OysterBoot74
Guest
I had the most interesting conversation this past Friday with a most interesting man.
In an attempt to uncover existing knowledge of some specific local shipwrecks, I have been contancting an array of archaeologists, curators, historians, and public servants. Many of my contacts have been in the form of general email requests for pointers on how best to research the topic and a hearty thanks for any help that can be provided. I have recieved a surprising number of responses from people who are under no obligation to help. This is a short story of one such response.
As anyone in design/construction knows, lately, things have been pretty slow. Friday morning while trying to stay busy at work, I notice an email from a Dr. E. Lee Spence. The name seemed very familiar but I couldn't quite place from where I had heard it. The note was short and simply stated that he'd be happy to help if he could and to call him on his mobile number in the early evening to discuss the matter. A quick internet search revealed the source of my knowledge on the name. Here is a brief bio:
_______________________________________________________________________
from Shipwreck expert Dr. E. Lee Spence
Now 58, Dr. Spence lives in Summerville, South Carolina, and is an internationally known expert on shipwrecks and sunken treasures. He is one of five people in the world with a Doctor of Marine Histories (College of Marine Arts, 1972) and he has long been considered one of the founding fathers of marine archaeology.
His work has been funded by such institutions as the Savannah Ships of the Sea Museum, CRIL (the Caribbean Research Institute Ltd., Colombia, South America), the College of Charleston, the South Carolina Committee for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He recently served as Chief of Underwater Archaeology for Providencia, a 40,000 square mile archipelago in the Western Caribbean. He has authored more than a dozen books, and has served as an editor for a number of nationally distributed magazines. He is also an award winning cartographer and has published a number of maps and charts dealing with shipwrecks and treasure.
Always an adventurer, Spence has traveled to a wide range of exotic places in the Far East, Europe, Central and South America. He has explored castles, palaces, shipwrecks, ancient ruins, secret tunnels, and subterranean and underwater caves. He has dived in the Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean.
He has been shot at, buried in cave-ins, tangled in fishing nets, pinned under wreckage, run out of air, lost inside a wreck, and bitten by fish while pursuing his quests.
Although Dr. Spence has discovered numerous historically significant shipwrecks, including the Civil War blockade runner Georgiana and the Confederate submarine Hunley, he considers his identification of Charleston born banking and shipping magnate George Trenholm as the "Real Rhett Butler" to have been his most interesting non-shipwreck discovery. Trenholm's fleet of fast steamers earned today's equivalent of over one billion dollars running munitions, medicines, and merchandise through the Federal blockade. By the end of the Civil War, Trenholm was a major figure in the Confederate government. The United States actually charged Trenholm with treason and claimed he had made off with and concealed hundreds of millions in Confederate assets. Trenholm died without revealing his secrets. Spence is currently trying to uncover them.
The State of South Carolina's recent claim of ownership to the Civil War submarine Hunley rested in part on Spence's 1970 discovery of that vessel and his subsequent gift of his salvage rights to it to the State. Spence's gift of his rights was made in September of 1995 at the official request of the Attorney General of South Carolina and the South Carolina Hunley Commission.
Dr. Spence's work has been written up in hundreds of periodicals including: Life; Skin Diver; People; Treasure; Civil War Times; New York Times; USA Today; the London Sun; Vi Menn (Norway); La Stampa (Italy); Heutzu (Germany); MacCleans (Canada); and Tresors de l'histoire (France). He has also been on numerous radio and television shows, both here and abroad, including NBC's Today Show.
As an historian, Spence believes the biggest key to success on any expedition is the archival research that precedes it. Spence calls historical research "his drug of choice" and says, "In today's world, time is the most expensive part of a salvage expedition. Man-hours spent in the archives can cut hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of time from the field phase of most projects."
______________________________________________________________________
After a brief session of phone tag, I recieved a call @ about 5pm. Dr. Spence is in his home office and has done some preliminary research on what he believes to be the vessel I am interested in. After a short discussion and realization that he has the wrong ship, he goes to work at his computer trying to uncover data on the USS "I won't list name here". You can almost imagine him in his home office....him squinting at at a computer screen with his thick grey beard in a room dripping in nautical nostalgia. Anyhow, to make a long story short, with the amazing amount of historical data at his disposal and a lifetime of experience on "where to look", in 20 minutes he had uncovered the location of nearly every piece of recorded data concerning this ship. He described as he was typing that he had indexes and databases with hundreds of thousands of records at his disposal. The data he offered on this specific ship included dimensional info, # of ships logs on file with the National Archives, types and sizes of guns, hull number, verification of the vessels name once sold into commercial use, and some records of it's commercial port stops.
While Dr. Spence wasn't able to pinpoint which ship actually lies in the location I was concerned with, I believe that the glimpse into his research method and thought process with respect to identifying a wreck was invaluable. He also took a few minutes to describe some of the best ways to date a vessel and begin to pinpoint its identity. He made a statement that will stick with me. He said something like, " I may be known as a treasure hunter but thats not why I do this. I love the history and process of discovery and every now and then I'm forced to find some gold in order to motivate people to continue to finance my habit." His only request was that I share what I discovered with him for his records.
Anyhow, I thought I'd share the story partially because I knew some of you would enjoy it and partially as a "Thank You" to Dr. Spence. There was no real reason for him to waste his time on me and for this and other reasons it is obvious that he has spent his life working on things that he has a true love for.
