Under the direction of state underwater archaeologist Dr. Roger C. Smith, the Pensacola Shipwreck Survey has recorded the remains of over forty wrecked and abandoned vessels in Pensacola Bay. As part of the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, the survey team worked closely with local fishermen and divers to investigate the bay's sunken history. Portions of the bay were surveyed using remote sensing instruments, such as a magnetometer and side scan sonar, to detect underwater targets that might have historical significance.
This instrument, a marine proton precession magnetometer, measures and records the earth's magnetism. A sensor with fins is towed through the water to detect anomalies in the local magnetic field that might be caused by iron from old shipwrecks. In Pensacola Bay, hundreds of magnetic anomalies were recorded; many represent modern ferrous materials, such as construction debris, military refuse, and discarded junk. Other anomalies signaled the remains of shipwrecks, which litter the bottom of Pensacola Bay.
	This is the magnetic anomaly recorded by the magnetometer off Emanuel Point in August, 1992 that led to the ship's discovery. The single fluctuation in the earth's magnetism later was found to have been caused by the wrought-iron anchor situated at the bow of the shipwreck. During the following year, a precise, small scale magnetometer survey was completed at the site by swimming the sensor slowly over the shipwreck. No additional magnetic anomalies were registered by the magnetometer. However, with the use of an underwater metal detector, the locations of many additional metallic artifacts were revealed.
A radar-reflecting marker buoy was anchored at the shipwreck site to advise fishermen and boaters of diving operations, and to identify the area under archaeological investigation. Shipwreck sites, such as the Emanuel Point Ship, are protected by Florida law against unauthorized disturbances; the citizens of Pensacola also help to monitor the preservation of their submerged cultural resources.

To investigate the shipwreck site, an arbitrary grid was established in metric intervals to provide horizontal and vertical control during test excavations. The 30 m by 40 m grid perimeter was marked on the bottom by a polypropylene rope strung between eight primary datum rods driven into the sand bar. The grid was subdivided into four equal quadrants, which intersected at a central point over the ballast pile where the mainmast step was thought to be located. Aligned to the ship's hull remains, the grid provided a convenient northing and easting value in meters for any location relative to the primary datums. Here, field director Jim Spirek outlines installation of the grid for field supervisor Della Scott-Ireton.

Test excavations were conducted using the conventional hand tools of archaeology, such as trowels and paintbrushes. But, instead of shovels and wheelbarrows, overburden was removed from features and artifacts by hand-fanning sediments into suspension in the water column and sucking them to the surface with an induction dredge. The dredge works like an underwater vacuum cleaner, and helps to maintain water clarity in the work area. Here, the tail frames of the stern of the Emanuel Point Ship are carefully cleared of bilge sediments.

On the surface, sediments and small shell fragments are discharged from the dredge hose into a screen for sorting. Here, Dr. Clifford Smith monitors the dredge outfall to search for small artifacts that may have escaped detection by the excavators below. Botanical field specimens, such as seeds and fruit pits, sometimes were recovered from the screens on days when underwater visibility was poor. Shell debris from the screens was collected in buckets and later sorted a second time to make sure that it contained no cultural material before being discarded.

As features of the Emanuel Point Ship were uncovered during test excavations, they were photographed and drawn in-situ to record their provenience and internal association. This photograph records a cross-sectional view of a ballast spill that occurred on the port side of the vessel amidships, probably at the time of its wrecking on the sandbar. Visible are the remains of rope, wood, and pottery.

A digital carpenter's level, adapted for underwater use by encasing it in a waterproof housing, was used to measure the angles of the Emanuel Point Ship's timbers. Nicknamed a "goniometer," this instrument was one of a number of surveying tools employed to record the lower hull and its contents.

Materials recovered from the site were given field specimen numbers, tagged, and logged into the laboratory using a preliminary artifact recording form. Here, conservator Amy Mitchell takes preliminary measurements and completes artifact forms for the previous day's recoveries. The artifacts and other specimens were then separated into categories, and placed in wet storage until conservation treatment was initialized to stabilize each object for further analysis or display.

Many fragments of ceramic containers have been recovered from the Emanuel Point Ship. Most are stained with centuries of tannin absorbed from the waters of Pensacola Bay, and require soaking with hydrogen peroxide to reveal their original color and diagnostic characteristics. This photo shows ceramic sherds before and after treatment in the laboratory, where much of the archaeology is conducted.

Many of the artifacts recovered thus far from the shipwreck are metal objects that have become concreted with an external layer of hard corrosion products combined with sand and shell. To determine the contents of concretions prior to mechanical or electro-chemical cleaning procedures, conservation director John Bratten makes radiographs of objects to "see" what's inside them. The apparatus he is using is an antique dental x-ray machine that is part of the collections in the T. T. Wentworth State Museum.

One of the largest, single artifact categories in the Emanuel Point collection is square, iron fasteners of different shank sizes, of which there more than 500 have been recovered to date. Spanish shipwrights used a number of standard iron fasteners in their trade. In most cases, the original iron has deteriorated, however, the original shape of the fastener, whether whole or broken, has been preserved in its concretion, which can serve as a mold to cast an epoxy replica for study and display.

The staff and students of  the 1993 University of West Florida field school on the Emanuel Point Ship included: (front row, left to right) Greg Townsend, Sheryl Kennedy, Beth Padgett, Monti Sommer, Chuck Hughson, Della Scott-Ireton, Bill Kerr, Sandra Johnson, Kyle Mueller, (back row) Shea McLean, Debra Wells, Dr. Roger Smith, Amy Mitchell, Jim Spirek, Stuart Derrow, and Jeff Lockwood.

Throughout the first phase of the Emanuel Point Ship excavations, archaeologists from several academic institutions and federal and state agencies were invited to visit the site to lend professional expertise and input to the project. Here, project director Dr. Roger C. Smith briefs Dr. Judy Bense, director of the University of West Florida's Archaeology Institute, prior to her dive on the shipwreck.