NOAA DIVERS HELP IDENTIFY HISTORIC SHIPWRECK OFF ALASKA

July 28, 2004 — Divers working 80 feet below the surface of Monk’s Lagoon off Kodiak Island, Alaska, have identified a shipwreck first discovered in July of 2003 as the Russian-American Company ship Kad’yak, lost in 1860. The team will continue to map the wreck and recover more artifacts for diagnostic purposes. NOAA and the National Science Foundation are funding the mission. (Click image for larger view. When this brass and wood artifact, possibly the hub of the ship's wheel, was turned, it clearly showed the ship's name Kad'yak in Russian. Please credit NOAA, the National Science Foundation and East Carolina University.)

Bradley Stevens, a diver from the NOAA Fisheries’ Kodiak, Alaska, Laboratory, and others researched the Kad’yak extensively and calculated the probable location of the
sinking to within 100 yards. Stevens led a team of volunteers who first discovered the wreck. “We were 99 percent certain of the identity of the wreck as soon as we found it,” he said. However, the remains of the wooden ship and pieces of the structure they found could not confirm the origins or name of the ship.

An East Carolina University-led dive team from this current mission solved the mystery on July 15 when they recovered a brass object believed to be the hub of the ship’s wheel with the ship’s name clearly inscribed in Russian. (Click image for larger view of diver Steve Sellers, of East Carolina University, with the artifact that identified the Kad'yak. Please credit NOAA, the National Science Foundation and East Carolina University.)

“It is extraordinary for underwater archaeologists to identify a 144-year old shipwreck this quickly,” said Timothy Runyan, director of the Maritime Studies Program at East Carolina University and co-principle investigator on the mission.

The cold Alaskan water has helped preserve a good portion of the ship and researchers believe there may be other significant well preserved historic shipwrecks among the estimated several thousand that lie in Alaskan waters. This is the first professionally conducted maritime archaeological project in Alaskan waters and is also supported by the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program in Newport News, Va., the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology and several volunteers.

The 132-foot bark built in Lubeck, Germany, in 1851 departed Kodiak headed for San Francisco carrying 350 tons of ice when she struck an uncharted rock and quickly filled with water. Captain Illarion Archimandritof ordered the crew into the boats, saving all hands. The ice kept the vessel afloat for three days but attempts to tow the ship toward shore using rowboats failed and the Kad’yak drifted about six miles before settling to the bottom at Monk’s Lagoon on Spruce Island.

The town of Kodiak was a center for the trading activities of the Russian-American Company operating under a charter from the Russian czar. Kad’yak is the only Russian-American Company ship ever discovered and will provide new information on the period of Russian control of Alaska prior to its purchase by the United States in 1867. (Click NOAA image for larger view of one of three anchors found at the Kad'yak shipwreck site. This was likely the ship's main anchor. The shaft is approximately 8 feet long. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)

The shipwreck figures prominently in the history of Native Alaskans and is part of the oral tradition of the villagers of Ouzinkie. Russian Orthodox missionaries converted most of the local people, the most prominent missionary being Father Herman who established a chapel and orphanage on Spruce Island. Father Herman died in 1836 and was later canonized as St. Herman.

Before sailing on that fateful voyage, Captain Archimandritof promised to pay homage to Father Herman at his chapel, but he did not. Local tradition suggests that it was divine retribution when the Kad’yak hit an uncharted submerged rock and then drifted to Spruce Island before sinking to the bottom immediately before Father’s Herman’s shore-side chapel. The top of the mainmast and a yardarm stood above the surface forming a cross, the natives taking this as an admonition to the captain for his failure to hold the promised service before sailing.

A permit to investigate the site was issued to East Carolina University by the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology, Department of Natural Resources. The state claimed the wreck because it lies within three miles of shore, and the state historic preservation officer has declared the Kad’yak eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Fisheries’ Kodiak, Alaska, Laboratory

NOAA Ocean Exploration

Media Contact:
Fred Gorell, NOAA Ocean Exploration, (301) 713-9444 X 181
(Photo of Kad’yak anchor courtesy of Bradley Stevens, a diver from the NOAA Fisheries’ Kodiak, Alaska, Laboratory.)