Penobscot
Landing
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River opens window to Maine's past For James Hunter, an underwater archaeologist with the U.S. Navy, it's not hard to imagine the horrific scene that must have unfolded on the Penobscot River on that August day more than 220 years ago. The devastation still resonates in every military and personal artifact brought up from the murky waters - from cannonballs to shoe buckles and clay pipes - and in those that remain scattered along the riverbed or buried within the remains of more than 40 sailing ships that composed the largest fleet in the fledgling American Navy in 1779. After a day of diving on one of those wrecks, Hunter can picture the fire and smoke that engulfed the Colonial ships as they were chased by the British upriver from Castine and scuttled by their own desperate crews. He can imagine the fierce explosions that echoed throughout Bangor and the settlements downriver, and the frantic cries of sailors as they fled their burning vessels and escaped into the woods. "The expedition ended in complete catastrophe, and there must have been absolute chaos and insanity on the river that day," said Hunter, who works for the underwater archaeological unit of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. "The remarkable thing is that it was the worst U.S. naval defeat next to Pearl Harbor, a truly significant episode in the American Revolution. Yet few people really know much about it at all. I hadn't even heard of it, in fact, until I joined the project." Hunter, the field director for the Penobscot Expedition project, recently completed the first comprehensive report on what the Navy team has discovered since it began exploring two of the 10 or so suspected shipwreck sites in Bangor and Brewer four years ago. Hunter's article on the Phinney site, named for the Brewer man who first discovered the wreck while diving in the river in 1997, will be published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology in April. The Maine Historic Preservation Commission is now working to have the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places , a designation that will help to protect the site's archaeological integrity from riverside development and opportunistic relic-hunters. "What we've been able to learn from the site gives us a good idea of the last moments of the expedition," said Hunter. "These guys were really panicking, dumping weapons and everything else to lighten their loads and get farther upriver. And the physical remnants are still right there in the river." After extensive examination of historical records and explorations of the shipwreck itself, which lies in only 15 feet of water near the Brewer shore by the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge, the archaeologists are confident that the Phinney site holds the remains of the Diligent. Hunter said the twin-masted, 80-foot Continental brig was built in Boston in 1776 for the Royal Navy, and was engaged in at least a couple of major battles during the American Revolution. In 1779, 11 British crewmen were killed when the ship was captured off Sandy Hook, N.J., by the Continental sloop Providence. Later that year, under the command of Lt. Phillip Brown, the Diligent was put into service for the Penobscot Expedition, an ill-fated attempt to rout the British at Fort George in Castine that resulted instead in the court-martial of Commodore Dudley Saltonstall for cowardice in the face of the enemy. Lt. Col. Paul Revere, who also was court-martialed for his actions during the ignominious retreat, was acquitted of charges. The Phinney site so far has yielded such artifacts as a junior officer's brass shoe buckle, tobacco pipes, a 4-inch folding pocketknife, and hundreds of pieces of ceramic, glass, brick and other materials. Besides the many cannonballs strewn about the wreck site, Hunter said, divers have discovered two different types of bar shot, a particularly deadly dumbbell-shaped form of ammunition. "When fired from a cannon," Hunter said, "bar shot would leave the bore and spin through the air, taking out rigging, sails and people. They were grisly weapons." He said the munitions most likely came from Spain, which joined the conflict against Great Britain in 1779 and supplied weapons to the American colonists. The archaeologists also found a swivel gun that still contained evidence of gunpowder and ammunition. Nicknamed "The Murderer," the deck-mounted gun was extremely effective in wiping out enemy crewmen. At another site just across the river in Bangor, the team discovered weapons and ammunition strewn across the bottom in a linear pattern, suggesting the crew hastily dumped them as the ship was fleeing its pursuers. "It shows how desperate things were for the American forces at the time," Hunter said. "You can imagine them dumping guns, munitions - anything heavy." Perhaps the most fascinating artifact of all, however, is the silver coin dug from the ship's mud-filled mast step in 2000. Dated 1708, the remarkably well-preserved coin, about the size of a half-dollar, bears the finely wrought crest of Philip V of Spain, an ornate "V" topped by a crown. On the other side is a royal shield that also bears a crown. Hunter said the placement of coins in ships during their construction is a good-luck ritual that dates to the ancient Romans. Modern-day naval ships have coins in them, too. Archaeologists have put names to each of the 10 ships they believe were sunk near Bangor and Brewer, but so far they have been able to explore only the well-preserved physical remains of the Diligent. The hulls of the other nine vessels could have been buried in sediment, swept downriver with the tide or even ruined by dredging over time. Although remote sensing surveys from Bangor to Winterport have provided ample evidence of large pieces of metal scattered all over the river bottom, identifying the objects will be much more difficult. "Large chunks of iron could be anything from spikes, anchors and cannons on shipwrecks to bridge rubble, car chassis and other modern junk," Hunter said. "The artifacts from the Phinney site had to be winnowed from all kinds of rubbish, including a Honda motorcycle." The Penobscot Expedition remains a priority for the Naval Historical Center, Hunter said. But other archaeological commitments around the world, as well as budget cutbacks since the attacks of Sept. 11, could delay further exploration in the river for a year or so. Meanwhile, all of the Maine artifacts have been scientifically conserved and stored at the Washington Navy Yard. "Eventually they'll all wind up back in Maine, where they belong," said Hunter, who spoke about the project to local history buffs in Bangor and Castine last fall. "Not everyone in the country is lucky enough to have a collection of historically significant shipwrecks right in their own back yard." A copyright article from the Bangor Daily New by Tom Weber,Thursday, December 4, 2003. |
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The
City of Brewer