Kad'yak Identified (published 2004)

Kad’yak positive id 7/16/04

By DREW HERMAN

Mirror Writer

For several days the divers working on a historic shipwreck near Kodiak Island knew a mysterious object only as “the cylinder over by the rocks,” but now marine archaeologist Tane Casserley calls it “the Grail,”

 The easily read Russian letters on one end of the cylinder spell out “Kad’yak,” the name of a Russian American Company bark which sank in 1860. That makes this partially rock-encrusted artifact the always-hoped-for but rarely found crucial piece of evidence which allows investigators to say for certain which ship they’ve found — in this case the oldest wreck ever identified in Alaska waters. 

“We were pretty happy about this,” principal investigator Frank Cantelas said.

With that understatement, Cantelas literally unveiled the important find Thursday, pulling away a cloth to reveal a 10-gallon aquarium containing the artifact soaking in freshwater. Excited applause broke out as the audience at Kodiak College grasped its significance. The archaeological team scheduled the presentation to update the public about their ongoing work.

Biologist Brad Stevens, the Kodiak resident whose efforts led to the discovery of the Kad’yak in 2003, summed up the moment: “There’s the ship in a tank.” 

Cantelas and his colleagues from the Maritime Studies Program of Eastern Carolina University have a permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to study the Kad’yak. Their current expedition has sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Kodiak area museums and private individuals.

The divers had seen the cylindrical object several times since beginning their underwater work July 11. Then on July 14 Cantelas gently lifted it, exposing a buried part of the metal disc on one end. Protected from direct exposure to saltwater by the sand and rock of the sea floor, the lettering showed up clearly.

“We came up and I didn’t tell anybody right away,” Cantelas said. Saving the big news until after dinner on board their floating headquarters, the F/V Big Valley, he coyly mentioned the cylinder and asked if anybody had noticed the writing on it.

“So everybody fell out of their seats,” Cantelas reported with satisfaction.

With the artifact in hand, further research will be needed to figure out its use. At about 1 foot long, it consists of two circular metal endplates joined by a heavily encrusted shaft. One end has a square indentation that looks like where it connected to another part.

It was found a short distance to port from the presumed stern of the wreck, not far from the ballast pile, leading Cantelas to speculate it could be a spindle from the ship’s wheel. But colleague Jason Rogers was doubtful.

“It looks very big to me to be a ship’s wheel,” Rogers said, noting that an archaeological truism says to expect five hours of research for every one hour in the field.

Cantelas called the object a “composite artifact,” consisting of several different materials apparently including wood, brass and iron.

“Wood doesn’t last long in a saltwater environment,” Cantelas said.

Conservators will have to take the object apart and treat each of the materials differently to safely clean and preserve them. Parts may soak in freshwater for a year to remove the salt impregnation.

After decades on the ocean floor, man-made objects can acquire layers of concretion making them almost indistinguishable from the surrounding natural features. Even something as large and distinctive as a cannon, of which two have been found at the Kad’yak site, can escape the notice of the experts, whose time at that depth is limited to about 30 minutes per dive. 

“Those cannon are really hard to spot,” Rogers remarked.

The divers have enjoyed good conditions all week. In addition to the lettered object and cannon, they have found deck braces, a ballast pile, and a cluster of three anchors that seems to indicate where the bow came to rest.

Creating a map of the site to help orient future work is a primary goal of this year’s site work, which concludes later this month.

The cylinder will be one of only a dozen or so samples the archaeologists expect to remove from the site this summer, said Tim Runyan, director of the ECU Maritime Studies Program. The samples will help identify and date the wreck. Future expeditions may then recover other artifacts, which could eventually find places on public display in local museums.

“There should be personal artifacts,” Runyan said.

All the crewmembers safely abandoned ship when it struck ground near Woody Island in 1860, but they probably did not have time to take much with them. Listing heavily and buoyed by its cargo of ice, the Kad’yak drifted northward for three days before settling in about 80 feet of water off the southern shore of Spruce Island. 

The “site formation process” is of particular interest to archaeologists, who work to reconstruct the way the ship wrecked and broke apart, Runyan said. In this case the main hull seems to be buried.

“We haven’t found the keel yet,” Runyan said.

Thanks to the anaerobic environment beneath the sand and protected by the hull timbers, historically interesting artifacts still buried there “could be in very good condition” even after 144 years.

Although he cautions there may be nothing, Runyan holds out hope of finding carpenter’s tools or personal items such as seamen’s chests under the sand. However, removing the higher volumes of sand and rock calls for special equipment.

“Really to do that properly you need a dredge,” Runyan said.

Cantelas emphasized how rare it is to find any identifying object in an excavation like this one. He estimated it happens with fewer than one out of 100 sunken wrecks, making the relatively quick discovery of the marked cylinder particularly gratifying.

Expedition photographer Casserley, an ECU-trained member of NOAA’s maritime archaeology center, is a veteran of archaeological expeditions to the sunken wreck of the USS Monitor, as are several others now working on the Kad’yak. The Union ironclad that battled its Confederate rival Virginia (Merrimac) in the most famous sea battle of the Civil War now lies off the coast of North Carolina.

“That’s one of the most heavily investigated shipwrecks in the world,” Casserley said.

Yet it took divers 19 years to turn up an engine revolution counter marked with the ship’s name. Even after it was found in 2002, conservators worked for a year to clean it off before exposing the lettering and learning exactly what they had found.

Although there was no real doubt about the wreck’s identity, “It was a huge moment,” Casserley recalled.

Drew Herman can be reached via e-mail at dherman@kodiakdailymirror.com.