Secretary of State Honors Lewes Shipwreck Volunteers
November 3, 2005
LEWES - Secretary of State Harriet Smith Windsor thanked the dozens of volunteers from throughout Delaware and beyond who have devoted thousands of hours aiding in the recovery, preservation, and analysis of artifacts from the Roosevelt Inlet shipwreck, discovered about a year ago off Lewes Beach.
"As you know, this was not a planned project-it came to us," Secretary Windsor noted. "And what a project it has been! We simply could not have accomplished what we have without these volunteers."
Many of the volunteers are members of the Archaeological Society of Delaware and the Delaware Marine Archaeological Society. They continue to have a partnership role with state archaeologists in what quickly became a huge scientific project, as artifacts from what is believed to be a 1760s cargo vessel began washing up on the beach by the thousands last fall.
To thank the volunteers, Secretary Windsor, along with the staff of the Delaware Department of State's Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs and the Lewes Maritime Archaeology Project, hosted an evening reception at the Biden Center in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes on November 2.
Windsor acknowledged the remarkable range of talents among the volunteers. They include Sharyn Murray, an artist from Millsboro who is doing detailed technical drawings of the artifacts, as well as Peter Grims of Wilmington and Felton residents Frank and Johanna Stelter, who assisted with the translation of Dutch research articles used to investigate the origins of some of the pottery and other ship's cargo. Two summer residents of Lewes, John and Dolores Gareis, even took time during a September vacation in Germany to visit the Selters Mineral Water Company and gather research on bottles recovered from the shipwreck.
Secretary Windsor also acknowledged Lewes Mayor Jim Ford and his staff for their support of the maritime project. "Lewes is a very welcoming community, and a very talented community," added Dan Griffith, director of the Lewes Maritime Archaeology Project. New people are still coming forward to offer skills and talents that dovetail nicely with the needs of the project, he said. "This is truly a community project."
The reception "was a wonderful event, and I think all the volunteers really appreciated it," said Caroline Whalen-Strollo of the Delaware Marine Archaeological Society. She and other seasoned volunteers log many hours each week in the conservation laboratory at the Biden Center, which houses the maritime research project. There they sort, clean, catalog, and inventory donor collections and manage databases of the collections.
Nearly 100 donors have contributed some 12,000 artifacts to the state since residents and visitors began combing Lewes Beach for items ranging from glass and pottery shards to miniature metal soldiers. Some items are being mended and stored at the Biden Center lab; others have been sent to an outside conservator for work. An array of artifacts is on public display at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes.
