“Lights, Camera…Shipwreck!? – Multimedia at 4,000 Feet” Published

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - HOUSTON - Aug 10, 2017 - Nautilus Productions LLC’s Rick Allen and co-author Kimberly Faulk of Geoscience, Earth & Marine Sciences, Inc. are pleased to announce the publication of “Lights, Camera…Shipwreck!? – Multimedia at 4,000 Feet.” The paper is part of the Society for Historical Archaeology’sJournal, Historical Archaeology Mardi Gras Shipwreck Thematic Issue and is now available online.

Nautilus Productions LLC joined The Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University and a world class team of underwater archaeologists from the Minerals Management Service (now BOEM), the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), surveyors from UTEC, and ROV pilots from Veolia ES Special Service to reveal a buried wreck’s secrets. Four thousand feet beneath the choppy seas the remains of the 19^th century shipwreck awaited a month long expedition and excavation. At the time the project represented the deepest underwater archaeological excavation ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico.

In May 2007, producer and director Rick Allen of Nautilus Productions (http://www.nautilusproductions.com) LLC, along with two of his crew members, boarded the Toisa Vigilant, a research vessel docked at Port Fourchon, La. For three weeks, Allen and his team, field producer and nautical archaeologist Kimberly Faulk and videographer and marine biologist Lawrence Taylor, a Canadian filmmaker, would live in close shipboard quarters as part of a 60-member expeditionary contingent whose mission it was to bring the stories of the Mardi Gras wreck back to the surface. Their task would be to capture in high definition video all of the deep-sea excavation work taking place thousands of feet below by remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, and to document as much of the action on deck as possible.

The scientific crew recovered at least 600 artifacts, including a 6-foot cannon, a cooking stove, lots of wine and rum bottles, some large stoneware jugs and plates and a captain’s spyglass. They discovered a number of hourglasses, too, which were an interesting find. Their wooden frames were long gone, but the glass forms remained intact and the sand inside of them dry.

Over a year later in 2008 Nautilus Productions completed the “Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck” documentary, a short version of which can be viewed here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiWitrf6LEw. The paper can be accessed here; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41636-017-0051-1