The Internutionul Journal of hiiuticd Archueology (1996) 25.3 & 4.
207-223
The United States mail steamer Humboldt, 1851-53:
initial report
Trevor Kenchington and Colin Whitelock
Gudus Assoriutes, R. R # I . Musyuodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada BOJ 2LO
Introduction
In December 1853, the transatlantic
steamer Humboldt, one of the la
of her time at 2181 tons (Fig. l), was run
ashore on the coast of Nova Scotia. In the
1960s, her wreck-site was re-discovered
and became a favourite location for sport
diving. A mile away, near Bear Cove
(Fig. 2), divers found two large sections of
coherent wooden ship structure. One of
these is notable for its many copper plank-
ing bolts (Fig. 3 ) . Since similar bolts had
been found on the Humholdt’s wreck-site,
these sections were regarded as parts of the
big steamer.
This wreckage lies exposed with no over-
burden or associated artefacts and thus
offers an opportunity for the study of
wooden ship structure without requiring
excavation: research that can be pursued
within the logistic constraints of an un-
funded, amateur project. In 1989, the site
was therefore chosen for the survey exer-
cise component of a Nautical Archaeology
Society training course. Building on that
exercise, we have begun a detailed study of
this site, in an attempt to understand the
wreckage. The specific aims are:
(1) to determine whether the wreckage
at Bear Cove is indeed part of the
Humholdt;
(2) if so, to provide a measure of how far
coherent wooden ship structure can
move from an initial wreck-site;
(3) to describe some structural features
adopted by the builders of large
wooden steamers
1057-2414/96/030207+ 17 $25 0010
(4) thereby to show that even relatively
modern and badly degraded wreck
structures merit detailed examination.
This paper provides an initial report on the
project, based on fieldwork to the end of
1994. An introduction outlines the histori-
cal background to the ship and the site.
Historical background
The coming of transatlantic steam
After 1815, oceanic shipping faced a new
imperative. In preceding centuries trans-
oceanic communications, though often
rich and varied, had been highly asym-
metric. The Western cultures that con-
trolled them had their major governments,
principal trading houses and primary mass
of consumers concentrated in Europe. This
asymmetry was forever altered by the rise
of the United States into a significant inde-
pendent power: a centre of Western com-
merce and diplomacy that lay across the
Atlantic from the European heartland.
The consequences of this change for the
shipping industry were delayed by the
requirement for convoy sailing in war-
time. After 1815, however, transatlantic
shipping was no longer a matter of bulk
cargoes and passenger transport alone.
Henceforth, communication of infor-
mation was as important as movement of
goods and people.
Shipowners, particularly in New York,
responded quickly, the Black Ball Line,
first of the new packet companies, being
founded in 1818. Their new challenge was
initially met by developing the old sailing
0 1996 The Nautical Archaeology Society
NAlJ TICAL ARCHAEOLOGY,25.3 & 4
Fi<qitrc I . US Mail Steamship Humboldt, from a lithograph after L. Garmain, published in 1852 by
GoupiI & Co., Paris and New York. (Author’s collection)
packets into a class of large, powerful ships
capable of sailing to schedule across the
North Atlantic in all seasons. These
‘Western Ocean Packets’ grew from the
Janzes iMonroc. of 424 tons[’], built in 1817,
to the Roscius of 1030 tons built in 1838.
Their design, construction and fittings
were all greatly improved, resulting in a
steady reduction in average passage times
(Chapelle, 1967; MacGregor, 1984). The
packets were still wind-driven, however,
and while they might depart on schedule,
their arrival times could not be guaranteed.
This irregularity, of little consequence
to the bulk-carrying trades, was seriously
inconvenient for the flow of news and
correspondence.
Meanwhile, other men were developing
steam propulsion. After much experimen-
tation, its commercial viability was finally
demonstrated by Fulton in 1807. There-
after, steam power spread rapidly along
freshwater and coastal routes. By 1835,
passengers and mail could travel by
steamer from London to Alexandria, Suez
to Bombay or New York to New Orleans.
208
These coastal ships were, however, tied to
the land by their need for coal. An auxili-
ary steamer might sail across the ocean
carrying her engine, as the Savanizalz had
done in 1819, but an ocean crossing under
continuous steam power was out of the
question for any ship of the 1820s (Corlett.
1975; Ridgely-Nevitt, 1981; Greenhill,
1993; Roff, 1993). Transatlantic steam thus
became a technical goal of the leading
engineers just as its promise of fast, de-
pendable communication between Europe
and the United States was becoming a
commercial necessity.
While this goal was approached by
many ships, regular steam service was
established in 1838 by the Great Wesfern
(Farr, 1963). A single ship could not main-
tain an adequate schedule, however, and
fleet operations did not begin until 1840,
when Cunard’s British & North American
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
inaugurated its service, with the support of
a government mail contract.
The American shipowners were left
behind by the advent of the transatlantic
T. KENCHINGTON & C. WHITELOCK: US STEAMER HUMBOLDT
Figure 2 Approaches to Halifax. Nova Scotia,
showing locations named in the text. The dots
near Portuguese and Rear coves mark the
Hunrboldt’s stranding site and the location of
the wreckage described.
steamer and they therefore petitioned their
government for support equivalent to that
enjoyed by Cunard. The ensuing compe-
tition resulted in the Ocean Steam Navi-
gation Company being subsidized to carry
the mails between New York and Bremen,
the Washington and Hermann opening the
new service in 1847. Their contract allowed
for an expanded service to Le Havre
and, in 1849, an associated company, the
New York and Havre Steam Navigation
Company or ‘Havre Line’, was incorpor-
ated to take up this opportunity. A consort
for the Wushington and Herrnunn,
launched in 1848, was taken over while a
fourth ship was ordered. She was launched
in 1851 as the Hurnboldt (Ridgely-Nevitt,
1981).
The shipwrights’ challenge
These big steamers posed a greater struc-
tural problem than had any previous ships.
The core of the difficulty lay in their con-
densers. Until the 1870s, metallurgy could
not provide a joint that would withstand
cold sea water on one side and steam on
the other. Moreover, the tallow used for
lubrication in the cylinder clogged the
tubes of surface condensers. Thus, marine
engines used jet condensers, in which the
waste steam from the cylinders was con-
densed by a spray of sea water; the partial
vacuum created by the condensation serv-
ing to draw in the spray. These worked
well but they introduced salt into the con-
densate, from which the boiler feed water
was necessarily drawn. That salt became
concentrated in the boilers and in high
pressure (and hence high temperature) sys-
tems, it was laid down as a hard scale
on the heated surfaces. There it acted as
insulation. not only cutting efficiency but
leading to irregular heating of the boiler,
which often ended in failure.
Meanwhile, tallow also reached the boiler
in the feed water. At high tempratures,
this broke down into fatty acids which
209
NAI'TICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4

