Carrie Sowden is the Archaeological Director of the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center, Great Lakes Historical Society. She began diving over ten years ago as a class for credit in college. Since then Carrie has had the fortune to go all over the world and visit fascinating sites including Truk (Chuuk), Belize, Long Island, NY, Lake Erie, Maine, Florida, and Alabama. She holds a Master Degree from Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University. Carrie has stated that the Institute of Nautical Archaeology has given her the opportunity to work with the 16th century timbers in Lisbon, Portugal, dive a wreck in the Azores, work with artifacts from a shipwreck from 1300 BC and dive in Turkey. She spent two summers working in the Red River in Oklahoma on the earliest western river steamboat excavated to date.
Linda Pansing will assist, and is the Assistant Curator of Archaeology for the Ohio Historical Society. She received her degrees from the Ohio State University and has been an active diver since 1988. Linda has conducted field research and/or has been project manager for surveys of terrestrial and underwater sites that date from the Late Pleistocene to the 20th century. She is a members if the Columbus Sea Nags, the Ohio Archaeological Council, the Ohio Council of Skin and Scuba Divers, Inc. and is a past officer and present Board member of the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team.
In order to equip our members with the skills and knowledge to better understand shipwreck research, construction, and surveying, MAST coordinates annual workshops. These workshops feature a series of seminars and a variety of speakers and topics. MAST workshops also cover topics such as trilateration method used for underwater archaeological surveys. Along with lectures, “land” and “in water” sessions are given in order to practice using these skills. Additional topics may include ship construction, which is crucial in understanding the ship parts you may be viewing underwater.
“This is also a great refresher class. If you took the MAST class awhile ago, but haven’t been involved – take this mini-workshop to enhance your skills.”
MAST, the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team, Inc. is a nonprofit avocational group dedicated to documentation, scientific study and education pertaining to underwater archaeological resources. For more information about MAST please visit their website at www.ohiomast.org