Meet Our 2009 DTRW Fellowship Winner:
Benjamin Siegel

Benjamin Siegel

Benjamin Siegel is 24 years-old and knew in high school that he wanted to study history, so he decided to go to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and eventually earned both a Bachelors and Masters degree in American History. While there he was awarded the Cuttino Fellowship for Independent Research Abroad, and was able to conduct research in the archives of London in order to complete his masters thesis. After graduating from Emory in May of 2007, Benjamin worked at Sea Camp in Big Pine Key Florida as a summer camp counselor and assistant science instructor through the month of August. There he was introduced to the world of SCUBA diving and became determined to find a way to marry his love of history with his passion for the sea.

For the school year of 2007–2008 Benjamin was hired as a teacher of History at Coral Reef Senior High School. During time off from work, he SCUBA dove whenever possible, and even scraped together enough cash to voyage out to Hawaii where he earned his Advanced Open Water SCUBA certification. It was also during the school year that he decided to go back to school in the fall, in order to earn a Masters Degree in Underwater Archeaology from East Carolina University.

To prepare for this program, Benjamin attended an underwater archeaology field school in St. Augustine Florida, for the month of June 2008. It was run by members of LAMP and it was there that he learned the basics of underwater archeaology and became comfortable with heavy task loading underwater.

In August 2008 he began classes at ECU, and quickly decided that he wanted to study the maritime history of the British Caribbean. By asking professors and associates from LAMP, Benjamin soon caught wind of a place called Bluefields Bay Jamaica, a quite area with a storied past and a community interested in uncovering the existing cultural remains from its past. Consequently, for the past 10 months he has been making plans with locals in the Bluefields Community and conducting archival research about Jamaica’s and Bluefield’s colonial history. Additionally, through ECU’s program, he has earned his American Academy of Underwater Science (AAUS) diver certification, and attended yet another underwater fieldschool which investigated the Confederate Naval Yard along the PeeDee River in Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The work that the Delay the Real World Fellowship will allow him to do will not only help members of the local community learn about and share their history with others, but will also serve as the basis for Benjamin’s masters thesis at ECU.

When he graduates from ECU, Benjamin intends to return to the Florida Keys or Miami and find work as either an underwater tour guide or as an underwater park ranger for one of Florida’s many shipwreck preserves or marine sanctuaries.

Benjamin’s Undersea Adventure

Benjamin will travel to Bluefields Bay Jamaica and through a series of dives document the bay’s existing shipwrecks. The location of one wooden vessel was discovered by an archaeological team last summer, and they have provided Benjamin with its GPS coordinates. The first objective of his project will be to relocate and better document this wreck. Once located he will digitally photograph the wreck, take its measurements, and take steps to ensure that future divers will be able to consistently relocate the site.

Next Benjamin will check other areas of the bay that have a good chance to contain additional wreckage. These searches will take place in the bay’s two historical anchorages, and near the bay’s prominent reef/rock ledge formations. Furthermore, local fishermen have agreed to help with the search and have a slue of sites which they believe contain shipwreck remains.

Benjamin will conduct these searches by dragging a manned towboard behind a 24-foot skiff that he will charter from local fishermen. When an anomaly worth investigating is found, the towboard rider will signal the boat captain to throw a buoy overboard. Then, through more lengthy SCUBA dives, the wrecks will be photographed, measured, and video recorded. He will later produce a report on all of his findings and do his best to help local organizations convert the wrecks into profitable tourist attractions.

Resources

Online Forum

• Archaeology @ About.com

Recommended Books

• David Hancock. Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
• Lowell Ragatz. The Fall of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean, 1763-1833. New York: The Century Co, 1928.
• Charles Ritcheson. Aftermath of Revolution: British Policy Toward the United States 1783-1795. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1969
• Andrew O’Shaughnessy. An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.