Posted on September 24, 2018
An 18th century shipwreck off the Delaware coast left beaches in Lewes littered with historic artifacts. A few decades ago shipwrecked items began appearing after a beach replenishment project in 2004.
Now the state of Delaware is taking precaution, moving roughly 80,000 artifacts to a more secure place in Dover.
“Phone calls started coming in, folks were finding things on the beach and that’s not unusual, but the frequency of the calls was unusual,” Paul Nasca, State Curator of Archaeology recalled.
The sand kicked up from the dredging peppered the beach with bits of pottery and pieces of metal. And just like that an archaeological investigation was underway.
Historians stored the 18th century finds at a facility in Cape Henlopen State Park.
“It provided a vital need on site as we processed the artifacts and understood the collection,” Nasca said.
But with recent threats of hurricanes, the Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs office feared the collection could be damaged. So they decided to be proactive and move them away from the coast to a HCA building in Dover.
“Moving the collection from Lewes is not removing the collection from Lewes. It is always going to be a Lewes oriented shipwreck that’s a Lewes story and we continue that story through interpretation,” Nasca said.
HCA is still in the process of moving the artifacts.
“We call it the Roosevelt Inlet Shipwreck because we actually don’t know the name of that vessel,” Nasca said.
What historians do know is the ship that sank was loaded with goods and was heading to Philadelphia. The rest is a mystery.
“Our goal for the collection is to continue to study it. It’s a remarkable collection of objects from the late 18th century that shows the types of materials that would have been brought in for resale to the American market,” Nasca said.
Source: WBOC