Figure 3. View of the southern section of wreckage at Bear Cove, showing the planking bolts
protruding from the frames. Some bolts bear remnants of planking. Note the heavily eroded
state of the wreckage. The planking bolts are 22 mm in diameter and provide an indication
of scale. All photographs in this paper were taken through a wide-angle lens and have
unnatural perspective. (Author's photograph.)

corroded the engine (Ridgely-Nevitt, 1981;
Griffiths, 1993).
The salt and tallow could be tolerated
in low pressure boilers, which were inter-
mittently blown down to empty them of
hypersaline water and re-filled with sea
water. Unfortunately, low-pressure steam
engines are inherently inefficient at trans-
ferring energy from coal to paddle-wheels.
So inefficient, indeed, that a normal coastal
steamer of the 1830s could not float
enough coal to power herself across the
Atlantic.
All else being equal, however, the energy
required to drive a ship rises with the
cross-sectional area of her underwater
body, whereas her ability to carry coal and
paying cargo rises with her immersed vol-
ume. Thus, large ships could profitably
steam across the ocean. It was exactly this
logic that led Brunel to design the Great
2 10
Western at 1230 tons old measure, making
her the largest steamer yet built (Farr,
1963; Corlett, 1975).
Iron plates and sections can, in theory,
be made to any required dimensions.
They can also be fastened together so that
the joints are almost as stiff and strong as
the pieces joined. Wood, in contrast, is
only available in the sizes to which trees
grow. Moreover, without modern glues,
joints between wooden pieces are in-
evitably points of weakness and mobil-
ity. Thus, large wooden ships were
composed of thousands of small, flexibly-
attached pieces. The larger the ship, the
relatively-smaller the individual pieces,
the greater the number of joiiits and the
weaker the hull. The first part of the
shipwrights' problem with the big steamers
was thus that they were necessarily very
large.
T KENCHINGTON & C WHITELOCK. US STEAMER HUMBOLDT
Their great weight of coal and engines
also meant that only a small proportion of
their displacement could be devoted to
paying cargo and passengers, yet the high
costs of fuel and machinery made these
ships much more expensive, per ton, to
build and run than were the sailing
packets. If they were to cover those costs
with their reduced relative payloads, the
steamers had to command much higher
freight and passenger rates. Yet their only
advantage was the promise of speed and
regularity. There was little to be gained by
expending more power (and hence more
coal and heavier engines) to achieve the
speed. Rather, the steamers were built with
finer lines. For paddlers this was doubly
necessary since a bluff bow could cause the
bow wave to interfere with the paddles,
cutting efficiency and introducing severe
vibrations (Greenhill, 1993). The high
length-to-beam ratios and lack of buoy-
ancy in the fine ends of these ships then
exacerbated the hogging problem that
builders of large vessels always struggled
with. Moreover, unlike the ships-of-the-
Line and Indiamen, which at least carried
the weights of their guns and ballast spread
along their lengths, the steamers necessar-
ily had their boilers and engines concen-
trated amidships, imposing greater stresses
on the hull.
Lastly, the steamers had to hold their
shape, despite these stresses, in North
Atlantic winter weather while being driven
hard against a head sea. a situation rarely
encountered by a sailing ship. This was the
great structural challenge posed to any
builder of transatlantic steamers. It was
one that they did not always meet; the
Wushington and Hermann were notably
inadequate (Ridgely-Nevitt, 1981). The
problem was not fully solved until the mail
contracts were changed in the mid-1850s to
permit iron hulls.
F’rom 1838 to 1855, the builders of
transatlantic steamers adopted and devel-
oped many features as they sought the
required strength and stiffness in wooden
hulls. No comprehensive account of these
is available. However, among the scattered
information that has survived, Farr (1963)
has noted that the Greut Western’s floors
were filled in solid and then bolted
together. with four rows of 1:’ (38 mm)[’]
diameter bolts [each individual bolt being
24 feet (7.3 m) long and those in each row
overlapping by 4 feet (1-2 m) at their ends],
while much of her structure was fastened
with nuts and screwbolts. The American
ships sometimes had their ceiling strakes
edge-bolted together, as did the Arugo
(2240 tons, 1855), the Humboldt’s eventual
replacement. Most prominently, these
ships were strengthened with diagonal iron
strapping, in the form of trusses, braces or
both (Ridgely-Nevitt, 1981).
The Humboldt’s career und loss
The Havre Line ordered the Humboldt
from Westervelt and Mackay of New
York, who had built the two Bremen
ships. They had evidently overcome the
deficiencies of those earlier hulls as the new
ship drew no criticism. Launched late in
1850, she was 282 feet (86 m) long, 40 feet
(12.2m) in beam and of 2181 tons. N o
details of her structure have yet been
found, except that she was iron strapped.
By the time she left New York for her
maiden voyage, in May 1851, she had cost
$560,000.
Under Captain David Lines, she
immediately began her regular New York--
Cowes-Le Havre-Cowes- New York ser-
vice, sailing every eight weeks and making
six round-trips each year. The Humboldt
and her sister proved reliable, profitable
ships and enjoyed a special market niche.
Much of the mail and passenger traffic on
the transatlantic route ran between Britain
and the United States. However, French
and Swiss industry was already noted in
American markets for producing luxmy
goods with the high price-per-unit-volume
that was ideal for transport by steamer.
21 I
NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4

