Chuck Meide, Ph.D. Student

Chuck Meide is from Atlantic Beach, Florida, and he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Florida State University in 1993 and 2001. While at FSU, Chuck participated in and directed a wide variety of maritime archaeological projects in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, including the excavation of La Belle, the French explorer La Salle’s ship lost in Texas in 1686. As a William and Mary student, he has worked in Virginia (City Point and the Eastern Shore), Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and has directed three seasons of fieldwork in Ireland for his dissertation research. His dissertation is a study of economic relations as played out on the 19th century maritime landscape of Achill Island (Ireland’s largest island, off the coast of Co. Mayo). On Achill and in the surrounding Clew Bay area, he has recorded the remains of four historic shipwrecks along with a number of vernacular watercraft and the ruins of a Victorian-era commercial fishing station and ice house, a British Coastguard station, two stone boathouses, numerous ship anchors recovered from the sea, and other maritime sites. The 2006 fieldwork was supported by a 5,000 euro grant from the Irish Heritage Council. The project webpage, which features illustrated updates from the most recent season of fieldwork, can be viewed at http://www.maritimehistory.org/achill.html.

In March of 2006, Chuck accepted the position of Director for the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP), the research arm of the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. Here in America’s oldest port city (founded 42 years before Jamestown) he is in charge of a major maritime archaeological research and educational institute. Since his arrival at LAMP, Chuck has hired a new staff archaeologist, overseen the purchase of a new research vessel, re-organized the LAMP offices, laboratory, and diving locker, and has secured over a quarter million dollars in grant support for a major program of archaeological fieldwork, archival research, analysis, and public outreach activities. More information on LAMP is available at www.LAMPmaritime.org.

Chuck has presented numerous papers at regional, national, and international conferences, and has published two articles in the Society for Historical Archaeology’s publication Underwater Archaeology. Another article (co-authored with Katie Sikes) is currently under review for publication in the SHA journal Historical Archaeology, and one has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology pending a final phase of edits.

Dr. Sam Turner recording unidentified 19th century wreck in 90ft of water in Clew Bay