Chuck Meide, director of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum’s Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, recently made some key discoveries behind well-known local shipwrecks.
Meide spent Jan. 14-17 examining documents in the United Kingdom’s National Archives in an attempt to learn as much as possible about a shipwreck believed to be a British Loyalist Ship that was fleeing Charleston, S.C., in 1782, currently referred to as Storm Wreck, which St. Augustine Lighthouse Archaeologists have been excavating offshore.
One key document that Meide was able to find was a letter dated Jan. 9, 1783, from East Florida’s British Governor, Patrick Tonyn, to the British Commander in Chief Sir Guy Carleton in New York. In it Tonyn reports the loss of a naval ship called the Rattlesnake, along with two supply ships and six private vessels.
