Larry E. Murphy

Science for Stewardship: Multidisciplinary Research on USS Arizona

The National Park Services Submerged Resources Center and USS Arizona Memorial are conducting and coordinating research directed at understanding the nature and rate of natural processes affecting the deterioration of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Ha- waii. The USS Arizona Preservation Project is designed to be multi-year, interdisciplinary and cumulative, with each element contributing to developing an overall management strategy designed to minimize environmental hazard from fuel oil release and provide the basic research required to make informed management decisions for long-term preserva- tion. The primary project focus is toward acquiring requisite data for understanding the complex corrosion and deterioration processes affecting Arizonas hull, both internally and externally, and modeling and predicting the nature and rate of structural changes. This research program is designed to be a cumulative progression of multi-disciplinary investigative steps. Multiple lines of evidence are being pursued simultaneously, each directly or indirectly linked to the others and to the overall project objectives. This project is an example of government agencies, academic institutions, military commands and private institutions working together effectively for public benefit. The USS Arizona Pres- ervation Project is designed to serve as a model because it will have direct application to preservation and management of historical iron and steel vessels worldwide and to inter- vention actions for other leaking vessels.

Considerations for Research Designs in Shipwreck Archaeology

There are two basic questions addressed in this paper: (1) To what degree is the activity of shipwreck archaeology meaningfully contributing information to the overall discipline of anthropology, and (2) to what degree is the scientific methodology being employed in shipwreck archaeology as evidenced by explicit designs either inductive or deductive in nature.

Corrosion Rate Trajectories of Concreted Iron and Steel Shipwrecks and Structures in Seawater—The Weins Number

Abstract The Weins number (Wn) concept is proposed to predict the long-term corrosion rate of wrought iron and steel in seawater for variable marine environments. Plotted as a function of reciprocal absolute temperature, Weins numbers generate a linear plot from which the corrosion rates are calculated when temperature, oxygen concentration, and concretion thickness are known. Application of the theory of absolute reaction rates is described.

Maritime Archaeology at Dry Tortugas National Park

The objective of the Dry Tortugas Survey was to produce a model for the National Park Service (NPS) submerged cultural resource survey and refine current techniques and methodologies to adapt them to the NPS mission requiring systematic survey, inventory, registration, evaluation and ultimately, interpretation of the maritime historical sites within its boundaries. A special congressional appropriation became available in 1992 to aid the NPS in surveying lands within its jurisdiction. This project was funded through this initiative, which is known as the Systemwide Archaeological Inventory Program (SAIP).

Maritime Archeology of Tourism in Yellowstone National Park

This chapter reports on an investigation of Yellowstone National Park’s unique maritime heritage and focuses on material remains of the park’s 19th- and early-20th-century tourist infrastructure in Yellowstone Lake. These sites were examined within the overall framework of the historical archeology of tourism developed by Hunt (1994c; Chapter 1 of this volume), but they represent distinctive examples of an underwater cultural heritage not previously investigated in the park. Like their counterparts on land, these sites are linked to the broader context of Yellowstone National Park’s status as one of the premier tourist destinations in the American West

Balancing Historic Preservation, Science, and the Environment in Underwater Cultural Heritage Site Management: Long-Term Management Strategies for the Sunken Battleship USS Arizona

Abstract National Park Services Submerged Resources Center has been coordinating research on the sunken battleship USS Arizona, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii since 1998. This article outlines a research strategy and results of investigations into the nature and rate of the ships corrosion, the status of the nearly 2.3 million litres of fuel oil still aboard the vessel, and our approach to managing a site that is both an historic war grave and a potential environmental threat. This project was designed to be a model for underwater cultural heritage site management internationally, specifi cally for other historic vessels leaking contaminants into the environment, and to produce results directly applicable to preservation and management of historical iron and steel vessels worldwide.

Steel Hull Corrosion of USS Arizona with Applications to Submerged Resources

The USS Arizona Preservation project is a multi-year, interdisciplinary and cumulative effort with each discipline contributing to basic research required to make informed management decisions for long-term preservation. Three significant issues include: (1) USS Arizona is a grave site for 900 or more Navy and Marine personal lost with the USS Arizona when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. (2) Minimizing environmental hazard from a potential fuel oil release of an estimated 500,000 gallons remaining in fuel bunkers or compartment overheads. A cross section view of the ship and bunkers before and after the attack is shown in Fig. 1. (3) Over 1.5 million visitors a year consider the vessel a national icon. Research and any solution to the oil issue incorporates a minimum impact approach. The primary goal of the project is to characterize complex deterioration processes and utilize finite element modeling (FEM) to predict stability in the context of a variety of interdisciplinary inputs including geology, oceanography, microbiology, oil analysis, structures, environmental parameters and corrosion. In addition to informing management, the research has produced results applicable to thousands of submerged steel vessels worldwide. The following is a discussion of corrosion research on USS Arizona and application of the Concretion Equivalent Corrosion Rate (CECR) methodology.

E. C. Waters and Development of a Turn-of-the-Century Tourist Economy in Yellowstone National Park

After designation as the world’s first national park in 1872, Yellowstone became a popular turn-of-the-century tourist destination. In response to increasing numbers of tourists, a unique maritime system developed on Yellowstone Lake, culminating with tour vessel E. C. Waters’ launch in 1905. The National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center 1996 archaeological investigations in Yellowstone National Park focused on the 125 ft.-long wooden-hulled screw steamer E. C. Waters’ remains and other elements of Yellowstone Lake’s tourist infrastructure. Yellowstone National Park’s tourist development is examined in a world system framework, linking developments on Yellowstone Lake to late-19th-century western tourism and industrial capitalist expansion. The E. C. Waters site (48YE13) is interpreted as part of a regional maritime system.