LAMP Boatworks

  

Selected traditional shipwright's tools
assembled in LAMP's office, including
broad axes, traditional and shipwright's
adzes, and draw knives.

The boatbuilding program is located
directly under the Lighthouse. here
volunteers are building a workbench for
the program, and behind them is the
recently finished working platform for
lofting and boatbuilding.

Many other maritime museums have
boatbuilding programs. Here is a Tudor-
period woodworking demonstration at the
Mary Rose Shipwreck Museum in Portsmouth,
England. We will stage similar events
here at the Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) is establishing a traditional wooden boatbuilding program. The first wooden boats in the region were dugout canoes built by Native Americans thousands of years ago. French and Spanish settlers built the first European boats in northeast Florida in the 1560s, and over the ensuing centuries English, Menorcan, African, Seminole, Italian, Greek and other Mediterranean settlers all brought their own boatbuilding traditions to St. Augustine. Twentieth century wooden boatbuilding thrived in St. Augustine until as recently as the early 1980s, when it was finally supplanted by fiberglass recreational boat construction. The last wooden ships built in St. Augustine yards were working vessels for the shrimping industry. There are very few places in the country where this traditional maritime craftsmanship has survived for so long. LAMP archaeologists and maritime historians seek to revive this almost lost tradition, by bringing together volunteers eager to learn with those few local craftsmen still alive who retain this special maritime knowledge that for centuries was passed down from father to son.

LAMP’s traditional wooden boatbuilding program has been gaining momentum as the summer of 2007 progresses. Volunteers have been searching Ebay and purchasing traditional shipbuilding tools, including felling axes, broad axes, shipwright’s adzes, and draw knives. Local tree removal companies have been helping us assemble a large store of live oak, pine, and other tree trunks which will be squared off using traditional tools. Our volunteers have built a large wooden platform and work bench and we will soon begin construction of a small wooden skiff right here under the tower. We are planning on starting with simple craft, such as the Bevin’s skiff which is built from a kit, and as our volunteers learn the necessary skills we will continue to challenge ourselves with larger and more complex vessels, with a focus on craft that have historic ties to St. Augustine’s rich maritime history. One goal we plan to achieve by St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary in 2015 is the reconstruction of several 16th century Spanish chalupas (shallops, small sailing and rowing vessels) that were excavated by archaeologists in Red Bay, Labrador. As LAMP archaeologists continue to discover more boat and ship remains here in America’s oldest port, we will focus on replicas of these finds as well. We expect that the LAMP Boatworks will become an experimental archaeological tool which will help us reconstruct sailing properties and construction methods, as well as providing interpretive watercraft for our museum visitors, and all the while serving as a fun and educational program for kids and adults alike.

If you are interested in participating in this exciting program, contact our Volunteer Coordinator Debe Thompson by email or by calling 904-829-0745. Please return to this webpage and check out LAMP’s blog, LAMPosts to see the progression of this exciting program; we expect to begin construction of the Bevin’s skiff by July 2007.

Read more about LAMP's boatbuilding program in our LAMPosts Blog:

  

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