desire 

to remain insulated from the rest of the world, persis-

tent American and European opportunists pressed their 

desire to trade. Traders from Boston and New Bedford 

inserted themselves into the trade network by introduc-

ing manufactured items to the Californios and Indians 

who developed a dependency on them. The rancheros 

often paid in hides, which became known as “California 

banknotes.”

The introduction of foreign visitors to the region had a 

great impact. American, English, French and Russian 

vessels carried crews that became intimately familiar 

with the coast. Many sailors followed the example of 

Thomas Doak, who in 1816 was the first U.S. citizen 

to settle in Monterey. Foreigners such as J.B.R. Cooper 

married into Californio families, became Mexican 

citizens, and received land grants allowing them to 

participate in the Mexican hide-and-tallow trade boom. 

Irish, Danish, Scottish, Italian, Portuguese, Chilean and 

Greek immigrants also settled near Monterey.

At the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, the 

United States blockaded the Mexican ports in California 

and brought a swift halt to trade. Many merchants went 

out of business when the profits from the hide and tallow 

trade diminished. A few merchants, such as Thomas O. 

Larkin (who was also, not coincidentally, the American 

consulate in Monterey and had extensive contacts with 

East Coast business concerns), prospered during the 

war by provisioning troops and residents cut off from 

their regular means of supply.

The towns of Monterey and Santa Cruz illustrate the 

dichotomy between the ranchero economy and the 

Yankee trade economies. In terms of economy, style and 

way of life, Monterey remained a Mexican town after the 

war until the early 1850s. Prominent Spanish families 

held Spanish land grants limiting the availability of 

lands to newcomers after the war. Having lost much of 

its population to the Gold Rush, Monterey remained a 

bucolic town throughout the rest of the century although 

it continued to be an import economics and political 

center. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, was transformed 

into the West Coast of New England by 1848. The 

mission and presidio had failed earlier and by 1849 

more Yankees and foreigners lived in or near the North 

Bay than anywhere else in California. (Rowland 1980)

Whaling – Although the California coast became a major 

19th century reprovisioning stop, Monterey was a minor 

whaling port. Occasional whaling ships put into Monterey 

for supplies while San Francisco flourished due to the 

superior nature of its harbors. Also, since most captains 

were engaged in illegal trade, they tended to avoid the 

intense government scrutiny to be found at Monterey, 

the capital. 

Some merchants tried to lure the whaling industry to 

Monterey. Larkin, the Yankee merchant in Monterey, 

hoped to capitalize on the hunters and attempted to 

induce whalers to the bay by advertising in New England 

newspapers. Despite Larkin’s efforts, however, the 

whalers preferred San Francisco. 

Whales were sometimes hunted within Monterey Bay 

when on their migratory runs but were not systematically 

pursued there. Small local shore whaling stations existed 

around the bay. Observers spotted whales from the cliffs 

and dispatched rowed whaleboats after the quarry. 

Small coastal whailing stations existed along California’s 

bay shores. Near-shore kills were “tried-out” at the beach 

stations. (courtesy of San Francisco Maritime NHP, photo 

#K11.19,440, Harpers Weekly)

43
The near shore kills were towed to trying stations on the 

beaches where the blubber was flensed and melted 

down. One such station was located at the mouth of 

Elkhorn Slough. 

American Acquisition – As noted earlier, England, France 

and the United States each recognized the importance 

of California’s ports as potential bases from which to 

conduct trade with the rest of the Pacific basin. All three 

governments sent emissaries to Mexico to negotiate a 

purchase. When President Andrew Jackson’s offer was 

rejected, Washington encouraged more Americans to 

move west.

While the Mexican government in California frowned on 

the permanent residence of foreigners during the 1830s 

and 1840s, they were too distant to control the practice. 

Traders, seamen and trappers joined colonists and mer-

chants from around the world as Mexican rule eroded. 

In 1835, President Jackson instructed his charge 

d’affaires in Mexico to begin negotiations “with the great 

object of securing the Bay of San Francisco” through 

the purchase of Northern California (Billington, 1982). 

When Mexico rejected the negotiations, Washington 

responded by sending the first naval vessel, the 

sloop of war Peacock to Monterey on the pretense of 

protecting American and Hawaiian maritime commerce 

at the request of Hawaiian merchants. Thereafter the 

United States’ Pacific Fleet became increasingly visible 

along the California coast, often in such guises as 

the U.S. Exploring Expedition, which made numerous 

observations around Monterey Bay in 1841.

In October 1842, the California, the lone Mexican naval 

vessel in Monterey, was nearly put out of commission 

by the U.S. Navy. Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby 

Jones, commander of the Pacific Squadron, hearing 

rumors of war between the United States and Mexico, 

anchored off Monterey and demanded the surrender of 

the province. On October 20, Jones seized Monterey, 

raised the US flag, and boarded the captured California. 

As the Americans paraded through town with bands 

playing, correspondence arrived from the East that made 

no mention of war. Two days later, a sheepish Jones 

returned to Monterey apologetically as the Mexican flag 

was restored to its rightful position. 

In the 1846 war with Mexico, the United States took 

California without a single naval battle, yet the Navy’s 

presence was pivotal. At the outbreak of the war, the 

United States Pacific Squadron was eight ships strong. 

A landing party from the USS Savannah, USS Cyane, 

and USS Levant seized Monterey on July 7. Two days 

later the crew of the Portsmouth took Yerba Buena (San 

Francisco) in a bloodless conquest. The show of the naval 

force at the principal port-towns, along with the use of 

sailors and marines as foot soldiers, was instrumental 

in securing California for the United States. 

Gold Rush and Coastal Trade – The Gold Rush, which 

began at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, had a profound effect 

on all of coastal California. Initially, much of Monterey’s 

population disappeared as people left to make a quick 

fortune in the gold fields. Eventually, many industries 

evolved to capitalize on the needs of the growing 

population of miners. 

A maritime coastal trade was spurred by the Gold 

Rush in the 1850s. The needs of the rapidly expanding 

population were met by exploiting the abundant 

resources of the Pacific coast. Columbia River lumber, 

Monterey’s Chinese fisheries and the Yankee traders’ 

manufactured goods all fed San Francisco’s insatiable 

appetite. Due to the southerly California current, it was 

difficult for ships to sail to the northwest to conduct 

trade, so it was only after the introduction of steamships 

in the 1850s that trade began to travel northward. 

After the Gold Rush, Central California’s main exports 

were grains. Monterey, essentially a hinterland, produced 

San Francisco’s wheat. Farmers in the nearby inland val-

leys transported grain and produce to the mouths of the 

esteros in flat-bottomed boats. From there, the produce 

was transferred to coastal schooners for transport to 

San Francisco. Moss Landing at Elkhorn Slough was 

typical of the regional trading communities that evolved 

at the juncture of the esteros and the West Coast bays.

During the early days of the Gold Rush, lumber was at a 

premium in San Francisco and was sought everywhere 

along the West Coast. The resistance of redwood to fire 

and decay made it popular for buildings and railroad 

ties. Northern missions used local redwood during the 

Mexican period. Enterprising Americans followed the 

example of J.B.R. Cooper who prospered by building a 

water-powered sawmill in Santa Cruz in 1841. 

Monterey, which had been the seat of California’s 

government since 1777, remained the capital throughout 

the war with Mexico (except for a brief period between 

1845 and 1846). During the Gold Rush, the shortest 

route to the California mines was to bypass Monterey and 

sail directly through the Golden Gate. When the American 

provisional military governor moved his headquarters to 

San Francisco to be closer to the center of activity, the 

importance of Monterey’s port was further diminished. 

Fisheries - Chinese fishermen had an important impact 

on the development of California’s commercial fishery 

industry. Prior to the Gold Rush, few commercial 

opportunities existed to attract Chinese immigrants 

Ninteenth-century Chinese fishermen brought their 

indigenous watercraft styles to California. Flat-bottomed 

junks were maneuverable and required few crew. 

(Library of Congress)

44
to Monterey. Trade restrictions confined commercial 

opportunities, while local Native Americans filled the 

labor force. Political unrest in the 1840s in China’s 

Kwangtung Province, which caused many people to flee 

to California, coincided with the Gold Rush. The first 

of the Chinese immigrant wave to arrive in California 

were Tanka, or boat people. They came directly to 

Monterey to work the commercial fisheries that fed 

the exploding Gold Rush population (Lydon 1985).

The cultural changes in coastal California’s human 

populations in the 1830s had a profound effect on its 

animal populations. The regional native tribes’ effect on 

the marine resources along the coast diminished as 

their numbers dwindled. That waning influence, coupled 

with the slaughter of the otters, permitted the abalone 

population to explode – the otter and natives being the 

abalone’s main predators. Westerners were ignorant of 

abalone’s value, but Chinese fishermen knew how to 

harvest, prepare, dry and cook the valuable delicacy. 

The export between San Francisco and China resulted 

in the growth of Chinese colonies around Monterey. A 

market for abalone shell developed as well in New York, 

Europe and China where they were turned into buttons 

and jewelry or used for inlay. 

During the 1850s and 1860s the Chinese expanded 

their venture to include commercial fishing, although 

San Francisco proved too distant to transport the unrefrigerated catch. Local markets absorbed a small 

portion while the bulk was dried in the open air and 

shipped north. The Chinese in Monterey Bay also 

harvested seaweed and dried it on the ground before 

shipping it in bundles through San Francisco to China. 

The Chinese fishing monopoly thrived until 1867 

when a small group of Italian fishermen moved into 

the Monterey Bay area from the north. A new railroad 

between Monterey and the market at San Francisco 

enabled the rapid transportation of the catch. Within 

a year, Italian fishermen, who capitalized on the 

railway, controlled the bay waters and the Chinese 

were eventually pushed to the North Bay and Carmel. 

A conflict arose between the Italian and Chinese 

fishermen over the Chinese’s supposedly destructive 

fishing techniques. The Italians were fearful that the 

Chinese were permanently destroying abalone and fish 

populations by over-fishing. 

