TEAM & MISSION

New expedition blends talent & technology

In 2010, a new expedition was formed to further explore and document the Goddard. The expedition was one of several that the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) conducts each year in the Yukon to document the gold rush shipwrecks.

This year’s team had 14 members from Canada and the United States, and included a unique combination of professional archaeologists, sonar experts, and citizen scientists.

The expedition was organized by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and led by archaeologist Lindsey Thomas from Texas A&M University. Lindsey was part of the 2009 INA expedition and is now working on the Goddard in pursuit of her Master’s degree in Nautical Archaeology.

Lindsey was joined by several Goddard veterans, including John Pollack (Director of INA’s Yukon River Survey), Doug Davidge (Yukon Transportation Museum), and Tim Dowd (Yukon Government). These individuals were members of the original Goddard discovery team and participants in the first wreck survey in 2009. Other archaeologists included Wayne Lusardi (State Underwater Archaeologist for Michigan) who served as the diving conservator for this project, and Valery Monahan (Yukon Government) who was there to help record the artifacts.

“We had several objectives for the expedition this year,” Lindsey said. “One main area of interest was to map the ship’s construction features, primarily the hull details and the interior of the vessel. We wanted to see how the hull was built, which is most of the structural support. We also wanted to record all of the artifacts and recover some artifacts to be used in a Goddard exhibit at the Yukon Transportation Museum.”

Although the team planned to use some traditional tools, such as tape measures and slates, they also wanted to document the wreck using an advanced underwater scanning system, the BlueView BV5000 (see Technology Spotlight). This 3D scanning sonar system has been used to produce high-resolution underwater scans in the oil and gas industry, but had never been tested on an underwater wreck. Stockton Rush (OceanGate) and Jon Robertson (BlueView Technologies) joined the expedition to lead the deployment of this new system.

Remaining participants on the team were Sean Adams, Geoff Bell, Wayne Loeber, Gordon Rock Mark Thomas, and Tim Vincent. These individuals were not professional archaeologists, but “citizen scientists” – individuals who volunteered their time, diving or flying skills, or other resources to assist the expedition (see Citizen Scientist Spotlight).

To begin the expedition, team members met in Whitehorse and drove about 40 minutes to Lake Laberge. They then loaded into three river boats and traveled about 2 hours north to the expedition campsite on the shore of Lake Laberge. From there, the wreck and future discoveries lay submerged just a couple hundred yards off shore.

2010 Expedition Team

• Lindsey Thomas (Project Leader) – Texas A&M University & Institute of Nautical Archaeology
• Sean Adams – citizen scientist
• Geoff Bell – citizen scientist
• Doug Davidge – Yukon Transportation Museum
• Tim Dowd – Yukon Government
• Wayne Lusardi – State Underwater Archaeologist for Michigan
• Wayne Loeber – citizen scientist
• Valery Monahan – Yukon Government
• John Pollack – Institute of Nautical Archaeology
• Jon Robertson – BlueView Technologies
• Gordon Rock – citizen scientist
• Stockton Rush – OceanGate
• Mark Thomas – citizen scientist
• Tim Vincent – citizen scientist