Archaeologists working near Sitka, Alaska, have found evidence of a camp where crew members from a ship that wrecked offshore two centuries ago survived for a month awaiting rescue.
On a journey from the Siberian port of Okhotsk in January 1813, the Russian-American Company frigate Neva went down off Kruzof Island.
Fifteen crew members had died during the difficult voyage that subjected them to storms, illness and shortages of water.
When the ship hit rocks near Kruzof Island and sank, 32 perished in the wreck while 28 made it to shore near Sitka, where 26 of them managed to survive and were rescued.
"The items left behind by survivors provide a unique snapshot-in-time for January 1813, and might help us to understand the adaptations that allowed them to await rescue in a frigid, unfamiliar environment for almost a month," said Dave McMahan with the Sitka Historical Society.
Very few accounts of the survivor's experiences were collected after they were brought to Sitka, and researchers have been unable to locate any official records related to the incident.
McMahan and an international team of archaeologists collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service and Alaska's Sitka Tribe have been working to discover the underwater location of the wreck and further examine the site of the survivor camp.
The first clues to the camp's location came in 2012, when archaeologists found a cache of Russian-made axes at a site considered the likely location of the camp.
Articles found since then were likely everyday items used by the shipwrecked sailors of the Neva's crew. The finds include gun flints – probably used to start fires – musket balls, a Russian axe, sheets of iron and copper, and a fishhook made from copper.
The materials suggest the survivors were active in attempting to ensure their eventual rescue, making ingenious use of materials washed ashore from the wreckage.
"Collectively, the artifacts reflect improvisation in a survival situation, and do not include ceramics, glass and other materials that would be associated with a settlement," McMahan said.
Archaeologists have been working the site for the past two years and are planning another season of fieldwork.
The Neva was in the service of the Russian-American Company, chartered by Tsar Paul I to establish settlements as part of a colonization program in Russian America, mostly in Alaska.