The Havre Line captured this trade, Around noon on 5th December, the
while sharing with the Bremen ships the engineer reported that the coal was run-
passenger traffic from continental Europe. ning short and would not last to New
The Humboldt did encounter problems York. As the ship was then lying about 200
in January 1852 when, westbound from miles due east of Halifax, Captain Lines
Cowes, she experienced a series of heavy decided to go into that port for a fresh
gales. With bulwarks wrecked, paddle- supply. At 0630h next morning, the
boxes stove in and her rudder damaged, Humboldt was boarded by a man named
Captain Lines took her into Halifax for Powell who falsely represented himself as a
coal and temporary repairs (Ridgely- Halifax pilot. The ship was then some
Nevitt, 1981). This use of Halifax as a five miles south-east of Sambro Island,
port of refuge was common for the early safely in what is now the traffic control
steamers. The great circle route from the route.
Scilly Isles to Nantucket runs close to At that point, however, the ship ran into
the Nova Scotia coast. Halifax was thus unusual weather for December: thick fog
the first port of consequence that the and calm. The Humboldt nevertheless
steamers passed after clearing the Irish stood on at half speed and, at 0715h,
coast westbound and was the one that struck a rock, later supposed to be Bell
their captains usually turned to when in Rock. She must have struck hard, as part
need. of the bow was broken off and the ship
Late in October 1853, the Humboldt left began to fill. Ordering the crew to the
New York on her sixteenth voyage[31.At pumps, Captain Lines steamed for the
Le Havre, she took on a large cargo of safety of Halifax. As the water rose in
’holiday presents and Christmas toys’ since the engine room, he abandoned that plan
hers was the last sailing from France that and turned for the shore. About 0800h, the
should have reached New York in time for Humboldt ran aground with her bow in
the seasonal shopping spree. She also took 6 m of water and her stern in 12 m. The fog
aboard Welsh coal, since Captain Lines was so thick that the land could not be
was unable to purchase any French fuel. seen, though it was at most 15 m from the
The American steamers had previously bow.
had difficulties with ‘English’ coal; on the When the fog lifted, Captain Lines
Wii.d?itigfon’s first voyage the heat had found himself a short distance north of
destroyed two sets of furnace grates within Portuguese Cove. On hearing the news,
24 hours, necessitating a return to the US Consul went down to the wreck
Southampton for replacements (Ridgely- with two small steamers. These took the
Nevitt, 1981). Faced with Welsh steam passengers, their baggage and the mail,
coal. American crews seem to have been with as much of the cargo as could be
overly generous with their stoking. reached, and safely delivered them all
The Humboldt left Le Havre on 22nd to Halifax. From there, the Cunarder
November, reaching Cowes after daylight Niagara carried the passengers on to
next morning. She made fast to the Yacht Boston.
Buoy for a few hours, taking the English Meanwhile, the stern of the wreck sank
mails aboard, and then departed for New to the saloon deck within three hours of
York with 90 passengers and a 450-ton the stranding. That night a southerly gale
cargo. The crossing was rough, with strong blew in, bringing a heavy sea which ground
winds from south-west to north, ‘the the Humboldt on the rocks. From the
meather being boisterous with squalls of morning of 7th December until the IOth,
rain, hail and snow and some lightning’. the weather moderated and the crew, aided
212
T. KENCHINGTON & C‘. WHITELOCK: US STEAMER HUMBOLDT

