about us
Field schools
- surveying techniques
- creating site grids
- site reporting
- underwater drawing
- underwater photography and photogrammetry
- metal detecting
- artifact recovery
Field schools are great programs for anyone interested in a career in underwater archaeology, or enthusiasts who would like to be completely immersed in maritime history.
Expeditions
These are usually shorter trips focused on the exploration of remote shipwreck sites in off the beaten path locations.
The focus of these trips is usually shipwreck discovery and basic documentation using underwater photography and photogrammetry. We tend to visit many different sites during an expedition. As these are true adventures, living and working conditions might be a bit more basic than during our field schools. Expeditions are suited to both enthusiasts and students who are looking for a unique experience in underwater archaeology.
staff
Ruud is a maritime archaeologist who holds Masters, and Ph.D. degrees in archaeology from Leiden University. Ruud founded The Shipwreck Survey in 2017 and has been a project leader ever since.
After working in Dutch commercial archaeology for over a year, Ruud became the island archaeologist on St. Eustatius in the Dutch Caribbean in 2011. Since then, he has directed numerous underwater and terrestrial archaeological projects and field schools, teaching hundreds of students on various islands such as Mauritius, Martinique, the Dominican Republic Grenada, St. Eustatius, Salt Cay, and Bonaire. In 2016, he founded Terramar Museum, a new archaeological museum on Bonaire. A year later, he founded The Shipwreck Survey in order to focus fully on underwater archaeological research and exploration. In addition to his work at The Shipwreck Survey, Ruud is also an associate lecturer at Flinders University in Australia. Ruud has been diving for over two decades. He is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor and Specialty Instructor with experience diving all over the world. Besides archaeology, his big passion is underwater photography.
Alex is an American archaeologist who holds a Masters degree in maritime archaeology from Flinders University. She has been a project leader for The Shipwreck Survey since 2020.
For the past six years, Alex has worked on archaeological projects across the Caribbean and United States. She was Director of the St. Eustatius Center for Archaeological Research from 2021 to 2022. Her research in the Caribbean has focused primarily on maritime archaeological projects, but she has extensive experience in terrestrial archaeology as well. Her specialties are underwater site formation processes and the archaeology of colonial-period warships. Besides being a vital part of The Shipwreck Survey’s field team, Alex brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the lab, where she leads the artifact conservation and data analysis. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Flinders University, focusing on Dutch East India Company shipwreck collections.
Joost Morsink is a Caribbean archaeologist with a Masters degree from Leiden University and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He frequently joins Shipwreck Survey projects as a staff member in places such as Turks & Caicos and Bonaire.
Joost has worked in the Caribbean for over 20 years, and currently works in cultural resource management in the United States. He is a Fulbright alumn and his academic work has been published in various journals and books, including the Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology. He is one of the few Caribbean archaeologists that has directed fieldwork across all three Caribbean archipelagos (Lesser Antilles, Greater Antilles, and Bahamas), and he has experience with terrestrial as well as maritime projects. Over the last five years, Joost has directed multiple large scale Phase I surveys, Phase II evaluations, and Phase III data recoveries in the continental United States as well as Puerto Rico.
Training facilities and equipment
At The Shipwreck Survey we have all the facilities necessary to carry out an archaeological project from start to finish. Our laboratories are spacious and well equipped to process our field data.
Our air-conditioned presentation rooms are equipped with large screens and provide ample workspace.
We conduct our training with top-of-the-line equipment to ensure participants are using the latest technology in the field. For underwater photography, videography, and photogrammetry we use high-end Olympus mirrorless cameras with a variety of lenses and underwater housings. A Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II metal detector is used to investigate metal targets in the seabed. For deeper research, we have a BlueROV2 Remotely Operated Vehicle that is depth rated to 300m/1,000ft.
Data processing is done with programs used throughout the industry, such as Agisoft Metashape, Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. Wherever we are in the world, we ensure participants have access to high-quality dive equipment to ensure safe and productive dives.
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