The Italian and other southern European fishermen who 

settled in the region brought their indigenous watercraft 

styles with them. Their feluccas were shallow, doubleended craft with upright stems and sternposts that 

used a single, distinctively shaped triangular lateen 

sail. These vessels, common to the Mediterranean Sea, 

were usually only about 30 feet long, holding only two 

or three crew. The felucca became the model for a 20th

century powered vessel known as the Monterey boat. 

This fishing vessel, used in the coastal fisheries, also 

had a double-ended form with a “canoe” stern. 

Monterey’s commercial sardine fisheries began in the 

early 1900s. The native tribes originally caught the 

small fish using woven baskets and cured them with 

smoke. Twentieth-century fishermen harvested them 

with seine nets. Sardines rapidly became the most 

important fishery in California and many canneries 

were built along Monterey’s waterfront, but the industry 

faded after the collapse of the sardine population in the 

1940s due to over-fishing and climatic change.

Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

Monterey continues to show vestiges of its rich maritime 

heritage today. It is a tourist destination that capitalizes 

on its Spanish and Mexican heritage as well as its 

historic fisheries. Each year, many thousands of people 

visit Cannery Row and Fisherman’s Wharf and witness 

a continuation of the region’s cultural heritage through 

the active fisheries.

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary funded a 

Submerged Cultural Resources Study (Smith 2003) in 

2003 that documents historic ship losses and known 

shipwreck sites in the sanctuary. The assessment lists 

approximately 445 historic ship losses within the 

sanctuary dating primarily between 1831 and 1919.

The Joint Management Plan Review for Cordell Bank, 

Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay national 

marine sanctuaries has identified maritime heritage as 

a priority. Emphasis has been placed on developing 

a maritime heritage program to protect and promote 

archaeological and historical resources of the sanctuary 

and surrounding region.

The scattered remains of the wooden side-wheel steamer 

Tennessee are buried offshore of Tennessee Cove near 

Marin City. The Gold Rush passenger steamship was 

built in 1848 in New York and wrecked in 1853 while 

attempting to enter the Golden Gate in fog. The site 

was recorded by the National Park Service in the late 

1970s and was listed on the National Register of 

Historic Places in 1981.

Monterey Bay has a unique heritage resource in the 

remains of the dirigible USS Macon. This U.S. Navy 

airship was one of a small fleet of “flying aircraft carriers” 

developed to serve as scout ships for the Navy in the 

1920s and 1930s. It crashed off Point Sur in 1935 

carrying four of its small Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk 

biplanes. Discovered in 1989, it is a subject of 

documentation and study by Monterey Bay National 

Marine Sanctuary which incorporated the study into its 

education and outreach activities. 

45
Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Native American – Prehistoric sites have been found 

on land at most substantial drainages and shorelines 

between Morro Bay and Monterey (MMS 1990c). Since 

sites dated prior to 8,000 years ago are rarer in this 

area, and are likely to be found offshore, any submerged 

offshore archaeological sites in this area would be 

extremely significant. 

Geophysical conditions may have created a favorable 

environment for preservation of cultural material. The 

sea level rise between 10,000 and 7,500 years ago 

was relatively rapid, which may have precluded highimpact wave destruction (MMS 1990c). The area is also 

preserved under particularly deep Holocene sediments 

of up to 60 meters in some areas. The abundance and 

size of terrestrial archaeological sites suggests that 

the coastal area was densely populated during the 

Holocene Epoch. This is further reinforced by 19thcentury travel logs, which reported hundreds of shell 

middens eroding on the beaches. All of this suggests 

the likelihood that submerged archaeological sites also 

exist on the bottomlands of Monterey Bay. 

Historic – The shallow, rocky areas of Point Lobos, 

Cypress Point, Point Pinos and Santa Cruz have had 

the highest known frequency of recorded shipwrecks on 

the California coast. The vicinity of Monterey and Moss 

Landing may also have a strong potential for unrecorded 

shipwrecks (MMS 1990c). 

A ship of local significance may still reside near the 

shore in Monterey. The Natalia, erroneously believed to 

have been the ship that carried Napoleon Bonaparte 

to the island of Elba in 1815, was nonetheless a 

Mexican coastal trader that grounded near the beach 

in 1834. The vessel’s bare frames appeared in 19thcentury paintings and prints and it has been uncovered 

periodically by storms over the years. What remains 

of the ship is unknown and it awaits rediscovery and 

documentation.

Of the approximately 445 shipwreck losses recorded 

in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, most 

are undiscovered (Smith 2003 and MMS 1990c). 

The collection of historic shipwrecks along the 

coast of the sanctuary may reveal much about the 

heritage of this historic part of maritime California.

46

The USS Macon and its Curtis F9C-2 Sparrowhawk 

aircraft are a significant archaeological resource 

within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 

(US Naval Historical Center)
Channel Islands National

Marine Sanctuary

Written by Bruce G. Terrell

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is 

located about 22 miles off the coast of Santa 

Barbara, California. It includes 1,252 square nautical miles of ocean and sea bottom. The sanctuary’s 

boundaries extend in a six-nautical mile radius outward from the islands of Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa 

Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. The islands, 

except for a portion of Santa Cruz, form Channel 

Islands National Park. The combination of warm and 

cool water currents in the region creates a fertile 

environment that supports a diverse array of unique 

plant and animal life. The sanctuary headquarters 

is located in Santa Barbara, which is a Preserve 

America Community.

Native Peoples

The Ice Age sea level reached its lowest levels in 

California between 18,000 and 19,000 years ago. 

At that time, the sea level was about 400 feet 

lower than today. The northern Channel Islands then 

composed one large island known to geologists as 

Santarosae. By 8,000 years ago the rising sea level 

isolated the modern Channel Islands. 

It is unknown how the earliest Paleo-Indians arrived in 

coastal California. Some researchers claim that they 

migrated southward along the coast during periods 

of low sea level. Many other scholars, however, 

believe that they originated east of the mountains 

and adapted to the marine environment along the 

coast (MMS 1990c).

While there is ample evidence that the California 

mainland was inhabited by humans about 10,000 

years ago, the dates of habitation for the northern 

Channel Islands are less clear. Daisy Cave on San 

Miguel Island contains the earliest documented 

coastal shell midden in North America (Erlandson 

1996). This rockshelter cave was occupied sequentially 

by Paleo-Indian, Archaic and more recent maritimeoriented people. Initial human occupation of the cave 

has been radiocarbon dated to about 11,600 years 

ago (Rick 2001). Bones from the Arlington Springs 

woman, recovered from Santa Rosa Island in 1959, 

were recently dated to approximately 13,000 years 

ago, making these the oldest known human remains 

in North America (Johnson 2002).

Evidence indicates that the earliest Paleo-Coastal 

people were living along the Santa Barbara area 

coast by about 8,500 years ago (MMS 1987). These 

people collected shellfish, fished and harvested 

marine life from tidal pools and lagoons. They 

subsisted on land animals, birds and plants. 

Archaeological remains show that they used flakedstone knives, points and scrapers as as well as other 

tools made from bone and shell. 

Global warming brought a sea level rise and forced 

the early inhabitants of the region to adapt to their 

changing environment. Artifacts such as milling 

stones indicate that mainland nomadic people of the 

Santa Barbara area became more sedentary as they 

began to cultivate grains. 

Archaeologists have suggested that the northern 

Channel Islands were inhabited during this period by 

people who used boats for hunting marine mammals 

and for trading with the mainland people. Unlike the 

mainland people, the islanders kept many of their 

ancient subsistence practices relying on harvesting 

resources from the sea. Archaeological remains of 

deepwater pelagic fish found at both mainland and 

island sites indicate that the Indians had access to 

mid-channel fisheries by at least 1,500 years ago 

(Bernard 2001).

The prehistoric inhabitants of the islands and coastal 

regions were likely the ancestors of the Chumash 

people who were known by the earliest Spanish 

explorers to inhabit these same regions in the 16th 

century. Archaeological evidence indicates that all of 

the northern Channel Islands’ prehistoric inhabitants 

were of the Chumash culture. Historic Spanish 

documents show that the southern islands of San 

Nicolas, San Clemente and Santa Catalina were 

taken over or assimilated by Shoshonean peoples in 

the last few centuries. 

Early Spanish and American sailors recorded 

descriptions of the native Chummash sewn-plank 

tomols. Modern-built reoplicas help us 

understand these people’s historic woodcraft 

traditions and trade economy. 

(Robert Schwemmer)

47
All of the native island populations shared similar 

cultural traits as evidenced by their material remains. 

Because each island had different resources, the 

people developed an organized inter-island trade 

network using watercraft. By banding together and 

combining resources, the Island Chumash composed 

a single unique culture. Most of the islanders shared 

mortuary customs and made similar items such as 

shellfish hooks and beads. However, the southern 

islanders had some specialized tools and decorative 

items that differed from the northern island traditions 

on Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa. 

The Chumash trade network gave the unique resources 

of each island strong value within the overall society. 

Steatite, a soft mineralized stone available primarily 

from Santa Catalina, was made into functional 

items like cooking pots and arrow straighteners, 

and ceremonial objects such as pipes and animal 

effigies. The mainland people desired shell beads, 

dried fish and sea otter skins from the islands. In 

return the island people obtained goods that were 

only available on the mainland such as chert and 

obsidian for blades, reeds and sedges for basketmaking and other items like deer hides, bones and 

wooden arrow shafts.

 

Chumash settlement of and trade with the Channel 

Islands was made possible by the use of a unique 

planked boat called the tomol. Whereas most of 

America’s aboriginal peoples had some form of reed, 

skin or dugout canoe, the tomol was the only known 

Native American boat made with planks. In prehistoric 

Europe and Asia plank construction had only been 

made possible after the invention of iron tools while 

tomol planks were fashioned using whalebone 

wedges and stone drills. Drift redwood was split 

into planks and sewn together using red milkweed 

and the vessel was sealed with local naturally 

occurring asphalt. 