by local men, were busy trying to save the

cargo. Then, on the 11th, the wind turned
easterly producing a rough swell and part
of the ship’s bottom broke up. The next
night, she split fore-and-aft and on the
13th December was declared a total loss.
The Royal Engineers made two attempts
to blow up the Humboldt’s decks to
improve access to the remaining cargo, the
second blast being successful. Wracked by Figure 4. Sketch-plan of site and surroundings.
The southern section of wreckage is labelled ‘S’,
explosives and the weather, the Humholdt the northern ‘N’. Land areas, a boulder beach
soon went to pieces. By early January and the subtidal bedrock slope are indicated
1854, it was reported that her forward part diagrammatically.
had broken up and her afterbody had gone
down in deep water. Where she was
stranded, the 30-m depth contour is less deadwood. Some loose fragments have
than 300 m from the cliff. been raised for detailed study but the
Little is known of the wreck over the wreck has otherwise been left undisturbed.
following century. There are records of
salvage divers working her in 1855, pre- Site layout
sumably to recover her enginesL4].Other- The two sections of wreckage lie nearly
wise, she was lost to human concern until 20 m below low tide level, at the base of a
the local advent of sport diving in the bedrock slope extending from the shore
1960s. Since then. many divers have about 175 m away (Fig. 4). In the vicinity
searched the rock gullies just north of of the wreckage, the bedrock dips below a
Portuguese Cove and have recovered as- thin sediment cover composed of sand,
sorted remnants of her cargo. Meanwhile, gravel and small stones. Sport divers
near Bear Cove other divers found the two report that mobile sand sometimes covers
large sections of coherent ship structure the entire site, leaving only the uppermost
that form the subjects of the present re- tips of the planking bolts visible. In the last
search. Unconfirmed reports speak of a five years, however, all but the most low-
half-dozen other similar sections of wreck- lying parts of the wreckage have been fully
age spread between Portuguese and Bear exposed.
Coves, as well as the remains of a paddle- Of the two sections, the northern one is
wheel in deep water. There have been about 21 m in length by 7 m in breadth and
no reports of wooden wreckage south is oriented approximately northlsouth. It
of Portuguese Cove, although the area lies ceiling upwards, as shown by the
between there and Chebucto Head is presence of hanging knees on its upper
intensively dived. surface. From its lack of longitudinal
curvature, the presence of the knees and a
Field research marked upward curve at its western edge,
Field research has been confined to the two this section appears to be the side of the
sections of wreckage near Bear Cove. A ship, extending roughly from the curve of
general examination of the site has been the bilge nearly to the main deck, and
made. recording assorted structural details, seems to be from somewhere about the
and a detailed survey of the southern sec- mid-point of the ship’s length. In contrast,
tion has begun. To date, this last has the southern section, which lies about 14 m
encompassed the inner sternpost and after away, is oriented approximately eastlwest
213
NAI ric A L ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4

n -
-I \-
e

Centimetres

Tnches

Figure 5. Scale drawings of some fastenings found on the Bear Cove site. a: ends of a copper planking
bolt found loose on the site, with the associated rove shown in section; b: rove from the planking bolt
shown in (a); c: end of a broken, copper-alloy spike of the type used to fasten plank butts (found
in sitic in loose fragment of frame timber: The curvature is original and apparently produced as the spike
was driven); d: section of a hardwood treenail remnant found in the same fragment of timber as the
spike; e: end of a copper-alloy screwbolt seen in a fragment of frame on the site. Details of the screw
thread reconstructed from observations made underwater.

