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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
August 9, 2000 |
Contact: Michael W. Graves 956-9679 mgraves@hawaii.edu
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| US Civil War Battlefield in Micronesia to be Surveyed |
An underwater archaeology team led by Suzanne Finney (doctoral student, UH Manoa Department of Anthropology) and Frank Cantelas (Staff Archaeologist, Eastern Carolina University) has left Hawai`i for Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia to investigate a wreck presumed to be that of the Hawaiian whaler, Harvest. Funded by a grant from the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program and sponsored by the University of Hawai`i with the support and approval of the Pohnpei State Office of Historic Preservation and Cultural Affairs, the field work this year will continue that begun by a similar team during the summer of 1999. Michael W. Graves, Professor of Anthropology and a Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of Hawai`i, is the principal investigator for the project that has brought together scholars, students and professionals from UH Manoa, East Carolina University, and Pohnpei State.
A wreck, located in August of 1999, is suspected to be that of one of four whalers three of U.S. registry and one of Hawaiian registry. All were sunk by the Confederate Raider Shenandoah in April of 1865 as part of the effort by the Confederacy to limit maritime activity by the Union. During her journey of more than a year the Shenandoah made landfall only twice and this action on Pohnpei, first stop in the Pacific, coincided with the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. Only several months later did the Captain and crew of the Confederate ship learn of the end of the war. The remains of at least one ship lie scattered across the bottom of Pohnahtik Harbor in the municipality of Madolenihmw. This testament to the extension into the Pacific of the US Civil War has remained buried in the harbor until now.
The team assembled for the fieldwork this year will complete the survey and documentation of the wreck located in 1999 and also hopes to discover the other three wrecks if possible. The site of the battle and the shipwreck remains are eligible for nomination to the United States National Register of Historic Places because of their association with the Civil War, the connection to the Shenandoah and her activities in the far western Pacific, and the presence of a foreign (i.e., Hawaiian) registry vessel among those sunk by the Shenandoah as part of a Civil War battle. Documenting this wreck, and possibly the other ships from the 1865 incident, will provide a permanent information record for future generations and will keep alive this unusual facet of American Civil War history.
