Search for HMS Gaspee involves hours of going back and forth bottom of Narragansett Bay

Paul Edward Parker, The Providence Journal
·2 min read

NEAR THE LAST REPORTED POSITION OF HMS GASPEE — Engineers in a small work boat spent hours motoring back and forth off the beach of Gaspee Point Tuesday, electronically scouring the bottom of Narragansett Bay.

They were part of the initial phase of the latest search for the shipwreck of HMS Gaspee, a British revenue schooner that Colonists burned to the waterline in 1772 because the ship was menacing trade on the Bay.

"They're just doing lines to scope around Gaspee spit," said D. K. Abbass, of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project.

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The Gaspee ran aground on that submerged spit on the afternoon pf June 9, 1772, while chasing the Hannah, a merchant vessel owned by John Brown, of Providence. The Gaspee wouldn't float free until the next high tide, well after midnight, giving some 60 raiders time to row down from Providence, board the Royal Navy vessel and destroy it.

Although the hulk of the Gaspee was salvaged and scavenged for about a year afterward, no one knows how much, if any of it, is left today.

D. K. Abbass, of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, from the deck of the Norlantic, a research vessel that was watching the work boat loaded with side-scan sonar and magnetometers, which would make a detailed picture of the bottom and see whether any metal objects lay hidden in the bottom.
D. K. Abbass, of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, from the deck of the Norlantic, a research vessel that was watching the work boat loaded with side-scan sonar and magnetometers, which would make a detailed picture of the bottom and see whether any metal objects lay hidden in the bottom.

That's Abbass' first mission: determine whether there's anything that requires further study.

"What we want to do is just figure out what's out here," Abbass said Tuesday from the deck of the Norlantic, a research vessel that was watching the work boat loaded with side-scan sonar and magnetometers, which would make a detailed picture of the bottom and see whether any metal objects lay hidden in the bottom.

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Abbass and her crew have been at work since Friday and plan to be there until the end of the month.

The work boat loaded with side-scan sonar and magnetometers, which would make a detailed picture of the bottom and see whether any metal objects lay hidden in the bottom. Motoring back and forth off the beach of Gaspee Point Tuesday
The work boat loaded with side-scan sonar and magnetometers, which would make a detailed picture of the bottom and see whether any metal objects lay hidden in the bottom. Motoring back and forth off the beach of Gaspee Point Tuesday

The public is invited, weather permitting, to stop by a research station set up on the beach to see what is happening. It is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting. It is a short walk from beach parking spots on Lane 6, which is the name of a street in Warwick.

The search is being paid for by $50,000 in donations from area businesses, including the Providence Journal Charitable Legacy Fund.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RIMAP search for HMS Gaspee involves hours scouring Narragansett Bay