and lies outboard up, as shown by the
in-situ survival of some copper sheathing.
I t is about 1 2 m long by 8 m wide and
takes the form of a large number of frames
held together by underlying ceiling (Fig. 3).
Very little outer planking has survived.
Near the western end of this section, the
frames are strongly concave towards their
southern ends. Inspection of contemporary
lines-plans of American transatlantic
steamers shows that such curvature only
occurred right aft and only above the
waterline (Ridgely-Nevitt, 1981). Thus,
thi> section is from the aftermost part of
the ship and from the port side.
Fustenings and wood types
A typical planking bolt (22 mm in diam-
eter, perhaps originally 718 in) was found
loose on the site, with a rove still in place
(Figs 5a,b). Both bolt and rove are appar-
ently copper. The former is about 800 mm
in surviving length, sufficient to extend
through outer planking, frame and ceiling.
One end had been shaped into a slightly
214
expanded and rounded head, while the
other may have been distorted by post-
wrecking damage but appears to show
some spreading as though it had been
hammered into place.
One small fragment of frame and a piece
of ceiling, each badly eroded and found
loose on the seabed near the southern
section, were raised for wood analysis.
The frame was of some species of oak
(Quercus spp.) while the ceiling fragment
was pine; probably Pinus rigida, one of the
species known in shipbuilding as ‘southern
hard pine’. Underwater macroscopic in-
spection of the rest of the wreckage sug-
gested that all of the principal pieces were
of one or other of these wood species, the
ceiling being consistently pine, the timbers
oak and the outer planking perhaps a
mixture of the two.
The two fragments raised each bore rem-
nants of a number of fastenings. The frame
had a planking bolt, a spike (Fig. 5c) of the
kind that, elsewhere on the wreckage, was
evidently used to fasten the butt ends of
T . KENCHINGTON & C. WHITELOCK: US STEAMER HUMBOLDT
Tuhk 1. Some scantlings measured on the site
Item
Frames
Traces of planks
Ceiling in hold
Ceiling near Berth Deck
Inner post at load waterline
Aft deadwood at load waterline
Keelward edge of' aft dcadwood
planks, a hole for a fore-and-aft bolt
(somewhat over I in or 25 mm in diameter)
that doubtless once attached adjacent
timbers, three similar transverse holes
(0.75 in or 19 mm in diameter) and two
treenails (Fig. 5d). The ceiling fragment
bore two treenails. of the same form as
those in the frame timber. and two holes of
the right size for planking bolts. All four
of these ran transversely.
Several other loose fragments of the
wreckage have been examined in situ. On
one of them. a broken piece of frame
timber revealed a copper-alloy screwbolt
(Fig. 5e) which reached to the end of the
hole that had been bored for it. The head
of this screwbolt has not been seen.
Tlir ufirr drrid\t.ood Lilt(/ i i i n i v .vtcrripost
Detailed survey of the wreckage com-
menced at the western end of the southern
section. the structures there being the
inner sternpost and the after deadwood
(Figs 6 & 7). The port faces of these
timbers lie approximately horizontal but
dip as they extend both fhrwards and away
from the keel.
The sternpost itself is missing. The after-
most surviving material comprises a row of
(probably brass) bolts. 1: in (35 mm) in
diameter. arranged on approximately 18 in
(460 mm) centres where they pass through
the inner post. These bolts originally pen-
etrated the sternpost. inner post and dead-
wood. though there is no evidence of their
Moulded Sided
9.5-1 2 in/240-300 mm Over 9.5 id240 mm
About 6 id150 mm
9-1 1 in/23@280 mm
4 id100 mm
About 18 id460 mm About R d 2 0 0 mm
~ ~. 8 in1200 mm
.- Over 12 id300 mm
ends on the forward face of the deadwood.
which instead has traces of the heads of
some iron bolts. The surviving ends abaft
the inner post have been wrenched and
bent.
The inner post is badly eroded at its
lower end and its heel may be missing
entirely. It bears two irregular rows of
fastenings, the forward one comprising
planking bolts (one with a rove in place)
and the after one spikes (in each case
similar to those shown in Figure 5). Most
of the spikes are broken off flush with the
surviving timber but those that are not
have flattened heads. These two rows of
fastenings presumably held the hood ends
of the outer planking. There is no sign of a
rabbet in the inner post to receive those
ends, suggesting that it was formed
between this timber and a sternpost of
much greater siding.
The inner post also bears a number of
treenails (of similar dimensions to that in
Fig. 5d) though their faster erosion relative
to the oak of the post has meant that they
have only survived near the limit of sand
coverage. The original function of these
treenails is unclear since the planks would
seem to have been fully fastened by the
bolts and spikes.
The deadwood is composed of five
pieces: the aftermost may once have been a
knee between the inner sternpost and
timbers lying on the keel and is now very
badly eroded. Interestingly, the next three
215
NAUTIC'AL ARCHAEOLOGY. 25.3 & 4

k ' i q w c 6. Plan of the surviving deadwood and attached structures, projccted onto the plane of the ship's
centreline. (Scale bars are in metres.) For clarity. the symbols for bolts, spikes, treenails and fastening
holes are drawn twice the scale size of the corresponding objects. The arrangement of nails on the
copper sheathing is shown schematically. A11 other features arc shown to scale. as surwyed. Iron
tii\tcnings are labelled with asterisks, all other metallic fastenings bcing coppcr o r copper alloys. The
rcmnants of three cant frames are shaded, as are two coaks. A third coak. one treenail and some
planking holts arc hidden under the coppcred planking.

picccs lay more nearly vertical than hori-
/oiital. in contrast to normal British ship-
building practice. The sixth piece forms a
foruard projection. The after face of this
dcadwood wits rayed against the inner
stcrnpost while its forward face was
formcd as a fair curve, tapering to a point.
There is no evidence of the keelson which,
in normal practice, would have overlain
part o f the forward face of the deadwood.
Thc presence of rounded bolt heads on
t h a t [orward face precludcs the possibility
-7 1 h
that a lost deadwood wac formerly
attached there.
Thc port lateral face of the deadwood
appears to be an entirely flat surface,
though the degree of erosion that has
occurred would conceal any bearding line
that might once have been present. There
were certainly no housings cut into this
face for the heels of cant frames.
The joints between the second and third
and between the third and fourth dead-
wood pieces are close-fitting and straight.
T KENCHINGTON & C WHITELOCK: US STEAMER HUMBOLDT

