From Who’s Afraid to ¡Yo Solo! : The Hunt for HMS Mentor, Part VI – The Environmental and Cultural Context of the Blackwater River, Florida

AJV Archaeology

This multi-part podcast series is an attempt to locate a Royal Naval vessel, which was destroyed in Blackwater Bay, part of the Pensacola Bay System, Florida, during the spring of 1781. The study utilized maritime cultural landscape theory to construct an understanding of the setting and circumstances in which the ship sank. A history of the vessel is introduced to add context to the historical and environmental analysis defined by a critical examination of the Royal Navy’s 18th-century concept of the maritime cultural landscape of Pensacola Bay. The methodology behind the remote sensing survey for the ship and subsequent testing of previously known shipwrecks in this study’s project area is described, and a location for the wrecked vessel is presented.
This Master’s Thesis could not have been completed without the great assistance of my advisors Dr. Della A. Scott-Ireton, Dr. Gregory D. Cook, and Dr. Amy Mitchell-Cook. I thank you three for the continuous help and guidance!
This is the fourth part of the multi-part podcast series and is how maritime archaeologists use Spanish, French, English, and American hydrographic maps to build the Maritime Cultural Landscape Theory of 18th-century Royal Naval Pensacola Bay. Listen and Learn how the region’s environment and history is combined to construct an anthropological Maritime Cultural Landscape. This analytical mindset helps maritime archaeologists understand the historic battlefield in which HMS Mentor rests.