Maple Leaf National Historic Landmark Shipwreck Site 1994

Welcome from Canada!:beaver: I have to admit when I read the title of the thread I thought you were talking about the terrible performance of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL)! I had a good laugh when I read through the thread, and discovered it was actually about a ship!:redface::laugh:, but what does NHL, in this case, stand for?
National Historic Landmark. This designation is made by the United States Secretary of the Interior. At the time ML was the the fourth shipwreck site in our Country to receive the honor. It was built in Kingston Ontario to in 1851 and was considered the Queen of Lake Ontario for a few years. Now it rests in Jacksonville, Florida.
I'm so sorry to hear that the Toronto ML's did poorly. What are they? :smile:
 
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National Historic Landmark. This designation is made by the United States Secretary of the Interior. At the time ML was the the third shipwreck site in our Country to receive the honor. It was built in Kingston Ontario to in 1851 and was considered the Queen of Lake Ontario for a few years. Now it rests in Jacksonville, Florida.
I'm so sorry to hear that the Toronto ML's did poorly. What are they? :smile:
Probably the worst hockey team in the NHL, but my husband is a diehard fan.
 
Thank you for your kind welcome. A great deal of information has been acquired from ML. Please, feel free to help us learn more. I will be uploading photos of artifacts, historical documents, anything that might be of interest, and answer any questions if the need arises. There are many artifacts we can not identify in regard to ML that need your input.
Thank you, again, for your warm welcome.
Keith
A belated welcome from Ken Holland. I'm the reason you had to add the V in your forum name. :whistling:
 
Dang!

Thank each of you for showing an interest. I think I'm going to take a leap of Faith and expose myself in character, which I rarely do, by embedding a video taken in 1989 by the Department of Historical Resources, Deparment of State Florida. Dr. Roger Smith, and James Dundar (Florida underwater archaeologists) were sent to record just exactly what in the heck was going on during our 1989 excavation. Here is a little back ground as an intro.

We, prior to this video, thoughly research ML's historical past, filed proper forms with the State of Florida, brought an admiralty suit against the Maple Leaf shipwreck (in Rem) and the United States of America (in personum) at the explicit request of the Division of Achaeological Resources (Florida), built a commercial dive operation, a conservatory, completed a proton Magnetomer survey, and recovered 100 items to verify the preservation quality, and ground truthed that this was in fact a civil war era vessel. Additional, we applied to the Florida Historic Advisory Council for a public grant.

Well, after all of that hard work, the Advisor Council awarded ML a very poor rating. Further, I subsequently discovered by a phone call to the Atlanta Division of Historic Preservation (Federal) that the State of Florida, which at the time was administering approximately fifteen million dollars a year of Federal public money for years, had never spent a nickel on an underwater archaeological site. Florida? Well, that "done it"! I was annoyed. The Florida Historical preservation Advisory Council, in my opinion, was bound by a strong moral chord to search, discover and preserve the most significant historical resources in our State, regardless of whether or not they are found "underwater".

Since we already resolved the legal disputes in Federal Court, acquired all the multiple permits, proved its historical significance, we decided to, as my wife says, "To Go for Broke"! "I Done It"!

In ten days SJAEI recovered over ninety percent of every artifact ever recoverd during the next six years. It is the largest collection of Civil War material of "war-time" artfacts recoverd ~ over four thousand items. The entire collection remains together, in tact, and is currently curated and cared for by the State of Florida, Maple Leaf's custodian.

Imagine, I was inside a time capsule containing four hundred tons of Civil War material in a near perfect state of preservation, under twenty for feet of water, buried in the bottom of the St. Johns River, under seven feet of muck, and on the bilge ceiling, another ten feet deep in the cargo hold, removed material consonant with proper archaeological methods; and then sealed it back up, and left!

We only took a "tupance". There remains today seven hundred and ninety eight thousand pound within ML's pregnant hull, even as I write these words, even as you read and watch this video.

Enjoy!

 
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What am I doing? Well, I am, painstakingly, attempting to "thread" together years of work produced by the Maple Leaf Project, so that students who choose to come closer, can navigate with a more direct course toward her, in hopes of grasping her Military significance, in regard to the Department of Army and Navy as a troop transport participating in the siege of Fort Sumpter, Charleston, S. C., to her strategically and vitally important service provided by the Quartermasters Dept., to the significance of containing an entire Brigade's camp and baggage equipment, and to her to her very existence (Dang, I am afraid to say anything, about her potential social and cultural significance as might affect the direct descendants of thirty five hundred soldiers who lost all of their personal property. I mean it!)

It is my belief that she can excite students of all ages. If only they could see the wonder.
Each day brings living proof of G. K. Chesterton's insight contained in the statement that the world will never be at a loss of wonders, only for a lack of wonder!