Figure 7. View of the deadwood and adjacent structures on the southern section of wreckage.
looking towards the former position of the sternpost heel. The forward face of the deadwood
i s in the immediate foreground, Note the remnant of coppered planking at left centre. the
heavily-eroded cant timbers extending across the deadwood in the foreground, and the inner
post and bolts in the background. The latter are 35 mm in diameter. Other dimensions may
be found from comparison with Figure 6. (Author’s photograph.)

They are locked by transverse coaks, about
6 in (150 mm) square in section. The five
parts are bolted together and to the post
and other timbers. As noted above, not all
of these bolts were through bolts. Three
iron ones can, however, be traced extend-
ing through the foremost piece of the dead-
wood towards where the keel once was.
The concreted remnant of one of these
suggests that it was originally about 2 i n
(50mm) in diameter. There are hints of
other iron bolts on the keelward edge of
the deadwood.
Overlying the deadwood are the rem-
nants of a few cant frames, which have yet
to be examined in detail, and traces of a
small area of outer planking. The latter
bears copper sheathing which accords in
all observable details with standard 19th-
century practice, as described by Campbell
(1974). The edges of the copper sheets were
nailed on approximately 45 mm centres,
while the faces of the sheets were nailed
with the typical rhomboidal pattern. The
nails were hammered flush but were not
indented to produce the ‘quilted’ appear-
ance mentioned in some contemporary
accounts. This sheathing was laid over
what appears to have been tarred felt.
Where it is less eroded, the inner stern-
post has about 12 planking bolts and as
many spikes in a 2-m length. If there was
originally a pair of each fastening the
hood-end of every plank, this suggests an
average plank width of about 330 mm or
13 in.
Further forward, the lateral face of the
deadwood bears surprisingly few remnants
of fastenings; certainly not enough for even
one bolt per plank/frame intersection.
217
NAIJTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4
There are traces of a number of iron bolts
and spikes (which may once have fastened
the heels of some frames to the deadwood),
a few planking bolts and a scatter of
treenails and empty holes. Some of the
latter may have contained planking bolts.
The apparent paucity of plank fastenings
seems to have resulted from the ship-
wrights, when working abreast of the
forward part of the deadwood, using short
bolts that ended in the cant timbers, out-
board of the deadwood itself. As shown
by their surviving remnants, these cants
projected more than 500 mm abreast of the
deadwood at its forward end; an ample
distance for a planking bolt in a blind-
ending hole. It is still surprising that there
are not more plank fastenings in the first
50cm forward of the inner sternpost, an
area where the planking must have lain
very close to the deadwood if not actually
touching it.
The considerable lateral distance be-
theen the face of the deadwood and the
planking which once lay abreast of it
clearly shows that the keel rabbet cannot
have lain near the surviving keelward edge
of‘the wreckage. Rather, if the hull tapered
in this area to the degree that contempo-
rary lines plans suggest was normal, the
rabbet, and hence also the keel itself, must
have lain about 1 m below the structure
that has survived.
Other features of the southern section
The remainder of the southern wreckage
5ection has only been examined super-
ficiafly. Towards the forward (eastern) end,
the prominent square frames are of typical
19th-century paired construction, with the
adjacent timbers held together by fore-
and-aft iron bolts about one inch (25 mm)
in diameter. Near the deadwood, in con-
traht. the timbers are close-set and strongly
canted.
Between the frames and the underlying
ceiling there are traces of diagonal iron
strapping. This was composed of double
218
diagonals, ‘trusses’ that rose towards the
stern and ‘braces’ that dipped towards the
keel as they headed aft. The straps were
5 in by 1 in (125 by 25 mm) in section
(Fig. 8). The trusses were let into the
frames while the ceiling was scored to fit
over the braces. The aftermost trace of a
brace extends almost to the forward end
of the deadwood, while a truss can be
followed to a point near the load waterline
and about 3.5m forward of the inner
sternpost.
Northern section
The northern section of wreckage has yet
to be examined closely. It has a complete
ceiling from the turn of the bilge to the
berth deck beams. However, the four
strakes immediately below those beams
(collectively 0.95 m wide) were only 4 in
(100mm) thick in contrast to the 9 in
(230 mm) elsewhere. There is no sign of a
thicker clamp or beam shelf. Above the
berth deck, there is no sign of any ceiling at
all.
Below the load waterline, the ceiling is
fastened, at least in part, by copper plank-
ing bolts which pass through from the
outside of the hull. In most cases, these
bolts end in heads formed over roves. If
planking bolts were used higher in the ship,
they have not survived and may not have
been copper.
The wooden hanging knees of the berth
deck had their heels on the step in the
ceiling and lay under, not alongside. their
beams. A significant part of one knee
remains, along with traces of others at
intervals of 1.75 to 2.18 m.
Edge bolts are not visible in a finished
hull while iron fastenings have survived
less well than the pine ceiling on this
wreck and thus cannot project beyond
the wood. On the northern section, how-
ever, the corrosion products of a few
such bolts have preserved the surround-
ing wood from erosion, confirming that
the ceiling was edge-bolted. The exact
NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4
straps be placed outside the frames, where
they remained until the last large wooden
ships were built. Thus, the wreck’s double-
diagonal strapping between frames and
ceiling suggest that she was built in the
mid-19th century and, most probably, in
the early 1850s.
Equally, while planking bolts (other
than butt bolts) have rarely been men-
tioned in textbooks, Lloyd’s introduced
the abbreviation ‘C.T.’ in the 1841 edition
of their Register to indicate that a ship had
‘copper bolts substituted for treenails’, a
designation that probably refers to the
arrangement seen on the wreckage. It is
not certain that this was then new but the
limited number of ships designated ‘C.T.’
in 1841 suggests that such bolts were rare
in the 1830s. The screwbolt observed on
the wreckage is equally suggestive of
mid-I 9th century, or later, construction.
This wreckage shows other features typi-
cal of large American mid 19th-century
