Turks & Caicos

These islands’ historical significance lies in the production of salt, a highly sought after product in the colonial period due to its ability to conserve food. Salt Cay, one of the smallest inhabited islands in the archipelago, is still largely covered in salt ponds. Off its northern shore, we discovered the partially buried remains of a wooden ship. Its wooden hull was still fairly intact, indicating that it had only been exposed recently, most likely during a tropical storm. We initially documented its timbers and created a photomosaic which serves as a baseline for monitoring this site in the future. In 2023, we mapped the site in more detail and found numerous parts of the wreck that were not visible in previous years, such as copper sheathing and a variety of timbers. In 2024, we revisited the site and discovered many changes compared to the year before. These were documented in detail, which allows us to study the effects of various site formation processes over a extended period of time. Documentary records indicate this might be the wreck of the Gustavus, a brig that came to take in a cargo of salt but foundered on the northern reefs of Salt Cay in 1855.

An hour south of Salt Cay lies a very different wreck, that of the HMS Endymion, a British 44-gun warship. In 1790, the Endymion hit an uncharted reef, started taking on water, and sank within two days. She now rests in 30 feet of water, next to the rock that caused her demise. Her wooden hull is completely gone, but scattered across the site are dozens of cannons, several enormous anchors, ballast, and numerous other metal components of the ship. The Endymion is very remote and only accessible on days when the water is very calm, so not many people get to see the wreck site. We had a one-day weather window to visit the site in early 2019, during which we documented as much of the wreck as possible. Hundreds of overlapping photos were taken of the site, which were color corrected and processed by 3D modeling software to recreate the wreck virtually. We repeated this process in 2023 in order to study any changes that have occurred to the site due to storms, hurricanes, and other processes. This will allow people to see and study the remains of the Endymion remotely. We also managed to locate the original ship’s log, which allowed us to study the wrecking event in detail and shed light on the lives of the people who served on the ship.

During the 2023 field season, we also explored the nearby uninhabited island of Great Sand Cay. We were the first researchers to ever survey the island archaeologically. During this survey, we found and documented the remains of a French lighthouse dating to the 1760s that was marked on a contemporary map. In addition, we found remains of a shipwreck in a shallow bay on the island’s east side. These were mapped more extensively in 2024, but additional fieldwork is required in order to document the site in its entirety. Also in 2024, we found the remains of another shipwreck along Salt Cay’s leeward shore. These remains were documented and that data is currently being analyzed.