The Chumash culture, which flourished for centuries, 

was eradicated after a few short decades of contact 

with the Europeans. The Spanish mission system, 

which resettled the peaceful island Chumash people 

on the mainland, disrupted the delicate balance of 

trade and exchange. The effects of Spanish colonial 

dominance destroyed much of the Chumash culture 

by the mid-19th century. 

European Colonial Period

Spanish – By 1542 the Spanish had visited the 

California coast as they explored the Pacific route 

between their bases in Manila and Mexico. Ships 

sailing east across the Pacific Ocean proceeded 

southward through the Santa Barbara Channel and 

on to their main port at Acapulco. As with the Spanish 

trade enterprise in the Caribbean, they also suffered 

numerous ship losses in the Pacific due to storms 

and navigational errors.

The Spanish did not attempt to settle California until 

1769. Soldiers, ranchers and Jesuit and Franciscan 

missionaries were sent north along the California 

coast to establish missions to convert and control the 

native people. Fortified presidios were established 

to defend the region against English and Russian 

incursions. Santa Barbara, established in 1792, was 

one of four governing presidios that included San 

Francisco, Monterey and San Diego.

Mexican – As a result of the Mexican Revolution in 

1821, California became part of the Republic of 

Mexico, although this made little difference to the 

far-remove Californian. The missions, which remained 

at the center of community organization, were insular 

from Mexico. Their well-tended fields and large herds 

of sheep and cattle, made possible by the labor of 

the missions’ native neophytes farmers, gave them 

economic independence. Numerous plantation-like 

ranchos were established after the secularization of 

the mission in 1833. As the neophytes raised and 

processed cattle for the hide and tallow trade, the 

Mexican owners reputedly enjoyed lives of leisure 

and indulgence (Billington 1982).

One of the main industries of the rancho period 

was the hide and tallow trade. Mexican cowhides, 

known as “California banknotes,” were needed to 

provide footwear for the growing population in the 

east and cow fat, which was rendered into tallow for 

candles was in high demand in the Peruvian silver 

mines. Both the barrels of tallow and the cured 

hides were transported from the beaches to waiting 

ships and carried to eastern ports to be made into 

manufactured objects. Yankee traders developed 

a substantial hide and tallow trade with the cattleraising ranchos although it was reported that Santa 

Barbara only conducted a fraction of the business 

done in Monterey (Dana 1840). Profits from the hide 

and fur trades turned both Boston and New York into 

world trade and banking centers.

At the same time that Mexican California was under 

the rancho system, the American nation was growing 

rapidly from a combination of entrepreneurship and 

a strong mercantile and maritime trade. The Pacific 

fur trade soon lured New England’s Yankee traders 

around Cape Horn in search of new profits. Since the 

late 1700s, companies from Russia, England and the 

United States had hunted sea otters throughout 

The U.S. Pacific Naval Squadron was a frequent sight 

before Santa Barbara during the Mexican Period in 

the 1840s. (Robert Schwemmer Maritime Library)

48
the Pacific. The otter pelts were in great demand by 

the Chinese who traded silks and tea for them. The 

Western tendency toward wholesale killing quickly 

decimated the otter population by the 1820s.

Between 1803 and the 1840s the Channel Islands 

were often inhabited by Alaskan Aleut Indians who 

were hired by Russian and American fur companies 

to hunt seals and otters. They camped on the islands 

for months at a time and hunted the animals from 

their native baidarka watercraft. These craft were 

developed specifically for the Aleuts’ native environ-

ment in the sub-Artic region and consisted of stitched 

waterproof skins stretched over hull-frames of wood 

or bone. 

Yankee whalers first visited the Channel Islands 

in the early 1800s. While the industry was less 

prominent along the California coast than the 

Japanese and Pacific Northwest whaling grounds, 

it was still a strong industry around the islands. 

American-owned ships carried mostly international 

crews that also included Native Americans from New 

England and Polynesians from the Pacific islands. 

Many of these ships, which originated from the 

Massachusetts coast, stayed in the Pacific for several 

years before they returned to their homeports. After 

statehood smaller regional whaling industries were 

based along the California coast. 

In the 19th century natural resources were often 

exhausted when exploited by industrial societies. 

Not surprisingly, the whale populations, too, were 

indiscriminately over-hunted to near extinction. 

Whalers soon moved on to more productive regions 

in the Arctic and off Japan’s coast.

American Period

California entered the Union in 1850, several years 

after the 1846 Mexican War. Santa Barbara’s regional 

economy, like much of California’s, was sluggish and 

the population sparse except for port cities and the 

presidios. Dramatic changes in both the regional 

population and the economy occurred after the 

discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1849. 

While the main sea lanes were to the southwest of 

the islands, steam and sailing ships of all descrip-

tions also passed through the Santa Barbara Chan-

nel on their way to San Francisco, the gateway to 

the gold fields. 

California’s ports became international hubs for trade 

and ship re-supply. The early-19th century saw Ameri-

can and European ships rapidly fanning out across 

the Pacific. Western economies raced to exploit natu-

ral resources ranging from seals and whales to exotic 

tropical hardwoods and handcrafted items. By midcentury San Francisco and Monterey were the favored 

whaling ports, and Monterey, Santa Barbara and San 

Diego were frequented by the hide and tallow traders.

The increased shipping traffic brought on by the Gold 

Rush meant a corresponding increase in shipwrecks, 

especially at the rocky islands and mainland points. 

One shipwreck that received a great deal of notoriety 

in the 19th century was that of the SS Winfield Scott, a 

wooden side-wheel steamer. Built in New York in 1850, 

the Scott entered the goldfield trade in 1852 carrying 

cargo, passengers and miners between San Francisco 

and Panama. In December 1853 the Winfield Scott

wrecked at Anacapa Island while carrying passengers 

and mail from San Francisco to Panama, one of the 

few ships that wrecked on its way from the goldfield.

During prohibition in the early 20th century, the 

Channel Islands and surrounding waters were the 

site of considerable rum running and smuggling. 

Canadian and Scottish liquors were off loaded at the 

islands and then transported into Santa Barbara and 

Ventura on moonless nights in fast powerboats.

In 1923, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s 

passenger-cargo steamer Cuba went ashore in fog 

on San Miguel Island. The Cuba, like the Winfield 

Scott was owned by the same steamship company 

and was employed on the same trade route between 

San Francisco and Panama when lost. Cuba, built in 

Hamburg, Germany in 1897 as the Coblenz, was a 

steel-hulled steamer.

Modern commercial fishing first developed along the 

California coast in the 1850s to feed the exploding 

Gold Rush population. Chinese immigrants initially 

manned the commercial fisheries living on the islands 

during the abalone harvesting season and fishing from 

locally built junks and sampans. Chinese shipwrights 

built the junks using traditional methods unique to 

their watercraft. The junks that worked in the Channel 

Islands typically were rigged with multiple masts for 

the long-distance voyage from the mainland. 

The late-19th century also saw Japanese fishermen 

catching lobster in the Channel Islands for canning 

operations. Genoese fishermen from San Francisco 

also fished the islands as well and a commercial 

fishing industry still thrives in the Santa Barbara 

Channel to this day.

Various European watercraft, emblematic of Califor-

nia’s cultural mix, were represented in the regional 

fishing fleet. New England whaleboats and dories, Chi-

nese junks and sampans and Mediterranean feluccas 

Santa Barbara was a small but significant central 

California port in the late 19th century. Passenger and 

cargo ships called at Stearns Wharf. (Library of Congress)

49
could all have been found in the waters around the 

Channel Islands during the late 19th century. 

Little naval conflict occurred in the region in the 18th 

or 19th centuries, although navies from many Western 

nations visited the California coast. During the war 

with Mexico, the U.S. Navy blockaded the Pacific 

coastal ports and American warships often visited 

Santa Barbara. The Navy also patrolled for pirates 

and smugglers following California’s admission to 

statehood and it later maintained a strong presence 

in the state while the Civil War raged in the eastern 

half of the country.

Several significant naval events occurred in the 

region’s waters in the 20th century. The US Navy 

suffered a catastrophe at Point Pedernales at the 

western end of the Santa Barbara Channel (and just 

outside of the sanctuary boundaries) in September 

1923. During maneuvers, seven US Navy destroyers 

were lost on the rocks as a result of navigation 

error in the midst of the same fog that claimed the 

steamer Cuba on that very day. In the early months 

of World War II, the war came to Santa Barbara’s 

doorstep when a Japanese submarine shelled an 

oil refinery just west of the city. Although the shelling 

caused much fear and confusion, the real damage 

was slight.

Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

A comprehensive inventory of maritime heritage 

resources began at the time of the sanctuary’s 

designation in 1980 in collaboration with the Channel 

Islands National Park. These resources include the 

archaeological remains of shipwrecks, aircraft wrecks 

and material associated with wharves, piers and 

landings. To date, 30 of the 140 known historic sites 

in the sanctuary have been studied. Of those, the SS 

Winfield Scott is prominent, having been placed on 

the National Register of Historic Places. A Shipwreck 

Reconnaissance Program provides year-round 

monitoring of the submerged sites in partnership with 

the Channel Islands National Park and the Coastal 

Maritime Archaeology Resources group, and maps 

have been developed of several of the archaeological 

sites that are within recreational diving depths.

In recent years, regional museum exhibits highlighting 

the sanctuary’s cultural and historical resources have 

been developed for the public. The steamer Cuba is 

now the subject of an interpretive display at the Santa 

Barbara Maritime Museum. The sanctuary’s Maritime 

Heritage Program website features an overview 

of selected shipwreck information and Chumash 

history. The website promoting understanding of, 

appreciation for, and involvement in the protection 

and stewardship of maritime heritage resources to 

a wide spectrum of the public, including students, 

educators, researchers and sport divers.

Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Prehistoric – Material cultural remains within the 

sanctuary may represent as much as 13,000 years 

of human history. These resources consist of Native 

American artifacts and paleontological remains. 

