Under several feet of water in the Connecticut River, a few miles upriver from Long Island Sound, archaeologists have found a "ballast pile," an oblong mound of stones that were once in a ship's hold for stability. The stones remained after the hull disintegrated.
The archaeologists wonder whether the wreck can be tied to a 200-year-old battle in which the British set fire to 25 ships, the largest maritime loss in the War of 1812.
Under gray skies off Watrous Point, a mile south of the town of Essex, archaeologists from the University of Connecticut and the Mashantucket Pequot Research Center stood waist-deep in the chilly river water recently removing hundreds of pounds of the ballast stone to reach remnants of the hull beneath. Waves from passing boats jostled the crews as they struggled to keep their footing.
Two hours in the water yielded only fragments of charred wood and a rusty nail, which were bagged for further examination. The team plans to return with a suction dredge to remove more mud and debris, believed to be covering the ship's timbers.
"With archaeology, what you don't find can be just as important as what you do find," said UConn archaeologist Kevin McBride, who is leading the project along with battlefield historian Jerry Roberts, former executive director of the Connecticut River Museum.
Roberts and McBride, who is also research director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, are working to identify battlefields linked to the Essex raid, which took place April 8, 1814, two years into the War of 1812.
The project is funded by a grant to the Connecticut River Museum in Essex from the Battlefield Protection Program of the National Parks Service. It seeks to have an area on both sides of the Connecticut River between Essex and Saybrook Point designated as a battle site on the National Register of Historic Places.
In Old Saybrook, the researchers are trying to determine whether the wreck is the long-lost privateer Young Anaconda, which was captured by the British and later sunk. The 300-ton brig had run aground while British marines were attempting to tow its downriver as a prize. It was later set ablaze.
"This fits the location for our ship really well," said Roberts, adding that if some of the hull can be recovered, construction details can be used to determine whether it was a privateer. "Privateers were built quickly and cheaply, so we should be able to find evidence of that," he said.
UConn marine archaeologist Kroum Batchvarov, a leading authority on shipwrecks, is assisting with the investigation.
"My firm belief is that [when] you have a shipwreck with a ballast pile like this, there is a ship here," Batchvarov said. "I don't know where it is, but it's here."
Digging on a nearby lawn has turned up more than 20 musket balls, fueling speculation that the wreck is the American privateer. "There was some major action here," McBride said.
Roberts learned of the shipwreck several months ago from the property's owner, Andrew Carr, who spotted the ballast pile years ago while building a dock. A boater himself, he said the location of the stones made it unlikely that they were anything but a shipwreck.
"I heard Jerry talk about the Essex raid and how the British captured a ship and then burned it right about here, and I thought this just might be the one," Carr said.
The British raid on Essex was prompted by the harassing of British ships by American privateers during the War of 1812, some sailing out of Essex, now a town of about 6,600, then a center of shipbuilding and trade. Connecticut skippers had turned to privateering to recoup their losses from the British blockade of Long Island Sound.
In this government-sanctioned piracy, captains were issued "letters of marque," allowing them to seize enemy ships as prizes that were then sold at auction, with the profits divided among ship owners, captain, crew and the government.
The success of Essex privateers drove the British to respond with a bold attack on the night of April 8, 1814, when 136 Royal Marines stormed ashore and proceeded to set fire to the town's fleet, some vessels still on the stocks being built.
The traditional view was that Essex, then known as Pettipaug, gave up without a fight, and the town for years has marked the day with a parade and celebration locals refer to as Loser's Day.
Roberts and McBride are helping to change that view. Both the Americans and the British, they believe, fought valiantly.
nation@latimes.com
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