ADMAT's St Kitts Maritime Archaeological Project 2003
Phase 1 White House Bay Wreck
This project was undertaken for the people of St. Kitts with the support of the St. Christopher Heritage Society and The Ministry of Tourism, Commerce & Consumer Affairs.
The White House Bay Wreck was one of the most challenging logistical projects that we have had to deal with. All the equipment had to be transported from the UK which was kindly sponsored by The Geest Line. This included all boats, diving and surveying equipment together with all equipment necessary to live in an uninhabited part of the island. In all 20 tones of equipment was shipped.
The bow section which was uncovered during ADMAT's maritime archaeological survey of the White House Bay Wreck, an English troopship lost in the Battle of Frigate Bay in 1782 in St. Kitts
The orriginal logistical plan was that the British Army would lend us most of the equipment to enable a M.A.S.H style base camp to be send from England and used for the duration of the project. However a week before all the items were due to be sent to Southampton Docks for shipping. Dr. Spooner received a late call from the Army quartermaster who unfortunatly had to inform ADMAT that due to changes in world events, all the equipment was being sent to the Gulf War. This created a challenge which was sucessfully solved by Sqn Ldr (VR) Jeremy Schomberg and WO2 Andrew Shrimpton. The dynamic duo borrowed many a Cadett and Scout camping equipment to enable the project to go ahead.
During the month long archaeological survey in April 2003, over 2,500 photographs were taken. We have reduced these to 500 which are shown on thesw pages below under the various topic headings. The full archaeological report is available as a PDF file.