Volunteering at Ft George

I have been volunteering on the Fort George archaeological survey with the National Museum. I am writing this blog on day five of the survey from the comfort of my hotel suite in Provo. The other team members are slaving away in the hot sun while my wife and I had to take a day off and recuperate. Reality is slowly setting in. Not that the work is particularly arduous, in fact, it is incredibly interesting as we are learning new things almost by the minute. But it is especially gratifying and rewarding from an inner sense and perspective.

During the weeks leading up to the exploration I had high hopes of discovering an artillery uniform button that might help pinpoint the timeline as to when the British troops occupied the fort. While other evidence provides some degree of the timeline, I thought the discovery of a button might nail it down more precisely.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be stationed here a hundred years ago. Your choice would be between being in the open blazing sun in full military dress or moving into the jungle for shade where a million mosquitoes would eat you alive. Not my idea of spending time in a beautiful Caribbean island. But for the next two weeks anyway this willbe our home away from Provo. Yikes, what have we done?

There are nine of us on this project and Elizabeth and I are the only wanna-be’s in the group. Everyone else has been here or been there and done that-many, many times. Thankfully everyone is so patient in explaining every step of what we are doing and why. I feel like a little kid always asking questions and always greeting answers with more questions.

On the third day of the project, and our first surveying the water, I was able to see very clearly the five cannons submerged in 4 feet of water (low tide). Now this is getting exciting! I imagined troops standing behind the cannons loading them and firing them at the enemy out on the reef. If I were a button that's where I'd fall off - right behind a cannon. Not surprisingly one of the more common items we were finding on land and in the water were pieces of shot, bits of iron and other metal fragments consistent with what would be expected to find in an old fort. So when my detector beeped again behind one of the partially buried cannons it was nothing special. It was just another chunk of shot which I replaced in the hole I had dug.

For some unexplained reason I happened to look in my sand scoop which was empty and caught between the two screens I spied what I thought was a nickel. It was about the right size but appeared a bit curved and devoid of any writing. Closer examination told me I had found my button! Dr. Neal Hitch told me that a few of these buttons had been found previously but only on land. The ocean took its toll on this button and a bit of the detail has been worn off from being submerged for some 200 years. That afternoon back at Pine Cay, Neal and I found a British website with over 100 British regimental uniform buttons on display. The new button matched one perfectly although not in as good a condition and it is dated 1795. Neal pointed out that we don't know what that means exactly: was the button made in 1795 only? Was the first appearance of the button in 1795 and was it made for 100 years for instance? More answers more questions…