There is a strong probability that submerged remains 

of prehistoric peoples exist on the Continental 

Shelf off the California coast and the Channel 

Islands. Geological studies suggest the presence of 

submerged Pleistocene landforms and preliminary 

surveys have been conducted in anticipation of 

identifying areas of habitation (MMS 1987). Artifacts 

have been found on the seabed at various islands 

where land sites have eroded into the ocean (Hudson 

The steamer Windfield Scott was carrying 

passengers from the California gold fields to 

Panama when it sank off Anacapa Island 

in 1853. (Library of Congress)

50

Shipwrecks in the tidal zone of the Channel Islands 

are jointly managed by NOAA and the National Park 

Service. The lumber schooner Comet grounded at 

San Miguel Island in 1911. (Courtesy Don Morris, NPS)
1985). Any submerged prehistoric or Chumashrelated sites would be very significant and would 

be useful in defining the early settlement process in 

coastal California. 

Historic – The shipwreck remains of the Channel 

Islands reflect the diverse range of the activities 

and nationalities that traversed the Santa Barbara 

Channel. Chinese junks, Russian and Mexican sailing 

ships, American coastal traders, and Gold Rush-era 

steam ships have all sunk in these waters. Each 

has a story to tell about the history, technology and 

society of earlier times.

There are many known historical shipwreck losses 

in the waters of Channel Islands National Marine 

Sanctuary that have yet to be located. Many 

unrecorded small watercraft potentially exist in these 

waters as well. The sanctuary supports a program 

to locate, document and interpret its submerged 

archaeological resources. A staff maritime heritage 

resources coordinator plans and coordinates these 

activities. Historic archaeological resources within 

the sanctuary are inventoried during yearly sanctuary 

and park-sponsored expeditions. 

51
Hawaiian Islands 

Humpback Whale 

National Marine 

Sanctuary

Written by Hans Van Tilburg and Joylynn Oliveira 

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine 

Sanctuary was designated in 1992 to protect 

humpback whales and their habitat. While the 

sanctuary does not have a mandate to protect the 

archaeological resources on the seabed, it does have 

initiatives to facilitate Native Hawaiian traditional uses 

of the sanctuary’s resources relating to traditional 

subsistence, cultural, and religious purposes. 

Native Peoples 

Native Hawaiians have always been closely linked 

to the land and sea. To this day, Hawaiian culture 

embraces practices and traditions that use precious 

natural resources within the natural limits of the 

islands’ unique ecology. In keeping with a rich 

maritime heritage, many Hawaiians continue cultural 

relationships with the humpback whale kohola and its 

ocean habitat. 

During the winter, Hawaii’s waters take on a new energy 

as the whales return to their breeding and calving 

grounds. Natives acknowledge their presence through 

legendary place names throughout the islands. For 

example, Koholalele meaning “leaping whale,” is 

located along the Hamakua coast of Hawaii and at 

Lihue, Kauai. Laeonakohola on Kahoolawe refers to the 

“cape of whales.” Puukohola Heiau, one of Hawaii’s 

largest heiau (temples), was built on the “whale hill.” 

This heiau played an important role in Hawaiian history 

as it began Kamehameha’s journey of becoming the 

ruler of all Hawaii.

Centuries ago Hawaii’s ancestors voyaged vast distances across the Pacific resulting in the development of a unique culture. Voyagers were masters 

of their natural surroundings, the clouds, winds, 

stars, and currents that guided them safely to their 

destination. Voyaging between islands and across 

the Pacific allowed Hawaiians to explore, trade and 

transport materials. Today, new generations explore 

their ancestral culture as traditional canoes set sail in 

remembrance of Hawaii’s voyagers.

For centuries, many families devoted their entire lives 

to mastering the art of fishing for survival. Ancient 

Hawaiian fishing traditions are still seen today as 

fishermen use hooks, lines, and spears to fish in the 

day, and torches to fish at night. Seaweed and other 

resources are also gathered along the shorelines.

To promote the abundance of fish, the men would pray 

to the deity of fishermen, Ku‘ula. They would then seek 

profitable fishing grounds in the deep sea using piles 

of rocks called kuula as landmarks. While at sea, the 

lawaia would align several kuula so their intersection 

marked the location of the grounds. 

A significant part of ancient Hawaiian culture was 

based on a land division system known as the ahupuaa. 

From the mountains to the sea, the ahupuaa enabled 

many practices such as trading, farming, fishing, 

and maintenance of resources to flourish under the 

supervision of a chief. By caring, respecting and 

showing reverence for the land and sea, Hawaiians 

understood that these resources would in turn, care 

for the people. 

The islands’ shorelines were once decorated by a 

lacework of rock-walled fishponds. These ponds evolved 

from an earlier form of Polynesian aquaculture into the 

unique Hawaiian style. Encompassing shallow coastal 

waters up to the shoreline, the rock wall enclosed an 

area of water in which Hawaiians could manage and 

raise fish. A sluice gate allowed small fish to enter and 

prevented larger fish from escaping. 

Besides the humpback, Hawaii also has toothed 

whales that occasionally swim through the waters. 

It is believed that when the carcass of a toothed whale, 

such as the sperm whale, washed ashore, it became 

taboo and was reserved only for the alii or chief class. 

From this carcass, the tooth (niho) was extracted, 

carved and made into a whale tooth necklace known as 

the lei niho palaoa. This lei, rare in form and structure, 

was an intricately woven necklace of human hair with 

the carved whale’s tooth hanging as a pendant.

When Hawaiians gazed upon the sea, they viewed all 

forms of sea life as ia. Many ia were sacred considered 

aumakua. An aumakua is believed to be the spirit 

of a family ancestor that assumed the shape of an 

Rebuilding a portion of a historic stone fishpond 

adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands Humpback 

Whale National Marine Sanctuary headquarters 

in Kihei, Maui. (HIHWNMS)

pacific islands Region

52
American and European whaling ships used 

Hawaii as a base in the 19th century. 

The presence of Western sailors forever 

changed the Native Hawaiian culture.

(Library of Congress)

animal such as the octopus, turtles, and others. These 

aumakua protected the families, who in turn, cared for 

the animal. Aumakua are still honored today by many 

Hawaiian families as they continue to pass on the 

knowledge, practices and traditions of their elders.

European Colonial Period 

The period that most closely corresponds to the 

mainland Colonial Era for Hawaii covers the century 

of European and American commercial activity within 

the sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii between 1778 and 

1893. The post-European and American, or Western, 

contact history of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback 

Whale sanctuary, comprised of several distinct areas 

within the main Hawaiian Islands, is intertwined with 

the general history of the islands. 

Changes initiated by the Western discovery of Hawaii 

began with Captain James Cook’s encounter in 1778. 

Beginning in 1785, Western ships slowly began to 

capitalize on the abundance of otter furs in the Pacific 

Northwest and stop regularly at Hawaii on their way to 

Canton, China. During that time period, KamehamehaI, 

a chief from the island of Hawaii, was the first to unite 

all the Hawaiian Islands, forming an internationally 

recognized sovereign nation shortly after the turn of 

the 19th century. In addition to the local schooners, 

sloops and canoes plying island waters, KamehamehaI 

promoted the purchase and construction of Westernstyle vessels, adding more that 30 Western ships to 

his inventory. 

Although Euro-American culture became more pronounced about the islands in the 19th century, Western 

vessels never completely supplanted Hawaiian canoes. 

In ancient times large Koa, wood double-hulled voyaging canoes, were built and launched in the islands, 

used on open ocean Pacific passages to and from 

distant archipelagos such as Tahiti, the Marquesas, 

and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. These featured triangular “crab claw” oceanic sails, and were 

navigated by the stars, swells, and clues from seabirds, 

clouds, and a whole range of similar observations often missed by modern sailors. Smaller single-outrigger sailing canoes were built as well, plying the waters 

between the Hawaiian Islands. By the time of Western 

contact long-distance voyaging had ceased, but island 

canoes continued to be found in multiple roles. 

Provisioning became a major activity for ships in 

Hawaii, increasing inter-island commercial trade. 

Chiefs made profits from the shipment of pigs, fruits 

and vegetables, and salt (for curing seal pelts), while 

Western merchants, attempting to address the trade 

deficit at Canton, soon began seeking out sources of 

fragrant sandalwood. Some of the Hawaiian chiefs 

themselves fitted out their own sandalwood voyages 

to the Hong merchants in Canton. Much of the profit 

was turned into an expanding inter-island fleet as 

chiefs purchased or had built scores of Western sailing 

vessels for their own uses. Several of these vessels 

have been lost within the sanctuary. 

One of those vessels has been the subject of close 

scrutiny. In 1995 Paul F. Johnston, curator of maritime 

history at the Museum of American History at the 

Smithsonian Institution, began work in Kauai’s Hanalei 

Bay within the sanctuary, searching for the remains of 

Cleopatra’s Barge, an American brig built as a luxury 

yacht by George Crowninshield in 1816. The ship, 100 

feet long on deck and lavishly fitted out, was eventually 

sold to Kamehameha II in 1820 for 8,000 piculs of 

sandalwood and renamed Haaheo o Hawaii or Pride 

of Hawaii. In 1824 she wrecked on a shallow reef. 

After four seasons of field work, the artifacts collected 

from the wreakage are currently being preserved at 

mainland facilities. 

The maritime scene in Hawaii quickly became very 

culturally mixed, as Hawaiian men found employment 

on board a wide variety of European and American 

vessels. Western ships purchased by Hawaiians sailed 

between islands, and missionaries and whalers and 

sandalwood hunters increasingly altered local society. 

At one point, Hawaiian and other Polynesian sailors 

comprised 1/5 of the American whaling fleet. The 

artifact types from Johnston’s work bear evidence to 

the multicultural use of island vessels. 

Though many species of marine mammal, decimated 

by decades of intensive hunting have yet to fully 

recover, the whaling industry in the Pacific was crucial 

to European and particularly American commercial 

and industrial development. In the first half of the 

19th century, whaling operations spread north into 

the Pacific basin, progressively seeking out lucrative 

whaling grounds off South America, Australia, Japan, 

and finally the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. 