ships, the Western Ocean Packets as much
as the big steamers. These include edge
bolting of the ceiling and hard pine on oak
construction. The only parallel, known to
the authors, of the sub-vertical arrange-
ment of the deadwood pieces seen at Bear
Cove is a marginal illustration in an 1826
US Navy contract for construction of a
Sloop of War (reproduced in Chapelle,
1949). Thus, the two sections of wreckage
appear to come from a large to very large
American ship built around 1850.
The Nova Scotia Museum is currently
preparing a database of recorded wrecks
around the coastline of the Province.
While no such listing can be complete,
large ships lost in the 19th century in the
approaches to Halifax are unlikely to have
been missed. The only ship in the data-
base lost in the vicinity of Bear Cove and
fitting the characteristics of the wreckage
is the Ilumboldt. Thus, while this identifi-
cation cannot be absolutely confirmed,
there is little remaining doubt that it is
correct.
’20
Movement of the wreckage froin the
stranding site
The Humboldt’s stranding site is, however,
well known and lies one nautical mile
south of Bear Cove. That is a considerable
distance for large, coherent pieces of ship
structure to move after a ship breaks up.
The common belief has been that the
wreckage floated to Bear Cove and sank
there. This is unlikely since, except when
trapped air escapes, buoyant wreckage
cannot lose its buoyancy quickly. If these
hull sections could ever have floated, with
all their weight of bolts and stfaps, it is
improbable that they would sihk before
going ashore. For two sections to have
sunk in the same place is extremely
unlikely.
We suggest instead that this wreckage
moved north by a process analogous to
geological bed-load transport, but on a
gigantic scale. The general water circu-
lation in Halifax Harbour is that typical of
estuaries, flowing in (north) on the bottom
and out on the surface. In the approaches
to the Harbour, the surface flow is supple-
mented by the coastal current which, near
Bear Cove, is deflected southwards by the
land. Together, these form a net southerly
surface flow of about 0.05 m/s (Lawrence,
1989; Fader & Petrie, 1991). The net near-
bottom flow is less certain. At the depth of
the wreckage, it is probably slower than
0.05 m/s and may be directed northward.
Superimposed upon these net flows are
semi-diurnal tidal streams and short-
period wind-induced movements. A mile
north of Bear Cove, the streams have been
measured at up to 0,05m/s (Fader &
Petrie, 1991). The average winter wind-
fields should not induce surface water
velocities of more than 0.1 m / s in this area
(Lawrence, 1989), except when the shore-
line channels south-easterly winds north-
wards. Hence, even combining mean wind
and maximum tide effects with the net
flow, short-period northward water
velocities between Portuguese and Bear
T KENCHINGTON & C WHIT LLOCK US STEAMER HUMBOLDT
coves should not exceed 0.5m/s at the
surface. Near-bottom flows should be
slower and too weak to move large pieces
of wreckage.
There appear, however, to be stronger
ephemeral north-going bottom flows in this
area. Seaward of the wreck-site, at around
30 m depth, the sandy bottom is formed
into three-dimensional megaripples--
indicative of turbulent northward bottom
currents. There are also unusual gravel
circles, possibly formed by spinning vor-
tices created during intense storms. Some-
what shallower. at about the depth of
the site, there are large ripples in gravel
deposits formed by oscillatory wave action
(Fader & Petrie, 1991; Fader et ul., 1994).
While it cannot be certain, it seems likely
that the strong flows that created these
features are caused by occasional hurricane
events. The shape of the land protects this
area from south-westerly and southerly
winds but, when a hurricane blows from
the south-east. it sends heavy waves onto
this shore. Such a storm would interact
with the land to drive a short-lived north-
ward flow up the channel towards Halifax.
The authors therefore, suggest that the
wreckage currently at Bear Cove moved
during a hurricane event, probably not
long after the Humboldt broke up. With its
wood still retaining some buoyancy, the
wreck structure would have rested lightly
on the bottom. Even at its 15 to 20m
depth, the extreme wave action, evidently
sufficient to form ripples in gravel, would
have moved the wreckage to and fro--thus
overcoming friction. A slow wind-induced
northward drift, such as the 0.5 m/s flow
that rippled sand at 30 m. would then be
sufficient to displace the wreck sections
and carry them from Portuguese to Bear
Coves in about an hour
Perhaps only very robust wooden ship
structure, with iron strapping and close-set
planking bolts, could have held together
while being moved like this. Nevertheless,
unless this wreckage is wrongly identified,
its present location demonstrates that sub-
stantial pieces of coherent ship structure
can be found as much as a mile from the
site at which a wreck broke up.
Structure of the hull
Most structural features seen on this wreck-
age are among those that might have been
expected on a very large, American-built
steamer of c. 1850. These include the
wood species used, the heavy scantlings, the
diagonal iron strapping, the copper plank-
ing bolts, the edge-bolted ceiling, the use of
wooden hanging knees under (rather than
beside) the deck beams and the arrangement
of the coppering. The absence of housings
cut into the deadwood to receive the heels of
the aftermost frames, while it conflicts with
some recent paper reconstructions, might
also have been expected.
Deadwood coaks are rarely mentioned
in contemporary accounts but their use is
not surprising in such a ship. The reduc-
tion in ceiling thickness below the berth
deck and its apparent absence between
that deck and the main deck are more
remarkable.
The wreckage’s strangest feature, how-
ever, is the form of the after deadwood.
Not only is this made of pieces arranged
sub-vertically but it has no provision for
the keelson either to scarf onto its foremost
end or to sweep up its forward face, the
alternatives usually presented in textbooks.
The only obvious explanation for the
observations reported here is that the
surviving deadwood was placed on top of
the keelson, or a timber that extended the
latter, which itself ran aft to the sternpost
with filling pieces between it and the keel
(Fig. 9)[61. Although rarely noted in
published accounts, such an arrange-
ment would not be unique. The Jhelum
(428 tons; Liverpool-built in 1849), for
example, had a keelson extending to her
sternpost, with below, ‘filling pieces’,
which Stammers and Kearon (I9921
termed a ‘deadwood’ and a simple
22 1
N,4C IICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 25.3 & 4

