Underwater work to begin this week for Battle of Stonington project
Stonington — The Stonington Historical Society and a group of University of Rhode Island students aboard the school’s research vessel the Shanna Rose will undertake a preliminary survey this week of the waters around Stonington Point to locate artifacts from the 1814 Battle of Stonington.
The survey will help plan a much longer survey this summer being funded by a $52,000 Battlefield Protection Program Grant from the National Park Service. The society is also contributing $11,000 to the work for a total of $63,000.
The students aboard the Shanna Rose, under the direction of assistant professor of ocean engineering Brennan Phillips, will use side scan survey and magnetometer to locate sunken artifacts such as cannonballs, cannons, muskets and other metal items.
Historical Society Director of Development Christopher Kepple said the work done by the society will provide a map and information for the more extensive survey to come.
Kepple said the director of the society’s Richard W. Woolworth Library, Chelsea Ordner, and the chairman of its Battlefield Protection Program Grant committee, Bob Reiger, have been examining copies of the logs of the ships present at the battle and have ordered ciphers to unravel the coded communications in the logs.
Kepple said they have already discovered that a sixth British ship was present at the battle.
“We’re excited about the findings we’ve made on the archival side of things. We hope we make the same on the archeological side,” Kepple said.
The society is now seeking proposals from universities and other entities to conduct the longer survey. The discoveries from that work will help better map the battle location and be turned into a final report for the Battlefield Protection program. It will also be used to update the exhibit about the battle at the Old Lighthouse Museum.
The 45-foot-long Shanna Rose is scheduled to dock at New England Science and Sailing on Monday and do survey work on Tuesday.
During a four-day period in early August 1814, six British Royal Navy ships commanded by Commodore Thomas Masterman Hardy attacked the village after residents refused to surrender. Using three cannons, two of which are on display today in Cannon Square, the residents repelled the attack. The barrage damaged many borough homes, leaving cannonballs in their walls.
Documentation of the battle site will also allow the historical society to nominate the battlefield for state and federal designation. Gaining such designation also would help protect the waters around the borough from development such as wind farms.
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