During the Historical Period, Hawaiian waters were not 

as much a celebrated whaling ground as they were 

a familiar rest and reprovisioning point for whaling 

vessels working in less hospitable locations, such as 

the high arctic seas. American vessels more and more 

dominated Pacific whaling grounds and particularly 

the sperm whale fishery in the mid 19th century.

53
While 60 whalers had called at the Hawaiian Islands 

in 1822, almost 600 were annually making port by 

1845, many within what is now the Hawaiian Islands 

Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Civil War 

losses, hazards inherent in high-latitude whaling such 

as ice damage, and the discovery and refinement of 

petroleum in Pennsylvania soon led to a decline of 

sail-age whaling. Today, the sanctuary and partner 

agencies including the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and 

the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts 

are working together to illuminate whaling history and 

our current protections for these valued species. 

In the 1840s a robust species of sugar cane was 

first produced for profit on the island of Kauai and 

planters began to make plans for the first sugar 

cane plantations. Plantation economies needed land 

and a large pliant labor force, demands that would 

contribute to both the loss of sovereign territory for 

the Kingdom of Hawaii and the introduction of Asian 

and Pacific contract laborers and the creation of an 

even more multicultural society. 

Transport in the islands remained dominated by sailing 

schooners, given the expense, relative inefficiencies, 

and general lack of coal available for the steam 

vessels. It was not until later in the plantation boom in 

the second half of the 19th century that the economic 

foundation for the transition to steam navigation 

among the islands was firmly established. Small 

steamships soon became the backbone of inter-island 

plantations. 

Whether sailing schooner or steamship, inter-island 

vessels operated in a trade hazardous to both life and 

property. With the exceptions of Honolulu on Oahu, Hilo 

on Hawaii, and Kahului on Maui, there were no true 

wharves where ships could lie in safety in all weather. 

Open roadsteads and narrow passages between 

fringing reefs were the usual condition, and often the 

skillful use of surfboats or elaborate moorings and 

overhead wire systems were the only way to transport 

both passengers and products. Documentary survey 

of the hundreds of shipwrecks in Hawaii’s past reveals 

clusters of such wrecks at the landing locations, many 

within the sanctuary. The significance of inter-island 

navigation and the landings and shipwrecks, therefore, 

is closely linked to the plantation economy and 

plantation culture of the islands of Hawaii for a large 

portion of the 19th century. 

American Period 

The Kingdom of Hawaii came under the control of 

American commercial interests following an illegal 

coup on January 16th, 1893. This included the 

U.S. Navy when marines of the USS Boston moved 

ashore and invaded the sovereign Hawaiian nation. 

Though recognized as an action unsupported by the 

U.S. government, little attempt was made to restore 

sovereignty to Queen Liliuokalani and the citizens 

of the Hawaiian Kingdom. This lack of redress was 

succeeded by official annexation by the U.S. in 1898, 

following the outbreak of the Spanish American War 

and the full recognition of Hawaii’s strategic location. 

U.S. naval activities in Hawaii have evolved through 

a number of distinct phases. Beginning with early 

goodwill visits in the 1820s, interest in surveys of Pearl 

Harbor and establishing a permanent presence was 

relatively slow to emerge. Following the overthrow of 

the Hawaiian government in 1893, the role of Hawaii 

as a naval base developed directly alongside American 

expansion in the Pacific. Activities and development 

increased in response to the growing perceived need 

for military capability across the wide ocean. 

The military construction boom and transfer of forces 

to the Islands accelerated in the 1930s. With World 

War II on the horizon, Hawaii became home to the U.S. 

Pacific Fleet, and numerous naval stations popped 

up throughout the Hawaiian archipelago, both within 

and outside the sanctuary. Naval air stations and 

amphibious training operations resulted in a relatively 

large number of planes and landing craft being left 

on the sea bottom. Many Japanese-designed, locally 

built fishing sampans were confiscated by the Navy 

and put to use as inshore patrol vessels both before 

and during the war. 

Within the marine sanctuary’s boundries, the waters 

off Molokai’s east end were a dedicated target 

zone. Maui featured the Combat Demolition Training 

Center on Maalea Bay, where teams were trained in 

surveying and destroying undersea obstructions and 

in reconnaissance techniques for shore invasions. 

Maui had two naval air stations, NAS Puunene and 

NAS Kahului, busy supporting naval aircraft squadron 

operations over local waters. Several spots on Kauai, 

including Hanalei Bay, became areas for amphibious 

training. The sanctuary’s boundaries even include a 

“Pearl Harbor survivor,” the utilitarian harbor oiler YO21 aground on Lanai Island’s north shore. World War II 

in the Pacific brought with it drastic military, social, and 

economic change, forever altering the nature of civilian 

and naval societies in the Islands. 

Today approximately 90 percent of all goods used in 

the islands arrive via containers from the mainland. The 

sugar and pineapple industries faced stiff competition 

from foreign sources, and tourism soon outstripped 

them as Hawaii’s number one industry. Tourism, 

which began as passenger business on steamships 

between the islands and to the mainland, is now a 

major industry highlighting the need for the protection 

of marine resources like marine mammals and their 

habitats. Where once the whaling ships re-provisioned 

in order to carry out their oceanic hunt, whales are now 

protected and valued as magnificent living creatures. 

The waters of the sanctuary have been witness to both 

extremes of this activity, as well as numerous other 

phases of maritime history. 

54
Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory 

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine 

Sanctuary was established for the purpose of protecting 

humpback whales and their habitats. The goals of the 

sanctuary take into account the identification of marine 

resources and ecosystems of national significance for 

possible inclusion in the sanctuary. Though historic 

maritime heritage per se is not currently included in 

the sanctuary’s management plan, Native Hawaiian 

cultural resources are emphasized. The sanctuary 

works to affirm the unique relationships between the 

Hawaiian people and the humpback whale through 

special public education outreach activities. By doing 

this, it strives to enhance the survival of North Pacific 

humpback whales and the ocean-based conservationoriented culture of native Hawaiians.

Cultural resource enhancement in the sanctuary 

features facilitating all public and private uses of 

the sanctuary emphasizing Hawaiian customary and 

traditional uses for subsistence, cultural, and religious 

purposes. The management plan also contains 

strategies to increase public understanding of Native 

Hawaiian culture and practices highlighting the cultural 

significance of whales in ancient Hawaii. Evidence such 

as petroglyphs, legends, place names, and artifacts 

indicate that Hawaiians culture was heavily linked to 

the humpback whales. 

The remains of ancient stone fishponds make up a 

significant portion of prehistoric heritage resources 

within the sanctuary. Many were built over 500 

years ago, and some still exist today. Different types 

of fishponds are found throughout Polynesia, but 

Hawaiians in particular enhanced the design of the 

common fish traps and created a rock wall with sluice 

gates. An excellent example of an ancient Hawaiian 

fish pond stretches into the ocean directly in front of 

the sanctuary’s headquarters site of the sanctuary 

in Kalepolepo, Kihei, Maui. The sanctuary supports 

nonprofit organizations, such as the Association of 

the Fishponds of Maui, that seek to preserve, restore, 

and revitalize this both ancient and yet advanced 

technology. 

For several years the University of Hawaii’s Marine 

Option Program featured a graduate program in 

maritime archaeology and history. Field schools 

and surveys conducted by this program took place 

throughout the Hawaiian Islands, many within the 

boundaries of the sanctuary. The program conducted 

two surveys featuring ancient Hawaiian resources 

within the sanctuary. In 1996, students mapped the 

distribution of basalt fishing tools located offshore 

from Waikiki Beach as part of the 1996 Maritime 

Archaeology Survey Techniques course. The majority 

of these tools consisted of bread loaf-shaped basalt 

sinkers, once used as parts of octopus lures. And 

in 1997, during a survey of several sites along the 

Kona Coast of the Island of Hawaii, students mapped 

the outlines of the fishtrap at Kaloko Honokohau, a 

national park (Van Tilburg 1997). 

The sanctuary’s boundaries also include “Shipwreck 

Beach” on the north shore of Lanai Island.During the 

19th and early 20th centuries the Navy and interisland navigation companies used Shipwreck Beach 

as an area for the intentional abandonment of vessels 

known as the “rotten row.” Several of these sites have 

been surveyed (Van Tilburg 2001), but many other 

wrecks along the eight mile stretch have yet to be 

identified. Surveys have also documented other sites 

such as several ancient Hawaiian fishing villages, and 

stone artifacts submerged along the eight-mile shore. 

Shipwreck Beach is also a location of a Hawaiian 

battleground — seeking to strike against the political 

satellite of Maui, Kalaniopuu, a war chief from the 

island of Hawaii landed his warriors along the north 

shore and raided Lanai in 1778. 

In 2002 the University of Hawaii’s Marine Option 

Program, funded by a grant from the Naval Historical 

Center, completed a documentary inventory of Navy 

shipwrecks. A number of these vessels were lost within 

the sanctuary. At present there are a total of almost 

80 U.S. Navy ships and submarines, and over 1,400 

naval aircraft, reported lost in the general vicinity of the 

Hawaiian Islands (Van Tilburg 2002).

Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Prehistoric - Yoshi Sinoto, noted anthropologist 

associated with Hawaii’s Bishop Museum, is the only 

researcher to have recovered components of ancient 

Polynesian voyaging canoes in an archaeological 

context. These were discovered in the 1970s on the 

French Polynesian island of Huahine. Hundreds of 

years ago a habitation and canoe construction site 

was inundated by a tsunami or “tidal wave,” burying 

adzes, scrapers, hull strakes, steering oars, and other 

artifacts. Sinoto has emphasized the improbability of 

discovering double hulled or outrigger oceanic canoes, 

vessels laden neither with ballast nor relatively heavy 

cargo, in any submerged setting since these advanced 

craft did not easily sink. 

