Summary

A maritime archeologist recounts twenty years of remarkable discoveries and adventures both in and under the waters of South Carolina.

Content

Through personal anecdotes and archeological data, Carl Naylor documents his experiences in the service of the Maritime Research Division of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. Along the way he shares a unique foray into the Palmetto State’s history and prehistory.

Naylor’s fascinating career includes raising the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley; dredging the bottom of an Allendale County creek for evidence of the earliest Paleoindians; exploring the waters off Winyah Bay for a Spanish ship lost in 1526 and the waters of Port Royal Sound for a French corsair wrecked in 1577; and many other adventures. He recounts his investigations of suspected Revolutionary War gunboats in the Cooper River, the famous Brown’s Ferry cargo vessel found in the Black River, a steamship sunk in a storm off Hilton Head Island in 1899, and other mysteries of maritime history.

Throughout these episodes, Naylor gives an insider’s view of the methods of underwater archaeology in stories that focus on the events, personalities, and contexts of historic finds and on the impact of these discoveries on our knowledge of the Palmetto State’s past. His memoir is a personal, authoritative account of South Carolina’s efforts to discover and preserve evidence of its remarkable maritime history.