Queen Anne's Revenge
Laboratory Excavation Report
UAB Conservation Laboratory, Greenville
Sarah Watkins-Kenney QAR Project Conservator
Wendy Welsh, QAR Laboratory Manager
Eric Nordgren, Project Assistant Conservator
January 2004

 Over the last nine months we have been busy! The new Conservation Laboratory has been set up in Greenville and all objects still needing treatment have been transferred here from Fort Fisher and Morehead City. Desalination of ceramics, bone, glass, cannon, nails and other artifacts is progressing steadily and protocols for monitoring the removal of chlorides from the objects have been established. The slow delicate work of freeing iron fittings, possibly part of a gun carriage, from concretion by air scribing is nearly complete (more on this object next month). By the fall the Project's Artifact Database was up and running so another major task has been transferring hand written records about each object into the new database.

The first two weeks of January were spent in preparation for the laboratory's successful Grand Opening but once all the formalities were out of the way, we were eager to carry on with conservation. Our attention turned to moving forward the conservation of wood artifacts. Nathan Henry, Chris Southerly, Mark Wilde-Ramsing and Dave Moore joined us here at the QAR Lab on January 29th to sort and identify some of the smaller wood artifacts. There has been a variety of wood types found on the wreck site from white oak, pine, red cedar, cypress and blood wood to modern intrusive poplar/cottonwood used to make sand fence. It is imperative to know the identity of the wood to determine if and how to treat the object. Wood identification involves sampling the wood artifact and observing its structural patterns at a microscopic level.

Half of the crew worked on sampling and identification, while giving all a chance to gain some knowledge about the process. Others concentrated on keeping the records current with measurements, weights, and genus types. By the end of the day all wood artifacts were documented and sorted into various groups to continue desalinating and wait for further testing prior to conservation.

Also in January renowned Underwater Archaeologist Dr. Gordon Watts made his first visit to the QAR Lab. We gave him a proper tour of the facilities. He provided insight on many of the artifacts, as well as offered contacts to help gather more information on 18th Century armament. We'd like to thank Dr Gordon Watts for dropping by and extend the welcome anytime.

Receiving something for nothing lets us know there is interest amongst the community and no one could be more excited and grateful than we are when this happens. On January 15th Mr. Joseph Clark of Greenville, a retired business owner, attended our Grand Opening. While learning about the air scribing process he remarked that he had a spare a dust collector, used in his former business. By the end of January Mr. Clark had donated his dust collector, some lumber, a small toolbox, and carpet remnants to make the lab offices cozier. We are very grateful for Mr. Joseph Clark's donations and interest in the QAR Project.

      Next month find out about investigation of the QAR bone and get an inside look on what the conservators have planned for the QAR Timbers as well as read about progress on the gun carriage.

..Back to Conservation Lab Reports                                                                                         On to February 2004...