BELFAST — Belfast Area High School students in Chip Lagerbom and Genna Black’s Marine Studies class recently visited a foreshore shipwreck here as part of their unit on Maritime Archaeology.
Foreshore wrecks are accessible and can be visited at low tide. The class arrived with an underwater metal detector to record iron ship spikes among the wooden futtocks, or stringers, as well as those along the keelson and keel, the backbone lengths of wood that hold a ship together.
They were also responsible for photos, sketches, field notes and collection of artifacts.
Students were tasked with creating hypotheses as to the kind or type of vessel, what it was used for, its age, and its fate — how it ended up where it is.
Then they were to provide evidence they researched, found, recorded or collected that supports their hypotheses, as well as produce a detailed scale drawing of the wreck’s current status.
This has been a long-term research project, visiting this particular wreck for over 15 years, and it is now part of the Belfast Marine Institute’s initiative called the Floating Classroom, to get students involved in, on and under the waters of Penobscot Bay.
For more information or to contact the Belfast Marine Institute, visit https://bahsmarineinstitute.rsu71.org.