In an attempt to uncover existing knowledge of some specific local shipwrecks, I have been contancting an array of archaeologists, curators, historians, and public servants. Many of my contacts have been in the form of general email requests for pointers on how best to research the topic and a hearty thanks for any help that can be provided. I have recieved a surprising number of responses from people who are under no obligation to help. This is a short story of one such response.
As anyone in design/construction knows, lately, things have been pretty slow. Friday morning while trying to stay busy at work, I notice an email from a Dr. E. Lee Spence. The name seemed very familiar but I couldn't quite place from where I had heard it. The note was short and simply stated that he'd be happy to help if he could and to call him on his mobile number in the early evening to discuss the matter. A quick internet search revealed the source of my knowledge on the name. Here is a brief bio:
_______________________________________________________________________
from Shipwreck expert Dr. E. Lee Spence
Now 58, Dr. Spence lives in Summerville, South Carolina, and is an internationally known expert on shipwrecks and sunken treasures. He is one of five people in the world with a Doctor of Marine Histories (College of Marine Arts, 1972) and he has long been considered one of the founding fathers of marine archaeology.
His work has been funded by such institutions as the Savannah Ships of the Sea Museum, CRIL (the Caribbean Research Institute Ltd., Colombia, South America), the College of Charleston, the South Carolina Committee for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He recently served as Chief of Underwater Archaeology for Providencia, a 40,000 square mile archipelago in the Western Caribbean. He has authored more than a dozen books, and has served as an editor for a number of nationally distributed magazines. He is also an award winning cartographer and has published a number of maps and charts dealing with shipwrecks and treasure.
Always an adventurer, Spence has traveled to a wide range of exotic places in the Far East, Europe, Central and South America. He has explored castles, palaces, shipwrecks, ancient ruins, secret tunnels, and subterranean and underwater caves. He has dived in the Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean.
He has been shot at, buried in cave-ins, tangled in fishing nets, pinned under wreckage, run out of air, lost inside a wreck, and bitten by fish while pursuing his quests.
Although Dr. Spence has discovered numerous historically significant shipwrecks, including the Civil War blockade runner Georgiana and the Confederate submarine Hunley, he considers his identification of Charleston born banking and shipping magnate George Trenholm as the "Real Rhett Butler" to have been his most interesting non-shipwreck discovery. Trenholm's fleet of fast steamers earned today's equivalent of over one billion dollars running munitions, medicines, and merchandise through the Federal blockade. By the end of the Civil War, Trenholm was a major figure in the Confederate government. The United States actually charged Trenholm with treason and claimed he had made off with and concealed hundreds of millions in Confederate assets. Trenholm died without revealing his secrets. Spence is currently trying to uncover them.
The State of South Carolina's recent claim of ownership to the Civil War submarine Hunley rested in part on Spence's 1970 discovery of that vessel and his subsequent gift of his salvage rights to it to the State. Spence's gift of his rights was made in September of 1995 at the official request of the Attorney General of South Carolina and the South Carolina Hunley Commission.
Dr. Spence's work has been written up in hundreds of periodicals including: Life; Skin Diver; People; Treasure; Civil War Times; New York Times; USA Today; the London Sun; Vi Menn (Norway); La Stampa (Italy); Heutzu (Germany); MacCleans (Canada); and Tresors de l'histoire (France). He has also been on numerous radio and television shows, both here and abroad, including NBC's Today Show.
As an historian, Spence believes the biggest key to success on any expedition is the archival research that precedes it. Spence calls historical research "his drug of choice" and says, "In today's world, time is the most expensive part of a salvage expedition. Man-hours spent in the archives can cut hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of time from the field phase of most projects."
______________________________________________________________________
After a brief session of phone tag, I recieved a call @ about 5pm. Dr. Spence is in his home office and has done some preliminary research on what he believes to be the vessel I am interested in. After a short discussion and realization that he has the wrong ship, he goes to work at his computer trying to uncover data on the USS "I won't list name here". You can almost imagine him in his home office....him squinting at at a computer screen with his thick grey beard in a room dripping in nautical nostalgia. Anyhow, to make a long story short, with the amazing amount of historical data at his disposal and a lifetime of experience on "where to look", in 20 minutes he had uncovered the location of nearly every piece of recorded data concerning this ship. He described as he was typing that he had indexes and databases with hundreds of thousands of records at his disposal. The data he offered on this specific ship included dimensional info, # of ships logs on file with the National Archives, types and sizes of guns, hull number, verification of the vessels name once sold into commercial use, and some records of it's commercial port stops.
While Dr. Spence wasn't able to pinpoint which ship actually lies in the location I was concerned with, I believe that the glimpse into his research method and thought process with respect to identifying a wreck was invaluable. He also took a few minutes to describe some of the best ways to date a vessel and begin to pinpoint its identity. He made a statement that will stick with me. He said something like, " I may be known as a treasure hunter but thats not why I do this. I love the history and process of discovery and every now and then I'm forced to find some gold in order to motivate people to continue to finance my habit." His only request was that I share what I discovered with him for his records.
Anyhow, I thought I'd share the story partially because I knew some of you would enjoy it and partially as a "Thank You" to Dr. Spence. There was no real reason for him to waste his time on me and for this and other reasons it is obvious that he has spent his life working on things that he has a true love for.
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