the site is relatively modern and the

Figure Y. Diagrammatic reconstruction of the
centreline structure of the Humboldt near the after
deadwood, showing the hypothetical keelson
extension and filling pieces abaft the last square
frame. The floors of square frames are shown in
section and shaded.
standard knee linking keelson to sternpost.
Considering their different sizes, it is not
surprising that the Humboldt had a multi-
part deadwood in place of the Jhelum’s
knee. Other similar examples are known
among the mid to late 19th-century wrecks
in the Great Lakes, though their details
have yet to be published (Peter Engelbert,
pers. comm.).
Taken together, these various features
show that there is something to be learnt
froin surviving ship structure, even when
material badly eroded. If such wreckage is
examined closely and subjected to the com-
parative analysis routinely applied to other
artefacts, it can supply a precise date and
some indication of the geographic origin of
a ship, while also adding to knowledge of
the evolution of nautical technology. Such
analysis will become progressively more
informative as detailed descriptions of
additional wrecks are published.
Acknowledgements
This project was designed to obviate
the need for external funding or support.
We do, however, thank our families for
tolerating the time spent at Bear Cove, as
we do the several divers who have assisted
there. We owe special debts to Peter
Engelbert, Eric Lawson and David
Roberts for information on 19th-century
ship construction, to The Parker Gallery
(London) for the photograph reproduced
as Figure 1 and to Gordon Fader (Bedford
Institute of Oceanography) for advice on
the sedimentology of Halifax Harbour.

Notes
All tonnages are ‘old measure’.
In this paper, original scantlings are quoted in imperial units with metric equivalents. All other
dimensions are in metric units.
The only official account of the Humboldt’s loss is the vessel’s Protest, signed before the US Consul
on 16 December 1853 (US National Archives RG84, Vol. 145, Class 22, pp. 166-173). This
document exists in two somewhat contradictory versions, the earlier unsigned and struck out. The
account presented here of the ship’s final voyage relies on the signed version, although supplemen-
tary details have been added: from the unsigned one; from several newspapers, The Novascotian (12 ,
19 and 26 December 1853,4 January 1854), the Halifax Daily Sun (7, 13, 14 and 20 December 1853),
the Acudiun Reporter (10 and 31 December 1853), and the Mew York Times (7, 8, 9, 10 December
1853); and from the log of the revenue schooner During (Public Archives of Nova Scotia file RGI.
Vol. 427). All dates follow the civil calendar.
Public Archives of Nova Scotia file MGlOO, Vol. 225, 12b.
Other such survey reports doubtless exist but no comprehensive study of them is available.
I t is, of course, possible that the ‘keelson-extension’ and ‘filling pieces’ were regarded by the
shipwrights as parts of a much larger deadwood.

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