On May 10th, maritimers got together to practice their dendrochronology skills on some timber samples from Currituck Sound, North Carolina. The 18 timbers were discovered by Waterlily residents and the project was backed by the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute's Maritime Heritage program and East Carolina University's Program in Maritime Studies.
Check out the article that was in The Coastland Times:
Before they could study the timbers, students and faculty had to measure, draw, and photograph the samples.
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| A Waterlily timber |
From the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Dr. William Wright and Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman collaborated with the Maritime Studies Association for the dendrochronology workshop. Dr. Creasman commenced with a comprehensive lecture that served as introduction to dendrochronology. Following a short break, he resumed with a lecture on nautical dendrochronology. Both lectures served to educate students on analysis techniques and new ways of examining ship timbers. The key point in both lectures was to consider timbers as individual artifacts instead of as a collection that formed a single large artifact (i.e. the ship). It is possible to gain information about construction techniques, dating, and other cultural phenomenons in this way.
Dr. William Wright took over in the afternoon to teach us the practical aspects of dendrochronology. The class started by coring live pine trees and concluded by sampling waterlogged timbers of the Waterlily wreck. The Waterlily timbers were cored four times and an augmented hand corer was used to collect the samples. These samples were eventually sent away for analysis.
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| Dr. Wright begins to core samples. |
Thanks to Ivor Mollema for contributing to this post!
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