Historic - The large number of potential and known 

sites within the sanctuary serve as an exciting window 

into specific elements of the maritime past in the main 

Hawaiian islands. For both the sanctuary and the 

Maritime Heritage Program, these are opportunities for 

education and outreach.

55
Papahanaumokuakea 

Marine National

Monument 

Written by Hans Van Tilburg and Kekuena Kikiloi

The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was formerly known as the Northwestern 

Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. The 

Native Hawaiian name reflects the ancient Hawaiian 

tradition that relates to the birth or formation of the 

Hawaiian Islands as is personified by the earth. At 

almost 140,000 square miles, it is the largest marine 

protected area in the world. It contains the waters 

surrounding the chain of islands that stretches from 

Ni’ihau northwestward to Kure Atoll.

Native Hawaiians were the first discoverers of the 

Hawaiian Archipelago and continued to inhabit 

these islands for thousands of years prior to 

Western contact. During this time, Native Hawaiians 

developed complex resource management systems 

and a specialized set of skills to survive on these 

remote islands with limited resources. Native 

Hawaiians continue to maintain their strong cultural 

ties to the land and sea and continue to understand 

the importance of managing the islands and waters 

as inextricably connected to one another (Beckwith 

1951; Lili‘uokalani 1978). 

More specifically, the ocean played an important role 

to Native Hawaiians as it was used for resources and 

physical and spiritual sustenance in their everyday 

lives. Poetically referred to as ke kai popolohua mea 

a Kane (the deep dark ocean of Kane), the ocean 

was divided into numerous smaller divisions and 

categories beginning from the nearshore to the deeper pelagic waters (Malo 1951). Likewise, channels 

between islands were also given names and served 

as connections between islands, as well as a reminder to their larger oceanic history and identity. 

In Hawaiian traditions, the Northwestern Hawaiian 

Islands are considered a sacred place, a region of 

primordial darkness from which life springs and spirits return after death (Kikiloi 2006). Much of the information about the NWHI has been passed down in 

oral and written histories, genealogies, songs, dance, 

and archaeological resources. Through these sources, Native Hawaiians are able to recount the travels 

of seafaring ancestors between the Northwestern 

Hawaiian Islands and the main Hawaiian Islands. 

Hawaiian language archival resources have played 

an important role in providing this documentation, 

through a large body of information published over a 

hundred years ago in local newspapers (e.g., Kaunamano 1862 in Hoku o ka Pakipika; Manu 1899 in 

Ka Loea Kalai‘aina; Wise 1924 in Nupepa Kuoko‘a). 

More recent ethnological studies (Maly 2003) highlight the continuity of Native Hawaiian traditional 

practices and histories in the Northwestern Hawaiian 

Islands. Only a fraction of these have been recorded, 

and many more exist in the memories and life histories of kupuna.

Archaeological surveys done on Nihoa and Mokumanamana have shown that there are numerous archaeological sites and cultural material located on these 

small islands (Emory 1928; Cleghorn 1988; Ziegler 

1990; Graves and Kikiloi 2006). Both Nihoa and 

Mokumanamana are recognized as culturally and historically significant and are listed on the National and 

State Register of Historic Places and protected by the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in accordance with the 

National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act 

of 1966, as amended. On Nihoa Island, where there 

is significant soil development, there are at least 88 

cultural sites including ceremonial, residential, as 

well as agricultural features. On Mokumanamana, 

there are 52 cultural sites, including ceremonial and 

temporary habitation features. Several archaeological surveys have collected a significant number of 

cultural artifacts from both of these islands, which 

are now stored in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the University of Hawai‘i Archaeological Laboratory. The range in types of cultural artifacts stored 

in these collections is testimony to the various uses 

these islands and the surrounding oceans served for 

Native Hawaiians in pre-contact times.

By the time of Western European contact with the 

Hawaiian Islands, little was collectively known by the 

majority population about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as few had traveled to these remote islands and seen them with their own eyes.Within the 

next century, a number of expeditions were initiated 

by Hawaiian ali‘i to visit these islands and bring them 

under Hawaiian political control and ownership. The 

accounts of these historical expeditions were published in great detail in the newspapers from 1857 

through 1894, as they related to each visit. 

The sovereignty, life (ea), and responsibility (kuleana) 

for the entire Hawaiian Archipelago continues to exist 

in the hearts and minds of many Native Hawaiians. 

This position was recognized by the “Apology Bill” (U.S. 

Public Law 103-150), a joint resolution of Congress 

signed by the President in 1993. The Apology Bill 

acknowledges the wrongful role of United States’ 

officers in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i 

56

Native Hawaiians keep their traditions alive 

through such activities as traditional voyaging practices on the Hokule’a voyaging canoe. 

(Courtesy of Papahanaumokuakea Marine 

National Monument)
and “apologizes to Native Hawaiians on behalf of 

the people of the United States” for the unlawful 

overthrow and the “deprivation of the rights of Native 

Hawaiians to self-determination.” It also recognizes 

that “the health and well-being of the Native Hawaiian 

people is intrinsically tied to their deep feelings and 

attachment to the land.”

European Colonial Period

Between 1778 and 1893, European and American 

commercial activity within the sovereign Kingdom of 

Hawaii went from initial brief encounters to full scale 

marine industry. Following Captain James Cook’s 

encounter with Hawaii, the presence of European and 

American vessels at the main Hawaiian Islands slowly 

began to increase. By 1825 Honolulu had become a 

critical provisioning port of the Pacific. The islands’ 

strategic position played an important role in Pacific 

navigation and the global movement of commodities. 

Following their discovery by the West, the islands 

became subject to commercial exploitation and 

extractive activities. These eventually included whaling, 

sealing, harvesting of birds and feathers, fishing, and 

the collection of guano for fertilizer. 

Early European voyages of discovery included several 

encounters in the islands. Exploits of British explorers 

such as Cook and Vancouver have been fairly well 

documented, yet they had little contact with the islands. 

The French navigator La Perouse, Cook’s contemporary, 

made brief surveys of Mokumanamana (Necker) and 

French Frigate Shoals in 1787. Russian navigators 

such as Lisianski conducted surveying expeditions in 

the Pacific in 1805. In the mid-19th century, American 

surveying efforts by N.C. Brooks (1859), Lieutenant 

John Brooke (1859), and Captain William Reynolds 

(1867) added to the growing body of knowledge on 

the islands. 

Exploration, however, did not rest solely with explorers. 

American and British whalers, in their early search for 

productive areas, encountered the low and uncharted 

atolls on their passages westward from Honolulu 

and Lahaina to the seas off Japan. Several of the 

islands, therefore, received their western names from 

early landings and/or ship wrecks of Pacific whalers. 

Midway was originally sighted by Captain Daggett of 

the New Bedford whaler Oscar in 1839. Laysan was 

reportedly discovered by the American whaleship Lyra

prior to 1828. Pearl and Hermes Reef is named for the 

twin wrecks of the British whalers Pearl and Hermes

in 1822. Gardner Pinnacles was named by Captain 

Allen on the Nantucket whaler Maro in 1820, the same 

year the ship came across Maro Reef. Whaling, which 

decimated marine mammal populations worldwide, 

carried with it major ramifications in terms of oceanic 

discovery, cultural contact, economic development, 

and political expansion. There are 10 known whaling 

shipwrecks in the islands.

The U.S. Guano Act of 1856, which enabled commer-

cial claims to many remote and uninhabited islands 

in the Pacific, heralded the hunt for mineral resources. 

Private guano extraction companies leased several of 

the islands. Development of facilities supporting these 

activities was most significant on Laysan Island, where 

a small community existed in the 1890s. Guano works 

in the islands necessitated supply ships and passage 

for contract laborers, increasing vessel traffic in the 

region. These vessels, also, left traces of their opera-

tions on the sea floor. 

The U.S. Navy’s interest in Midway makes it something 

of an exception. Originally claimed under the Guano 

Act (though no guano mining ever took place), Captain 

William Reynolds of the USS Lackawanna took formal 

possession for the U.S. in August 1867, making Midway 

the first land annexed outside continental borders. 

The harbor was described as similar to Honolulu, 

both roomy and safe, and the low Sand and Eastern 

Islands as “productive for agriculture.” These were 

unrealistic claims at the time, but early in the age of 

steam navigation, the U.S. needed transpacific coaling 

stations, and sought the establishment of commercial 

links to East Asia. The effort was not without a cost, 

as the USS Saginaw, supporting improvement efforts 

at Midway, was lost at nearby Kure Atoll in 1870. The 

Midway Islands were the first fruits of Secretary of 

State William Seward’s expansionist policies, the first 

island territory claimed beyond the western edge of the 

continental mainland. 

The islands were not the only focus of activity. Commer-

cial fishing in the waters surrounding the Northwestern 

Hawaiian Islands began with the arrival of large sailing 

vessels that hailed from ports around the world. These 

vessels left the reefs and shoals with cargos of shark 

meat, fins and oil, turtle shells and oil, and beche-demer (sea cucumber). Commercial harvesting of tuna, 

bottom fish, lobsters, and other marine animals in the 

islands continued through the twentieth century. The 

commercial use of marine resources remains an impor-

tant issue to the preservation and health of the region. 

Throughout this period the low and poorly charted 

nature of the islands presented significant hazards to 

shipping. Fortunately, the frequent proximity of sandy 

“desert” islands, not barren at all but rich in terms 

of marine mammals, seabirds, and ocean resources, 

granted castaways the opportunity for survival. Many 

tales of shipwrecks in the islands present similar 

themes: unexpected groundings on low coral atolls, 

difficult survival on turtles, seals, fish and bird eggs, 

and construction of craft from debris for rescue 

voyages eastwards back to the main Hawaiian Islands. 

Also not surprisingly, several commercial outfits in 

the main Hawaiian Islands sent local schooners on 

“wrecking” or salvage cruises to the islands. Robert 

Louis Stevenson’s story The Wrecker captures a 

fictional account of this little-documented activity. 

In 1915 the Reverend J.M. Lydgate summarized the 

navigational hazards of the islands:

The islands and reefs to the northwest of Hawaii 

have been a veritable graveyard of marine disaster.

