Live Broadcast from Historic Schooner Off Massachusetts

Sea Technology, Sep 2006

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts Bay and the National Undersea Research Center for the North Atlantic and Great Lakes at the University of Connecticut (NURC-UConn) recently conducted two 30-minutc live wireless broadcasts from the shipwreck of the coal schooner Frank A. Palmer. Viewers at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center (Gloucester, Massachusetts), the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center (Alpena, Michigan) and over the Internet watched live underwater video and were able to ask the research team questions as they investigated the shipwreck.

In December 1902, the schooners Frank A. Palmer and Louise B. C'rary collided in Massachusetts Bay and sank in more than 300 feet of water. Today, the schooners sit upright in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary touching at their bows in the same orientation in which they came together.

More than 1,000 people watched the broadcast, which was supported by NURC-UConn, the University of Connecticut, the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, the city of Gloucester, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Preserve America Initiative, NOAA's Maritime Heritage program, NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary program. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve, and VBrick Systems (Wallingtbrd, Connecticut).

For more information visit http://stcllwagen.noaa.gov or www.nurc.uconn.edu.