The Lost Colonial Port of Sunbury, Georgia Christopher P. McCabe, Stephen D. Dilk Georgia Department of Natural Resources and East Carolina University

1. The Lost Colonial Port of Sunbury, Georgia:
Preliminary Investigations
Detail of a 1774 Coastal Georgia Map
Christopher P. McCabe, M.A., RPA
and
Stephen D. Dilk

2. A Partnership:
GCUAFS in Savannah
HPD Archaeology Services Unit
East Carolina University
Georgia Southern University
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

3. Georgia's OCGA Mandates
OCGA 12-3-80 et seq.
“The state archeologist shall have such
duties in conducting and supervising the
surveillance, protection, preservation,
survey, and recovery of submerged
cultural resources… and the exclusive
right to regulate the investigating,
surveying, and recovery of all such
submerged cultural resources...”
It is considered illegal for any person to
“...intentionally deface, injure, destroy,
displace, or remove any underwater
cultural resources or portion thereof in
any manner not in accordance with a
permit issued by the state archaeologist...”

4. Georgia Statewide Shipwreck Inventory (GSSI)
 An Ongoing Multi-faceted Research Project
- NAHRGIS
• an interactive web-based registry and GIS database
cataloging information about the natural,
archaeological, and historic resources of Georgia.
- NHPA Section 106 Projects
- GCUAFS & HPD Report Libraries
- Private Research & Local Knowledge
- Graduate Student Projects
R/V Whaler R/V SkIO Explorer

5. GSSI St. Catherine’s Sound Survey
• Merchant and Fishing vessels
• Civil War-era shipwrecks
• Colonial Port of Sunbury, GA
Location of Sunbury, Georgia
(Georgia State Map Collection &,
Georgia Humanities Council; amended).
1865 U.S. Coast Survey of St. Catherine’s Sound

6. Sunbury, GA
1774 Coastal Georgia Map
(National Archives Kew, Catalogue#: MPG120)
Town Plan of Sunbury
(C. C. Jones Jr. 1878 redraft)
Detail of recent LIDAR image

7. Maritime Perspectives
of Colonial Sunbury
• Second largest port-of-entry in
colonial Georgia
• Raw material exports
• Atlantic World trading
• Demographic influences
(Bermudians, African Slaves, etc.)
Large Compass timber at
Ft. Morris Historic Site

8. Colonial Port of Sunbury, GA
View from Ft. Morris looking east
• Shipping records, cargo manifests

9. Broad events leading
to the decline of Sunbury
• Revolutionary War
• Hurricanes
• Economic shifts in post-war period
• Relative quickness of decline leads
to unique archaeological landscape

10. Maritime significance during
the Revolutionary War
• Base for privateering
• Base for preemptive naval strikes against British East
Florida (3 failed attempts)
• Last American port-of-entry in Georgia after the fall
of Savannah

11. Maritime Defense of Sunbury
• Active defense to passive defense
“Two Rebel Galleys”
The Vigilant Man of War, with the Comet
Galley, the Keppel Armed Brig, and the
Greenwich Armed Sloop, followed by the
Transports in Three Divisions, in the Order
Example of an Armed Galley established for a Descent, proceeded up the
(Howard I. Chapelle, The History of [Savannah] River with the Tide at Noon; about
American Sailing Ships. 1935.)
Four o'Clock in the Evening the Vigilant opened
the Reach to Gerridoe's Plantation, and was
cannonaded by Two Rebel Galleys, who retired
before any of their Buliets had reached her; a
single Shot from the Vigilant quickened their
Retreat.
Copy of a Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell
to Lord George Germain dated Savannah, January 16,
1779. (The London Gazette).
Muster List of Galley Scourge
(National Archives, Kew: ADM 3610427)

12. Submerged remains as
evidence of struggle
• Remote sensing survey initiated to investigate Sunbury’s maritime
remains
• An effort to better understand the rise and fall of Port Sunbury.
• Side-scan sonar and magnetometer surveys initiated in Summer 2009
• 164 submerged targets of interest to date.
Side-scan sonar and magnetometer towfish.
“Screen grab” of
coverage area to date

13. Lamotte’s Wharf (south), Site SI-2
• Lowtide visual search of Sunbury’s
north/south waterfront.
• Remains of wharf site at Lot 1:
suspected Lamotte’s Wharf (south).
• Ballast piles and piling remnants
suggest two other wharf sites
further north, possibly “Darling &
Company” and “Lamotte’s Wharf
(north)

14. Lamotte’s Wharf (south) SI-2
• 119 wooden piling remnants
to date

15. SI-2 Artifacts
• Combed Staffordshire slipware (1670-1795)
• Utilitarian glazed redware
• Refined lead glaze earthenware
• British brown saltglazed stoneware
• Creamware cup base
• Possible French faience
• All date to the Sunbury’s active period
SI-2 Artifact Sampling
Liquor bottle-neck manufactured c. 1755

16. Sunbury Fieldwork 2010
• Continued side-scan and magnetometer
surveys & enhanced site monitoring
• Groundtruth submerged targets (dive ops)
• Search for suspected Quarantine Station
• Public Interpretation at Ft. Morris Historic
Site Museum

17. Thank You!
For further information, please contact
Christopher McCabe or Stephen Dilk at the:
Georgia Coastal Underwater Archaeology Field Station
c/o Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
10 Ocean Science Circle
Savannah, GA 31411
(912) 598-3346