'The art and mystery of shipbuilding': An archaeological study of shipyards, shipwrights and shipbuilding in Somerset County, Maryland 1660--1900

Maritime archaeological sites located in the inter-tidal zone are common throughout the world. Such sites are difficult to investigate yet their state of preservation often provides unique archaeological data unavailable on most terrestrial sites. This study outlines a model and a process for understanding shipyards, their contexts, and ways in which to compare particular sites and groups of sites. This study investigates the maritime landscape of historic shipbuilding sites on the Lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay where shipbuilding was conducted both by small family operated and large commercial shipbuilding facilities. This investigation combines the direct historical approach using primary and secondary historical sources and integrates these data into a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based predictive model. The study develops a typology based on historical and archaeological data to develop a series of idealized models of shipyard design and organization. These models test the relative importance of socio-cultural and environmental variables in the formation and development of the shipbuilding industry. These models were tested by identifying and classifying shipyards in old Somerset County, Maryland to compare them with the idealized models. This study contextualizes site specific data into more rigorous and less particularistic archaeological models of maritime resources than previously developed.