Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it most likely is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship's origin without making a definitive identification, but a new analysis of tree rings in its timbers provides perhaps the most compelling evidence to date. A group of researchers from Argentina and the US just published their findings in a journal.
The analysis of the tree rings indicates that it is very likely that this is the ship, according to the lead author. The timbers were felled in New England and the southeastern US before the ship was built, according to a database of rings from old North American trees. Historical accounts from Argentina and Rhode Island are included. This is the first time tree-ring science has been used to find a sunken ship.
The ship that turned up on the other side of the world was built in a New England town.
New England was a major player in the global whaling trade from the mid 1770s until the 1850s when whale bone was used in many small household items now made of plastic. Many Yankee ships went on long voyages that lasted for years. After whale populations were destroyed, the industry faded.
The Dolphin was built in oak and other woods between August and October of 1850. Typically trees were felled in cold weather a year or two before a ship is built. The Dolphin was the largest ship in the world at over 300 tons. Nebiker said she was the fastest square-rigger of all time.
The ship traveled across the Atlantic and Indian oceans for over two and a half years. She went to the Azores and around the Horn of Africa. The last voyage began from Warren. The ship was off the coast of Argentina. She was destroyed when she "lay upon the rocks in the southwestern part of New Bay" according to a letter from her master. The crew would have traveled tens of thousands of miles to reach there. Unless many of the crew were already on the beach when the boat sank, the loss of life must have been huge.
Puerto Madryn is a small city that was started by Welsh immigrants in 1865. It's not clear whether the material was from the Dolphin or another ill-fated ship.
The partial remains of a wooden vessel were found in 2004. Scientists didn't know it was there. Archaeologists excavated the remains during low tides in 2006 and 2007. Several other wrecks were documented as well.
Some of the ribs and hull were left of the ship. The ship was built mostly of oak and pine from the Northern Hemisphere, according to a paper written by Murray and colleagues. They couldn't tell if it was European or North American. They speculated that it could have been a fishing or merchant vessel or a whaler.
Other evidence came to light. The remains of bricks and two iron cauldrons were found near the wreck. The crew of the Dolphin were rescued by an Argentine mariner, Luis Piedrabuena, who took them to Carmen de Patagones, a town about 100 miles away. What location would that have taken place? The Dolphin was found in the Lloyd's marine insurance register. The Warren Preservation Society provided information to the researchers.
The Dolphin was speculated to have been found by a Rhode Island newspaper. Murray published a paper suggesting this, but said it couldn't be proved. Scientists enter the tree ring.
Murray invited Mundo to examine the wreck after re-excavating it. They were horrified when they were told that the only way to get a good sample of the sodden wood was to chainsaw out a few cross sections of the ribs. The archaeologists relented when they realized there was no other way to go.
After processing the samples in his lab, Mundo turned to Ed Cook, founder of the Lamont-Doherty Tree Ring Lab, a long-time partner with South American colleagues, and a pioneer in dendroarchaeology, the science of figuring out the age and provenance of old wooden After the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001, Cook analyzed many old buildings in the Northeast. It was built of oak near Philadelphia.
The North American Drought Atlas is Cook's secret weapon. Over the past 2,000 years, the ring samples from about 30,000 trees have been collected by the atlas. There are subtle yearly variations in ring width that allow researchers to chart past climates, date trees' precise years of growth, and in the case of old wooden structures, where and when trees were cut.
The ribs were found to be made of white oak, a tree that grows in the northeast United States. They could tell the hull and ceiling plank were old-growth yellow pine. The wood used to hold things together was rot- resistant and widespread in many eastern states.
Some of the timbers came from trees that sprouted as early as 1679. The oaks had been cut in 1849, which was the same year the Dolphin was built. The scientists didn't expect to find the outer rings because the pine plank would have been extensively milled down, unlike the thick ribs.
The scientists looked at the rings to see what they were made of. Alabama's Choccolocco Mountain and Georgia's Lake Louise are both known for exporting massive amounts of pine to the north in the 19th century. The researchers couldn't say if the plank came from those sites, but the signatures indicated that they came from somewhere in Alabama, Georgia or northern Florida.
The rings for the oak ribs were very similar to the ones used in Massachusetts. There were distinct dry, low-growth periods in the 1700s and 1790s. Most of the trees that were cut down in New England during the early to mid-1800s were from the dense, old-growth forest found in the ring. The ship yards of Rhode Island were where many of the Massachusetts oaks ended up.
The new paper still hedges its bets, saying the ship may very well be the Dolphin, but without some unique artifact associated with the vessel, it could possibly be some other American whaler. According to Murray, there were many whaling ships in that area. I don't want to say it's the Dolphin until we have more evidence.
He says he is completely convinced. He doesn't blame the archaeologists for preferring a slightly higher standard. We don't have a bell like that. The story is found in the tree rings for me.
The paper was written by Mnica Grosso of Argentina's National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Studies. The Facultad de Ciencias EXACTas y Naturales has an Adjunct Professor named Ignacio Mundo.
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