I have edited this link by inserting what should have come directly before Any Town, USA.



Currently, I am working on new Artifact Recall by adding more artifacts, better descriptions and faster replay, working for a living, and presently, most of all, enjoying Pat Young's immensly enlightening thread - " Are Civil War Military Historians Freaking Out?"

Kindest Regards
Keith
 
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Yes, the very same Holland. However, much older than when I first touched Maple Leaf! It was a hot sunny summer day. The usual afternoon thunder showers ran us into Doctors Lake for refuse everyday that week. Late in the afternoon, the boat towed 24volt metal detector caught a snag, which required a dive to untangle. My wife's brother, who was more experienced in dark water diving went first.
To make a long story short, we had finally found Maple Leaf.
I also found that it's cargo hull was beyond my reach ~ buried under six or seven feet of mud. Everything above the bottom was gone. Just a very few things related to the engine of the 1851 Canadian steamship remained.
How do I write an more depth? How would I learn about uploading images, video? Etc. is there a user manual with tis forum?


Welcome, we are honored to have you.
 
I cannot imagine the thrill you must have had with your first glimpses of the ship underwater. What an amazing find!!! I am doing more research online and hope to see some of the artifacts recovered by your hard efforts.
 
Ok. I am embedding a video of some artifacts. This is a test. It is designed so you can slide back and forth and see them fast of slow. Do you think I need to add text? Increase the reslolution? This is just my first attempt. If you can help me produce a great web based way to view the material. This is not to replace databased recall. It is only to provide rapid scan of an artifact group you might be interested in.

Remember, there are over four thousand items I want Internet accessible. You, who decide to participate, will be doing us all a "humongous" favor.

 
The video is excellent. I am going to view it several times. The resolution looks good too. In the beginning around the third dark round artifact, was it a button? Maybe for unusual objects a title card would be helpful? This is a rare gift to see your artifacts, thank you very much Sir.
 
The video is excellent. I am going to view it several times. The resolution looks good too. In the beginning around the third dark round artifact, was it a button? Maybe for unusual objects a title card would be helpful? This is a rare gift to see your artifacts, thank you very much Sir.


I am so excited to see someone show some constructive interest in what we need to do here. Public Aceess! Public Access! Now there's the meat in any real historically significant site. Regrettably, underwater archaeological sites provide very limited public access. ML provides none!

In the mid 1980's, I envisioned, along with many great "outliers" of those days past, an Internet portal capable of searching distant college databases, using DOS machine language, and providing public "internet" web connections to, not just the government and prestigious educational institutions, but to every home as a general "public access". I know, it's dang hard to grasp how we could live, research, and write about any subject matter without google, digital archives, and forums. I admit freely, as I am sure all the elder members will agree, it was hard; looking backward into the distant past from my present station, I now understand the truth contained in the old story my Daddy would tell us about being required to walk five miles, barefooted, with worn and tattered coats, to elementary school, in the snow, up hill, both ways, in the dark wee morning hours, in Florida! Its true. You can't just make this stuff up!

In truth, without my southern flare of humor the SJAEI's call BS, it was simply what it was. What it was, was the best of times. We were buoyed by wonderful and great expectations regarding future prospects of computer power. Never forget, we, my generation, invented the internet! I will stand and say out loud, "well done"! I am that young man you saw in those videos. I watch them. He has not changed. I have. It is true. Now, I say, as said in the Asoaken Farewell Movie, "We are all surrounded by a way of life that will one day be lost. It is remembered by those tangible things we leave behind!"

And, this brings me back to NHL Maple Leaf. It is no accident that the audiovisual material posted on this CWT forum exists. It is no accident, after twenty years of being dark, that CWT forum was chosen as the test portal to public access.

12th Missouri Yankee, you give me constructive input and I'll produce the changes, and repost the newer, more productive, more searchable visuals, using only hundreds of images first. Then, maybe, someone else may find something of interest to input. Believe me, if you think it's hard to write history, consider how hard SJAEI's members have previously worked to make history. You have heard me voice my opinion that the main benefit Maple Leaf offers us, is a site that can excite students of all ages about studying their past by using the disciplines of their present!

(If this work I wish to do, on behalf of Maple Leaf, threatens anyone's badges, threads, or credits, please know this is not my intent. I'll take no credits, no rewards, no honnor. We can together increase ML's national popularity and its world wide public awareness.)

Kindest and Most Personal Regards,
kvholland, CWT, Private
Keith
 
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I am thoroughly enjoying your videos and the rare glimpses into the Maple Leaf's history. I was struck by your hope to uncover the field desk used by the regiment with it's paper artifacts. Since Titanic had paper artifacts restored I am certain there would be surviving documents in the desk too. The Maple Leaf helps remind people of the human side of the CW.
 
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