Dr. E. Lee Spence's sketches of the rivet pattern of the old
Housatonic wreck buoy as drawn on his November 24, 1979, edition of NOAA chart
11523.
This unusual rivet pattern which was sketched in pencil from memory on this
chart by Dr. Spence during a discussion he was having at the National Archives
with Archivist John VanDerRoot on May 17, 1981. In an effort to record a time
line for his discovery, Spence asked VanDerRoot to sign the chart. VanDerRoot's signature is in pencil along with the date. The note in blue pen was added in
1997 by
Spence while compiling documents for placement in the affidavit. That
annotation incorrectly notes the word "it" as being the snag (Housatonic's
old wreck buoy). From a subsequent review of notes (probably May or June of
1997), it became clear that point "It" was
a plot of a magnetic bearings and angles taken by Spence and Captain Jack Parker
directly over the Hunley's location. A plot of the magnetic bearings
taken by Spence the day he found the Hunley in 1970 were used as the
coordinates of the center point of Spence's 1974 filing with the United States
Army Corps of Engineers. To protect against looters, that center point was
shifted slightly for the filing of Spence's salvage claim in Federal District
Court. The center point on this chart is the one used in the court filing. The
spot identified in Spence's notes
as "object" is the wreck of the Housatonic. The point marked "W.O." is
the snag shown in Spence's notes as "O'Neal." Both "W.O." and "O'Neal" are
simply shortened forms of Captain Walter O'Neal's name. The snag has been
tentatively identified by Spence as the remains of an iron buoy that once marked
the wreck of the Housatonic.
Check out:
Dr. E. Lee Spence's Sworn Affidavit on his discovery of the Civil War
submarine
H. L. Hunley Return to the Shipwrecks.com Home Page or see the Fast Find Index for list of all the information-packed pages of shipwrecks dot com™ .© Copyright 2005 by Sea Research Society {Warning. Do not republish annotations or images of letters or other documents without written permission. All rights reserved. Unless specified elsewhere, all annotations were written or provided by Dr. E. Lee Spence. All U.S. and International copyrights owned by Edward Lee Spence and used herein have been assigned to the Sea Research Society or are used by permission. For written permission to quote or reprint, contact Dr. E. Lee Spence, 411 West Richardson Avenue, Summerville, SC 29483 (843) 821-0001. All rights reserved. Click for expanded copyright & trademarks notice.} |