Researcher: Chronometer was ‘big discovery’ ofMonterrey shipwreck
SAN MARCOS— A glint came from the ocean floor, and the researchers exploring the Monterrey shipwreck with an underwater remote-controlled robot knew they’d found something.
“We could barely make out what it was from because it was mostly buried,” said Fritz Hanselmann, chief underwater archaeologist for The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. “All we could see were the numerals and the hands.”
As they zoomed in with the robot’s camera, they realized they had found a chronometer, a piece of 18th century technology. People at sea could use these highly accurate timepieces to determine their longitude, a key advancement for ships crossing the oceans.
“The chronometer was big — that was the big discovery of these dives,” said Hanselmann, who has been part of several explorations of the shipwreck site in the Gulf of Mexico, including last month’s expedition.
The April 17 discovery of the chronometer is another reminder that “the shipwrecks are, in a way, time capsules,” said James Delgado, director of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s maritime heritage program.
“They’re also incredible, absolutely incredible, oases of life in that undersea desert,” Delgado said.
The Monterrey shipwreck, believed to date back to the early 1800s, was discovered a few years ago about 170 miles off the coast of Galveston, some 4,300 feet below the water’s surface. Researchers plan to continue studying the shipwreck site and ultimately hope to retrieve some of the artifacts for display in a museum, Delgado said.