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April
12, 1998
The
Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society
FOR
RELEASE ON OR PRIOR TO: Thursday, April 23, 1998
16th-Century
St. Johns Wreck to be Spotlighted at MFMHS Lecture
Just
37 kilometers from Grand Bahama Island’s West End,
submerged in five meters of warm water, lies one of the
earliest and most complete Spanish shipwrecks ever found
in the Western Hemisphere. At 7 PM on Thursday, April
23, Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society director of
archaeology Corey Malcom will tell the story of the
Society’s archaeological discoveries on this
extraordinary shipwreck site. His presentation, titled
“The St. Johns Bahamas Wreck”, will take place in
the theater of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum at 200
Greene Street.
According
to Malcom, much of the ship’s remains survived intact.
Among the artifacts recovered to date are three bombardetas
and seven versos,
nine crossbows, a variety of swords, the remains of
earthenware “olive” jars, tin-glazed majolica
vessels, a horseshoe, glass vials, and an iron
conquistador’s helmet. During the April 23
presentation, Malcom will use slides to give an overview
of the field work performed during the Society’s five
archaeological expeditions to the site.
Based
on a study of artifacts and structural components
discovered, experts agree that the St. Johns Wreck is
almost certainly Spanish and most probably dates from
between 1554 and 1575. Therefore, its excavation could
add tremendously to historians’ understanding of the
period of New World colonization.
“The
work that we do on this wreck will redefine the way we
look at 16th-century maritime Spain and the colonial
Americas,” says Malcom.
The
shipwreck was first found in July of 1991 by the
Florida-based marine salvage corporation St. Johns
Expeditions, headed by John Browning, which had been
granted the right by the Bahamian government to search
for historic shipwrecks in Bahamian waters. Realizing
the wreck’s potential significance, Browning called in
the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society to conduct a
complete archaeological examination. Society
archaeologists are now seeking definitive clues to the
identity of the St. Johns Wreck, while conservators and
historians are preserving and researching its artifacts.
“Ships
like the St. Johns Wreck were the sole means of
transportation for the exchange of people, goods, and
ideas from the Old World to the New World,” Malcom
explains, “and an understanding of how they operated
is vital to an understanding of the Discovery Era that
shaped the Americas.”
Founded
in 1982, the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society is an
independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to
exhibition, education, archaeology, preservation, and
research into New World maritime activity. Its Key West
museum holds the richest single collection of
l7th-century maritime and shipwreck antiquities in the
Western Hemisphere.
Shipwreck
enthusiasts, archaeology buffs, and those interested in
maritime history are invited to attend Malcom’s
groundbreaking presentation on the fascinating St. Johns
Bahamas Wreck. For more information, please call the Mel
Fisher Maritime Heritage Society at 305-294-2633
(extension 17).
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