The two sufficient reasons for this have been, first, 

57
the low, inconspicuous character of the island and, 

second, the faulty or insufficient location of them 

on the marine charts. The menace of the iceberg 

is the fact that it lies seven-eighths underwater, 

and you strike some submerged, protruding spur 

of it before you dream of danger. In a much more 

disastrous way the same thing is true of many of 

these islands (Lydgate 1915).

American Period

The Kingdom of Hawaii came under the control of 

American commercial interests following the coup 

of 1893. This was succeeded by official annexa-

tion by the US in 1898. Claims substantiated by the 

former kingdom of Hawaii to the Northwest Hawai-

ian Islands (except Midway) were transferred to the 

Territory of Hawaii. Statehood for the Territory came 

about in 1954, following World War II and large 

scale social, political, and economic transformations 

in the Pacific. 

Hawaii and the islands played a crucial role in global 

communications. In 1903 the transpacific submarine 

cable was completed via Honolulu, Midway, and 

Guam. At Midway, the establishment of the cable 

station forever altered Sand Island. Tons of imported 

soil and numerous introduced plants significantly 

altered the landscape, and cable station supply 

shipwrecks were added to the resource inventory. 

Residence at Midway also meant an increasing 

interest in the islands by the American government. 

Illegal poaching in the remote archipelago prompted 

the first US Marines presence at Midway, and 

President Theodore Roosevelt eventually declared 

the whole area (with the exceptions of Midway and 

Kure) the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 

for the protection of seabirds. 

In 1935, a different type of “seabird” appeared. Pan 

American Airways initiated flying “clipper” seaplanes 

service across the Pacific, a five-day island-hopping 

passage. The US Navy’s interest in the strategic 

location of Midway centered on its use as a seaplane 

base, and in 1940 construction of the naval air 

facility at Midway was begun.

World War II had an intense impact on the region. 

Tern Island, in French Frigate Shoals, was initially 

developed as a naval air facility for staging aircraft 

from the main Hawaiian Islands. The Navy built a 

base at Midway Atoll, dredging the reef to form a 

channel and harbor creating a major submarine 

refit and repairs base. Eastern Island had the main 

airfield in the early days of the war, while submarine 

and seaplane support operations were concentrated 

on Sand Island. Together, these areas comprised a 

vital center for submarine, surface fleet, and aviation 

operations. In fact, the United States Hawaiian Sea 

Frontier forces stationed patrol vessels at most of the 

islands and atolls. 

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were the focus of 

one of the most important naval battles in the Pacific. 

In June 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy attempted 

the invasion of Midway Atoll. Ultimately, four Japanese 

aircraft carriers and one American carrier were sunk, 

and hundreds of aircraft were shot down. The Imperial 

Japanese Navy was forced to withdraw. This was a 

watershed moment in the Pacific; had the invasion 

succeeded, America’s line of defense would have 

retreated to the West Coast, for most of the American 

fleet still lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor. The majority 

of the sea battle took place between 100 to 200 

miles to the north, but an intense air fight was waged 

directly over and around the atoll itself. Numerous 

Japanese and American planes splashed down into 

Midway waters. Many of these sites are war graves. 

Training exercises before and after the battle also 

took their toll. At least 67 naval aircraft are recorded 

as being lost in the vicinity of the islands. 

This battle proved to be the most decisive U.S. victory 

and was the turning point of World War II in the Pacific. 

Midway Atoll today is designated as a National 

Memorial to the Battle of Midway and ensures that 

those who fought and died in this battle on both sides 

will always be remembered for their sacrifices. Nine 

defensive structures related to the Battle of Midway 

were designated as National Historic Landmarks 

in 1986. Others are eligible for placement on the 

National Register of Historic Places. 

Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

Today, Native Hawaiians remain deeply connected 

to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands on genealogi-

cal, cultural, and spiritual levels. Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau 

families voyaged to these islands indicating that 

they played a role in a larger network for subsistence 

practices into the 20th century (Tava and Keale 1989; 

Maly 2003). In recent years, Native Hawaiian cultural 

practitioners voyaged to the Northwestern Hawai-

ian Islands to honor their ancestors and perpetuate 

traditional practices. In 1997, Hui Malama i Na Kupu-

na o Hawai‘i Nei repatriated sets of human remains 

to Nihoa and Mokumanana that were collected by 

archaeologists in the 1924-25 Bishop Museum 

Tanager Expeditions (Ayau and Tengan 2002). 

In 2003, a cultural protocol group, Na Kup‘eu Pae-

moku, traveled to Nihoa on the voyaging canoe 

Hokule‘a to conduct traditional ceremonies. In 2004, 

Hokule‘a sailed over 1,200 miles to the most distant 

end of the island chain to visit Kure Atoll as part of 

a statewide educational initiative called “Navigating 

Change.” In 2005, Na Kupu‘eu Paemoku sailed to 

Mokumanamana to conduct protocol ceremonies on 

the longest day of the year, June 21- the Summer 

Solstice.

There is little doubt that the islands possess some of 

the most unspoiled reef systems in the North Pacific 

Ocean. These islands and atolls, due to their isolation, 

are natural reserves for ecosystem diversity, and their 

intelligent management is of critical concern. There 

is also little doubt that the islands possess a rich 58
maritime history and abundant maritime heritage 

resources. A variety of Hawaiian and Pacific vessels, 

such as naval ships and aircraft, guano camp supply 

ships, fishing vessels, cable station ships, Japanese 

junks and local sampans, transpacific colliers, and 

the local wreckers or salvage company vessels from 

the main Hawaiian Islands all transited the islands. 

Currently, there are over 60 known ship losses and/

or confirmed sites in the area, the earliest dating 

back to 1818. This, combined with 67 known aircraft 

crashes, gives a total of over 120 potential maritime 

heritage resource sites. Some of these may represent 

environmental threats. Some may consist chiefly of 

marine debris of little specific value. But many of 

these sites are of historical and national significance. 

They are the physical record of past activities in the 

region, and embody unique aspects of Pacific island 

and American history.

In September and October 2002, the Northwest-

ern Hawaiian Island Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve 

sponsored a multi-agency research expedition to the 

islands. The project provided an opportunity for a small 

team of maritime archaeologists to conduct the first 

systematic survey of maritime cultural resources in the 

distant archipelago. The study area encompassed the 

islands and atolls stretching from Nihoa in the south 

to Kure in the north. The researchers worked alongside 

a larger team of biologists, zoologists, and manage-

ment personnel, on this multidisciplinary expedition. 

During the expedition, the team documented ten known 

vessels as well as five previously unrecorded wrecks. 

In addition, numerous 19th and 20th century anchors 

and other material were recorded and two US Navy 

aircraft surveyed. Subsequent archival work has con-

tinued to add to the inventory begun with this report. 

Maritime archaeologists conducted a maritime 

heritage survey of selected sites at Kure and Midway 

Atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2003. 

The team discovered the wreck site of the USS 

Saginaw (lost in 1870) at Kure Atoll. The suspected 

site of a whaling ship was also investigated, the 

remains corresponding to the American vessel Parker

(lost in 1842). At Midway the wreck of the American 

bark Carrollton (lost in 1906) was documented, 

and the sunken Navy salvage ship USS Macaw (lost 

1944) was also documented. 

Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Prehistoric — Archaeological surveys from the 1920s 

and 1930s first documented the remains of Hawaiian 

structures on both Nihoa and Mokumanamana 

Islands at the eastern end of the reserve, closest to 

the main Hawaiian Islands. Scholars, such as Ben 

Finney at the University of Hawaii, point out the high 

probability of Hawaiian fishing voyages at least as far 

west as French Frigate Shoals, and Native Hawaiian 

oral traditions indicate contact with numerous islands 

in the region. Many of the low atoll islands further to 

the west can be completely washed over during storm 

events in the northern Pacific, though, and physical 

remains there have yet to be found. The discovery 

of basalt artifacts such as canoe anchors or stone 

tools in the distant islands, a coral ecosystem where 

there is no immediate source of basalt rock, remains 

a distinct possibility. 

Historic — NOAA’s maritime heritage efforts face 

a special challenge in the Pacific Islands Region. 

Hundreds of historic shipwrecks and other types 

of submerged archaeological sites are scattered 

over a vast area of ocean. These include traditional 

voyaging and fishing craft, aquaculture sites, copra 

traders, whaling ships, Japanese sampans, and 

transpacific colliers. In addition, there are over 80 

US Navy ships and submarines and over 1,500 navy 

aircraft lost in Hawaiian waters alone. Many of these 

vessel and aircraft losses are US naval property and 

war graves associated with major historic events, or 

are sites older than 100 years and of historic and 

archaeological interest. 

Until recently, wreck sites in remote locations 

like the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands remained 

uninvestigated because of distance and logistical 

challenges facing work around isolated atolls. 

Appreciation of shipwrecks as heritage resources 

is a relatively new consideration in the Pacific. 

In collaboration with agency partners, the Pacific 

Islands region maritime heritage program has begun 

the important process of identifying, documenting 

and protecting these rare sites in the area. Goals 

include the development of a thorough inventory of 

submerged historic sites in the Hawaiian archipelago 

and American Samoa. Regional efforts also serve 

as an example of maritime heritage management 

for states and territories. Proper management and 

protection of these sites allows for greater public 

understanding and appreciation, preserving heritage 

for generations to come. 

The battle of Midway, which took place near the North-

western Hawaiian Islands, resulted in the loss of numer-

ous aircraft and ships. (Source courtesy of the National 

Archives)

59
Fagatele Bay National 

Marine Sanctuary

Written by Hans Van Tlburg and Julie Taomia

Comprising only a quarter square nautical mile, 

Fagatele Bay lies along the southernmost shore of 

Tutuila, the largest and most populated of the seven 

islands compromising the US Territory of American 

Samoa. Located approximately 1,000 miles south 

of the equator, American Samoa constitutes the 

eastern portion of the Samoan archipelago. The 

islands of Savai’i and Upolu to the west form the 

independent nation of Samoa. American Samoa 

is the only U.S. Territory south of the equator and 

comprises five volcanic islands (Tutuila, Aunuu, Ofu, 

Olosega, and Tau) and two small remote coral atolls 

(Rose Atoll and Swains Island). Contained with an 

extinct volcano, Fagatele Bay is a spectacular setting 

for one of the most remote of the National Marine 

Sanctuaries.

