Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology's
Tortugas Shipwreck Excavation

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Over 80 intact Spanish Olive Jars were found 1500 feet deep on the Tortugas site. Analysis of their contents indicated that they held water, wine, oil, various dry foodstuffs, as well as soap and pitch. In many cases, the actual cork stoppers were found inside the jars.

In 1987, John Morris and I founded a company that today is know as Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology. At that time, we made a commitment to adhere to the highest ethical standards in any shipwreck projects with which we were involved. While John and I are still large shareholders in Seahawk, we have not managed the company since 1994. We left to start another company, REMARC International, which is also engaged in the business of developing new shipwreck projects.

We are still very proud of the accomplishments of Seahawk during our watch. The Tortugas project, the world's first remote underwater archaeological excavation, is an accomplishment that has still not been repeated by either non-profit or commercial interests to this date.

Following is a list of the current results of that operation, which took place in a depth of 500 meters. One of the most unusual things about this project is the unanimous support we have received from every archaeologist that has reviewed our procedures and seen the results of our work. This ship, most likely sunk in the hurricane of 1622 between the Florida Keys and Cuba, was most likely a Spanish merchant vessel in the 200 ton range.

A thorough research report is now being completed by Seahawk's chief archaeologist, Jenette Flow, and will be available soon. We hope that this project stands as a model for the future cooperation of archaeologists and commercial operations, and marks a new era in a joint public/private partnership to conserve our underwater cultural resources.

Results to date of the Tortugas Project

• The preliminary paper on the excavation is finished and was presented to the Society for Historical Archaeology meeting in 1994.

• Additional presentations about the site and the excavation have been made to:
• - West Central Florida Archaeological Society
• - Pinellas Research Council
• - MENSA
• - Two separate programs for Florida Science Teacher's Continuing Education Credits
• - Programs at The Florida Museum of Science and Industry
• - Programs at the Florida Education Teach-in 1992, 1994, 1995

• There have been cooperative programs with two Florida State Universities.

• We have hosted both graduate and undergraduate interns from the University of South Florida.

• The collection has been accessed and studied by two students from the University of Florida.

• One Doctoral Dissertation has utilized the collection for data on the study of pottery and ceramics.

• One Masters Level student has included beads from the collection in his research.

• The collection has been visited and consultations provided by archaeologists (Including Dr. George Bass), conservators, art historians, paleobotanists, zooarchaeologists, a ceramic technologists, a veterinarian, a dentist and other professionals.

• There is currently a traveling archaeological exhibit describing the archaeology, artifacts and excavation techniques relating to the Tortugas site that was designed and built with the Florida Museum of Science and Industry. This exhibit has been on display in major museums throughout the US and has been seen by millions of people.

• All 17,000 artifacts from the collection have been conserved, cataloged and currently reside in the company's conservation lab facility in Tampa, Florida. There is a standing invitation for anyone from the archaeological community to utilize the artifacts recovered from the site at their convenience.

• The company intends to keep the archaeological collection together to display at a Museum it intends to build, and to be used in traveling displays.

• If any artifacts are ever sold from the collection, they will only be items from one of three categories; Pearls (of which over 7,000 were recovered), coins, or gold bars. None will be sold until the archaeologist feels they have been thoroughly documented. Even then, a collection of the unique pieces from each of those categories would be kept with the collection.

• The documentation relating to the recovery operation, which includes thousands of photos, computer generated maps, and data logs which show the X, Y and Z coordinates of all artifacts recovered by the ROV's manipulators, as well as thousands of hours of video are available for study to anyone in the archaeological community that requests access to them.

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