SRC Project Display

Divers mapping Stanley wreck site, Isle Royale NP, MI

The USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

The coral reef environment at Biscayne NP, Florida

A green seaturtle off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii

Canada - Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site

At the end of the War of Spanish Succession in 1713, the fortress city of Louisbourg was founded by the French following the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht and subsequent surrender of their holdings in Newfoundland and mainland Nova Scotia to the British. Initially built as a base for the exploitation of the lucrative local cod fishery, the settlement grew to become one of the largest and busiest ports in the New World as well as the primary military and administrative center for France in Atlantic Canada. In 1758, with the beginning of the French and Indian Wars nine French ships were sunk in Louisbourgs harbor including the 74-gun Prudent and 64-gun Celebre. In 1760, British military engineers destroyed the fortress and the site was never reoccupied.

SRC and Parks Canada divers at Louisbourg NHS

SRC and Parks Canada divers mapping the Celebre

As part of the overall plan for the historic site, in 1996 the Underwater Archaeological Services of Parks Canada recommended that shipwrecks and other submerged cultural resources in Louisbourg Harbor be managed as sites of national significance under the general rubric of an underwater museum. One of the nine shipwrecks in the harbor from the 1758 attack, Celebre is open to visitation by licensed dive charters. Both Celebre and Prudent are monitored on a biannual basis for natural and cultural damage and the movement and/or disappearance of artifacts placed onsite for monitoring purposes.

In July 2001, SRC archeologists traveled to Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada to meet and work with members of Parks Canadas underwater archeology team. The project involved monitoring two 18th century French warships sunk in Louisbourg Harbor in 1758 that are now open to diving, as well as preliminary documentation of a third ship also sunk in 1758. In addition to underwater archeological work, SRC archeologists visited the large interpretive facility at the Fortress of Louisbourg, and met with curation and conservation staff involved in managing archeological collections from more than 30 years of excavation at the site.