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On site update

Dear All, over the last couple of days a lot has been happening on the site. The first divers in yesterday were Nigel from the Museum and Greg a guest diver with our sponsor’s Silentworld. Nigel and Greg continued their remote sensing survey of the wreck – one of the more interesting items they located was a copper alloy ship’s fastening called a ‘dump’.

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Dear All, over the last couple of days a lot has been happening on the site. The first divers in yesterday were Nigel from the Museum and Greg a guest diver with our sponsor’s Silentworld. Nigel and Greg continued their remote sensing survey of the wreck – one of the more interesting items they located was a copper alloy ship’s fastening called a ‘dump’. This dump was marked with the ‘broad arrow’ – further evidence that the vessel is the colonial government owned Mermaid.

An expedition diver recording a scatter of ship

An expedition diver recording a scatter of ship’s fittings from HMCS Mermaid

Other dive teams carried out surveys of the deeper waters to the south of the reef looking for any wreck material which may have drifted off the site.

An exciting day but tinged with sadness as Elaine, Megan and Alice from Bega High School and Wayne Morris from James Cook University were leaving the expedition today. Sorry to see you go.

kieranhosty

Kieran Hosty

I started diving in Western Australia in 1976 and after a few years of mucking around on shipwrecks joined the Maritime Archaeological Association of Western Australia in order to try and make sense of what I saw on the seabed. My love of diving and maritime history made me pursue a graduate degree in history and anthropology from the Western Australian Institute of Technology followed a few years later by a post graduate diploma in maritime archaeology from Curtin University also in Western Australia. After 18 months as an archaeological field volunteer I took up a position with the Maritime Archaeology Unit at the Victoria Archaeological Survey. I was the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Officer in Victoria for six years before coming to the Australian National Maritime Museum in 1994 to take up the position of Curator of Maritime Archaeology and Ship Technology. At the Museum I was responsible for the Museum’s maritime archaeology program as well as curating the Museum’s collection relating to convicts, 19th century migrants and ship technology. My expertise in convict related material was further enhanced, when I took up a temporary position as Curator / Manager of Hyde Park Barracks Museum for eighteen months in 2004 followed by a further 18 month contract at the Barracks where I curated an exhibition on the history and archaeology of convict hulks and another on the World Heritage listing of Australian convict sites. In 2012 my role at the Museum shifted focus when I became the Manager – Maritime Archaeology Program – reflecting an increased emphasis on the importance of the maritime archaeology program at the Museum. I have worked on many maritime archaeological projects both in Australia and overseas including the survey and excavation of the Sydney Cove (1797), HMS Pandora (1791) and HMCS Mermaid (1829), the Coral Sea Shipwrecks Project (sponsored by the SiILENTWORLD FOUNDATION and the ARC) and the hunt for Cook’s Endeavour in the USA. I'm the author of the book Dunbar 1857: Disaster on our doorstep, published by the Museum along with two books on Australian convicts and 19th century migrants published by McMillan.

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