Native Peoples

Archeological evidence suggests the islands of 

Samoa have been inhabited since at least 1300 

BC. While trade and social interactions with Tonga 

and the other islands of the Pacific occured over the 

subsequent 2,000 years, a distinctly Samoan society 

existed in the islands by the time of European arrival 

in the late 1700s. The wave of human migration from 

S.E. Asia may have paused for an extended period in 

Samoa, before subsequent voyages of colonization 

continued to the Marquesas, Tahiti, and the distant 

islands of Polynesia (including Hawaii). As a result, 

many elements of Polynesian culture are concidered 

to have their roots in the Samoa area of the Pacific.

Although the economy, government and religion 

have changed since European contact, traditional 

Samoan culture remains central to life in American 

Samoa. The society is based on a system of matais, 

or chiefs, with varying levels of rank. This system 

is formed around extended families, or aigas, with 

a common allegiance to a high-ranking village 

matai. The matai regulates his village’s activities. 

Ownership and control of land is extremely 

important, and village ownership of off-shore areas 

is observed in principle. However, while traditional 

cultural relationships with the land remain strong, 

much of the traditional relationships to the sea have 

faded in recent years. Less dependency on offshore 

resources to sustain the economy and rapid ways 

to travel between islands has severed many of the 

connections to the sea the people of American 

Samoa once embraced.

Perhaps more than any other Polynesian cultures, 

Samoans have maintained an awareness and 

observation of traditional ways in the face of historic 

changes following western contact. Fa’asamoa

is often heard in American Samoa. It means the 

Samoan Way and includes the traditional structure of 

Samoan society. The culture of Samoa is over 3,000 

years old. Fa’asamoa has kept Samoans strongly 

nationalistic and cautious about changes that might 

threaten the traditional structure of their way of life. 

However, fa’asamoa has an inherent flexibility that 

allows culture to withstand and absorb the ways of 

foreign traders, missionaries, and military forces; it 

is a dynamic cultural force. One aspect of fa’asamoa

is the ancient concept of tapu. Samoans restricted 

use on areas that became overstressed in order to 

protect their resources. 

Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary adds a 

new dimension to local awareness of the treasures 

of the marine environment and the need to protect 

and preserve it. By equating the sanctuary with the 

concept of tapu, a fresh understanding of resource 

protection and management emerges, one that can 

have vital cultural and environmental significance. The 

sanctuary was designated to preserve and example 

of a pristine tropical marina habitat and coral reef 

terrace ecosystem.

The sanctuary makes a special effort to work with 

the American Samoan community with outreach 

programs for all ages. The sanctuary co-sponsors 

summer environmental education programs like the 

Enviro-Discovery Program, which allows 9- to 12-

year-old children to explore the marine life in the 

bay, learn ways to protect the resources there, and 

create art using materials from the sea. Samoan 

cultural events and general community outreach and 

education programs are also run year-round.

European Colonial Period 

Increasing contact with Western vessels following 

Jacob Roggeveen’s visit in 1722 came in the form 

of explorers, whaling vessels, merchant ships and 

missionary efforts in the Pacific. Samoa, located 

2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii and 1,600 miles 

northeast of Aoteroa (New Zealand), formed a 

strategic midpoint on early sailing and steamer 

routes. In the late 19th century, British, German, and 

American governments all recognized the Kingdom 

of Samoa. The Treaty of Berlin, signed in 1889, 

confirmed this, placing Europeans as advisors under 

the Samoan leader. The prevalence of expansionist 

plans throughout the Pacific during this period, 

though, along with the outbreak of violence and 

civil war, put enormous pressure on the kingdom 

nonetheless. In December 1899 the Tripartite Treaty 

replaced the previous agreement, and Western Samoa 

passed into German control, while the United States 

gained what is now known as American Samoa. 

Polynesian watercraft could be rowed or sailed and 

often had outriggers to stabilize the narrow hulls. 

(Library of Congress)

60
American Period

Tutuila became a territory of the United States with 

the signing of the Deed of Cession in 1900. The 

islands of Manu`a in American Samoa followed 

with their own agreement in 1904. The Pago Pago 

Harbor area was chosen initially as the site of the 

coaling station, and soon after became a US naval 

base. With its strategic location, naval presence in 

American Samoa provided logistical support to 

pre-World War II and wartime American operations 

against forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 

1940, Pago Pago on Tutuila became a training and 

staging area for the U.S. Marine Corps engaged in 

amphibious operations, critical to the island-hopping 

strategy. During this intensive period, the United 

States built roads, airstrips, docks and medical 

facilities, introducing change into numerous areas 

of island life. Many American Samoans enlisted 

in the U.S. Marines, and a home guard unit was 

established. In 1945, the Marines left the island 

territory to resume its peaceful lifestyle. In 1951, the 

naval administration of Tutuila and the rest of America 

Samoa was changed to a civil form of government by 

approval of the Congress of the United States. Civil 

administration of American Samoa came under the 

U.S. Department of the Interior. 

Maritime Heritage 

Resource Inventory

Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary is an 

important position to preserve the cultural links 

the Samoan people have with their surrounding 

ocean. A prehistoric village site has been mapped 

on the shore of Fagatele Bay and shows how early 

residents of the area were dependent on the bay’s 

resources for thier subsistence and livelihood. The 

nearby village of Vaitogi has kept alive the legend of 

how early residents sheltered those that came from 

the sea and is symbolized by their “call” of the turtle 

and shark, which arrive when a special song is sung. 

These cultural assets, as well as the Samoan way 

of respect for cultural traditions in their embrace of 

new concepts of governance and religion, provides 

the sanctuary’s management a unique opportinity 

to incorporate traditional practices into modern 

strategies of marine protected area stweardship.

Samoan villages have a daily period of quiet called 

sa, when people stop to reflect upon their place 

in the family, society and the environment. During 

this short period each day, the village aumaga

(untitled men) stand along the roadside to show 

their village’s respect for this tradition. Fagatele Bay 

National Marine Sanctuary is a similar kind of sa and 

respect, symbolizing how the people of American 

Samoa relate to the seas. As a partnership with the 

Samoan people, the sanctuary is promoting and 

preserving a unique heritage of marine resource 

management that may serve as a model for other 

marine protected areas of the world. 

Since it has been used continuously from at least 

the late Prehistoric Period until the present, the 

Fagatele Bay archaeological site can contribute 

to our knowledge of Samoan prehistory in general 

and the history of Tutuila and American Samoa as 

well. The ancient village at Fagatele Bay is one of 

the archaeological treasures associated with the 

National Marine Sanctuary System, possibly holding 

clues to our past maritime activities and the unique 

cultures of the Pacific.

Potential Archaeological 

Resources

Prehistoric — The presence of a Samoan habitation 

site dating between prehistoric to historic eras 

presents a possibility that related material culture 

may exist in the bay. Deposition could be related 

either to erosion of terrestrial sites or maritime 

activities related to the living site. 

Historic — While no historic archaeological resources 

are believed to exist within the sanctuary, significant 

historic heritage resources exist beyond the sanctuary 

boundaries. In 2000 the sanctuary supported 

collaboration with the Division of Marine Wildlife 

and Resources to conduct bathymetric surveys near 

Tutuila island. During the project the sonar picked 

up a large vessel lying within Pago Pago Harbor 

itself. Subsequently the American Samoa Historic 

Preservation Office contracted with a local diver to 

investigate the wreck and collect video footage. The 

vessel turned out to be the 300 foot long 1,850 ton 

USS Chehalis, lost in 1949.

The USS Chehalis AOG-48 was a World War II 

Patapsco-class gasoline tanker. Commissioned in 

1944, the Chehalis conducted fueling operations in 

Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. Between 1945 and 1948 

she served among the Hawaiian Islands, and among 

the scattered Pacific islands to the west. On October 

7th 1949, while at anchor at Pago Pago, American 

Samoa, the ship exploded and sank in the harbor. 

There are a number of other wrecks and heritage 

resources in American Samoa. Submerged Samoan 

grinding stones have been reported in Leone Bay. 

Though an initial inventory has not been completed, 

references do hint at a variety of commercial barques 

and whaling vessels lost in the vicinity. Furthermore, 

a US Marine Corps airstrip was built on the Tafuna 

Plain and used during World War II. The likelihood of 

submerged aviation resources is high. Since Pago 

Pago is a major tuna port, the wrecks of modern 

fishing vessels can be seen against the rocks of 

Tutuila island. All of these kinds of sites are pieces of 

a puzzle, the material record of past maritime activity. 

With future archaeological study, a more complete 

picture of maritime heritage resources in American 

Samoa, its whalers and barks, Samoan habitation 

sites and tools, Navy vessels and aircraft, and other 

yet unknown sites, is only a matter of time.

61

Postscript

A review of the historical contexts of the national marine sanctuaries confirms that these special places do not exist independently 

from each other. Maritime heritage study can be a lens through which to view the inter-relationship of communities and cultures. 

We have seen that Massachusett’s Yankee Traders were linked by the fur trade to the native tribes of the Washington coast as 

well as to the Mexican Californios of Monterey through ship-borne hide and tallow trade. The Northwest Coast lumber trade linked 

Washington’s loggers with California’s Forty-niners and the nineteenth century settlers around San Francisco Bay. New England 

was linked to Hawaii by the whaling ships that re-supplied in Honolulu and which would recruit Native Hawaiians as crew members. 

Hawaii’s native people were linked to Samoa’s native populations by the Polynesian voyaging canoes. The links may all be viewed 

through the archaeological, historical and cultural heritage of the national marine sanctuaries.

63
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