Jim has written numerous articles for a variety of scientific journals. As part of a maritime archaeologist’s commitment to their career, publishing their work for other scholars to learn from is a very important step in the record-keeping process and helps keep the history books up-to-date.

Here are selected pieces.

Journal of Field Archaeology

Survey of the Steam Yacht Fox at Qeqertarsuaq (Disko Island, Greenland, 20th Century)
Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring, 2009), pp. 25-36

Abstract: The remains of the steam yacht Fox, abandoned after grounding in 1912, lie in a shallow cove in the harbor of Qeqertarsuaq (Gødhavn) on Disko Island off the west coast of Greenland. Known for its role in an expedition led by Francis Leopold McClintock to determine the fate of an earlier expedition in search of the Northwest Passage commanded by Captain Sir John Franklin, Fox subsequently passed into Danish ownership and worked the west coast of Greenland until its abandonment. In August 2003, an underwater survey and archaeological reconnaissance documented the wreck. The survival of substantial hull remains on the shores of a small bay covered by ice each year demonstrates that a “common sense” assumption of ice destruction of Arctic shipwrecks in shallow water environments is not justified, and that archaeological integrity can be preserved even after a wreck is flattened by ice impact.

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

Archaeological Reconnaissance of the 1865-built American-Built Sub Marine Explorer
at Islan San Telmo Archipielago de las Perlas, Panama

Volume 35, Issue 2, 2006

Abstract: A wrecked submarine lying in the inter-tidal zone of Isla San Telmo, off Panama’s coast, has been identified as Sub Marine Explorer, a rare surviving example of a mid-19th-century submersible. One of the world’s first successful lock-out dive-chambers, the craft had a fatal design aspect that ultimately harmed its crew and may have killed the builder through the effects of pressure. Documentation of the submarine provides a detailed understanding of this technologically advanced but flawed craft.

Society for Historical Archaeology Historical Archaeology Journal

Underwater Archaeology at the Dawn of the 21st Century
Volume 34, Number 4, 2000

Excerpt: The 20th century, appropriately enough for archaeologists who work under the water, began with an encounter with an ancient shipwreck. The 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Antikytherawreck – a 1st century BC Greek site fame for its bronze statues and the fabulous “computer,” or intricate clockwork mechanism, will soon be upon us. When that wreck was discovered in 1990, by sponge divers between Crete and the Greek mainland, and just off the shores of the island that gives the wreck its name, it inaugurated a new discipline, for the Antikythera wreck was the first shipwreck to be scientifically studied.

Historical Archaeology

Recovering the Past of USS Arizona: Symbolism, Myth, and Reality
Vol. 26, No. 4, (1992), pp. 69-80

Abstract: Archaeological investigation of the battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor provided the first assessment of a shipwreck that included its mythic and symbolic importance. The study of Arizona also demonstrated material evidence of anticipatory recycling and a sense of strategic vulnerability, while also demonstrating the influence of alternative views of the past.

Historical Archaeology

Documentation and Identification of the Two-Masted Schooner Neptune
Volume 20, Number 1, 1986

Abstract: In late December 1982, remains of a wooden vessel were exposed by storm-induced winter beach erosion on the California coast near San Francisco. The environmentally exposed shipwreck remains were carefully documented, allowing a projected architectural reconstruction. Historical research provided a vessel-specific identification. The remains were identified as a starboard hull portion of the “Neptune”, a two-masted schooner involved in the lumber trade along the Pacific Coast from 1882 to 1900. Once common, the two-masted schooners of the Pacific Coast are now extinct; the documentation of “Neptune’s wreckage was the first archaeological investigation of a vessel of this type. Now buried again by beach accretion, the remains provided the basis for a non-destructive maritime archaeological project that illustrates the maxim propounded by J. Richard Steffy (1977): “maximum results from minimum remains.” The documentation and identification of the “Neptune” is presented as a case study in approach and illustrates the significance of environmentally exposed wooden shipwreck remains.

California History, the magazine of the California Historical Society

Newly Digitized August, 2012
A Dream of Seven Decades: San Francisco’s Aquatic Park

Released by the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park
Reprinted from California History 64:4,
 Fall 1985

Piers, docks, wharves, and landings dominate the waterfront of San Francisco. Landfill, seawalls, and millions of pilings driven into the bay bottom transformed the soft contours of Yerba Buena Cove, Mission Bay, North Beach, and Hunters Point as the city thrived on its rich maritime trade. There is, however, one purposeful exception. Nestled against the slopes of Black Point (now Fort Mason), and surrounded by the bustling commercial activity of nearby Fisherman’s Wharf is San Francisco’s Aquatic Park.