ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA RECOVERY AT THE FIG ISLAND CHANNEL SITE SAVANNAH HARBOR, GEORGIA: A TECHNICAL SYNTHESIS

Located directly opposite the eastern downtown district of Savannah, Georgia, and along the southern shoreline of what is now known as Hutchinson Island in Savannah Harbor, the Fig Island Channel site has been the scene of numerous recent archaeological investigations of historic watercraft remains. Currently an expanse of uninviting Savannah River bank composed of eroding cattail marsh and tidal mudflats, Fig Island Channel was once a navigable channel separating Fig and Hutchinson Islands. As early as the colonial period, attempts were made to close the channel when it was determined that it caused a shoaling problem in the main channel of the Savannah River. The practice of deliberately sinking derelict vessels to block Fig Island Channel, and thereby counteracting the shoaling, was initiated as early as 1825 and continued until the channel was successfully closed by the late nineteenth century. As the vessels lay buried and forgotten, maritime industries such as shipyards sprang up along the reclaimed land. The passing of time, with its attendant changes in economies and technologies, dictated that these industries in tum would also be abandoned and forgotten, to be buried alongside the remains of historic watercraft that once graced the river's waters and bore the load of a teeming and growing river port. 

Originally in charge of closing the Fig Island Channel, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, was also responsible for the recent identification of the Fig Island Channel site as a historically significant ship graveyard that was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. In charge of the current Savannah Harbor Navigation Project, the District has been deepening portions of the Savannah River shipping channel, resulting in the erosion of the old channel area and the detrimental exposure of the once-buried watercraft. In order to ensure that their channel maintenance activities complied with the terms of the National Historic Preservation Act relative to impacts to significant archaeological sites, the District entered into a Programmatic Agreement with the Georgia and South Carolina State Historic Preservation Offices and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. The agreement required the District to prepare datarecovery plans for the archaeological sites on Fig Island that would be adversely affected by the District's maintenance and deepening activities in Savannah Harbor. 

In compliance with the Programmatic Agreement, the District contracted with Mid-Atlantic Technology, Panamerican Consultants, Inc., Tidewater Atlantic Research, and GAI Consultants, Inc., under subcontract to Gulf Engineers & Consultants, Inc., to carry out a series of nine datarecovery investigations designed to mitigate the impact of channel improvements through the identification and recordation of vessel remains at the Fig Island Channel site. The fieldwork, conducted between 1989 and 1994 in five different project areas involved the location, excavation, and architectural documentation of a total of 28 vessels, including a brig, a bark, barges, bateaux, centerboard schooners, skiffs, a steam tug, a marine railway, and several land-based structures. 

The diversity of watercraft recorded in these investigations reflects the important role Savannah played as a regional and world-class port, and also indicates the varying vessel types and sizes and increasing waterborne traffic existing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

The 11 investigations carried out at the Fig Island Channel site resulted in the location and documentation of one of the most significant collections of watercraft in the southeastern United States. Although each investigation report revealed a wealth of information on recorded historic vessel types found within its own specific project area, the information was not integrated, either in understanding the Fig Island Channel site, or in the vessels and the roles they played in the maritime history of the port of Savannah. 

Produced by Panamerican Consultants, Inc., the current synthesis report not only serves as a composition of method and results from the original 11 investigations, it also consolidates the Fig Island vessels into thematic types, and presents the maritime contexts in which these watercraft existed. In addition to providing insight into the nature of vessels, vessels that helped make Savannah a center of maritime commerce, this synthesis provides an important comparative data base for archaeological research throughout the eastern United States.