2001
Field Crew
The Denbigh 2001 field crew. Standing (l. to r.): Mike Hughes, Jeff
Bowdoin, Kirby Pringle, Mike
Welstead, Barto Arnold, Mark Feulner and Brendan Devine. Kneeling: Tom Oertling,
Ashley Porter, Erin Dudley and Maggie Pudden.
Selected Crew Profiles
(in alphabetical order)
 |
Barto
Arnold
Principal Investigator and Project Director
Austin, Texas
Barto Arnold is a native of San Antonio and studied anthropology and archaeology at the
University of Texas at Austin. Arnold’s introduction to nautical archaeology came
when, as a graduate student, he was hired to work at the conservation laboratory handling
artifacts taken by salvors from the 1554 Spanish wrecks on Padre Island. Arnold served for
more than 20 years as the State Marine Archaeologist for the Texas Historical Commission,
and in 1997 moved to the Institute of Nautical Archaeology as Director of Texas
Operations.
|
 |
Jeff
Bowdoin
Volunteer Diver
Glen Burnie, Maryland
Bowdoin is a graduate of Towson University, with a degree in Anthropology and Sociology.
He holds PADI open water diving and First Aid certifications. A veteran of the Denbigh
2000 field season, Bowdoin is pursuing an interest in trade routes and Civil War history. |
 |
Brendan
Devine
Volunteer Diver
|
 |
Erin
Keely Dudley
Volunteer Diver
San Angelo, Texas
Dudley, who traces her family linneage to Robert Dudley, the Earl of
Leicester and Lord of Denbigh, Wales, in the 16th century, is an undergraduate zoology
major at Texas A&M University in College Station. Dudley has volunteered at
terrestrial excavations at Fort Concho, San Angelo, Texas, but Denbigh is her
first underwater archaeological experience. Dudley learned to dive to enable her to work
on this project. |
 |
Mark
Feulner
Assistant Project Director
Orlando, Florida
Feulner is completing his masters degree in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas
A&M University in College Station. After completing the Denbigh Project 2000
field season, Feulner led a survey of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which located several historic
wrecks, including that of U.S.S. Monongahela, which played a crucial role in the
Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. In addition, Feulner has worked as a nautical archaeologist
in Bozburun, Turkey and Tampa Bay, Florida. Feulner holds certification as a PADI
Divemaster, IDEA Nitrox Diver and Cavern Diver, and is currently an AAUS Scientific Diver
in Training. |
Andrew W. Hall
Co-Principal Investigator and Project Historian
Galveston, Texas
Hall serves as chief historian for the Denbigh Project, and manages the project
website. Hall, a Galveston native, is the former curator or exhibits at the Texas Maritime
Museum in Rockport, and is currently a member of the board of the Southwest Underwater
Archaeological Society (SUAS).
|
 |
Mike
Hughes
Volunteer Diver
Greenville, North Carolina
Mike Hughes is a MA candidate in the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina
University. He received his BA in Anthropology from Rhode Island College. Mike worked in
Cecil County, Maryland, where he conducted a remote sensing survey on the Elk River, and
in 2000 he worked on the U.S.S. Schurz Project off the North Carolina coast. |
Colin Kliewer
Volunteer Diver
Duncanville, Texas
Kliewer is a Senior in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG).
Kliewer has plans to pursue a masters degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences after
completing his undergraduate work. Kliewer has been diving for a year with thorough
training in a number of specialty diving areas including AAUS scientific diving, cavern
diving, wreck diving, nitrox diving, low visibility, and oxygen administration.
|
 |
Tom Oertling
Co-Principal Investigator and Project Assistant Director
Galveston, Texas
Oertling, a native of New Orleans, is a graduate of the Nautical Archaeology Program at
Texas A&M University. Oertling has worked on several historic shipwrecks prior to Denbigh,
including the American Revolutionary War ships at Yorktown and the Molasses Reef Wreck in
the Turks and Caicos. Oertling is the author of Ship’s Bilge Pumps: A History of
Their Development, 1500-1900 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1996),
and has served as an advisor to several archaeological projects in that area. Oertling
serves as a Co-principal Investigator on the Denbigh Project, and was one of the
original team members to locate and identify the wreck in 1997.
|
 |
Ashley Porter
Volunteer Diver
Torrance, California
Ashley Porter is a senior in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in College Station,
and hopes to enter the Nautical Archaeology Program there after graduation. Porter decided
to pursue archaeology at about age six, after seeing television documentaries about INA
projects in the Mediterranean. Recently Porter worked worked with the University of Hawaii
at Manoa's Marine Options Program to locate and map of a landing site off the windward
coast of Oahu at Wainanola Beach. Porter took an early departure from the Denbigh
Project this summer when she took a full-time position as a diver in the weightless
simulation tank at the Johnson Space Center. Way to go, Ashley!
|
 |
Kirby
Pringle
Volunteer Diver
|
 |
Maggie
Pudden
Project Dive Officer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pudden received her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto with a major in
Anthropology and a minor in Near Eastern Studies. She is currently enrolled in the MSc
program at the University of Bournemouth, England, for Forensic and Biological
Anthropology. She served two seasons as an intern at the Bermuda Maritime Museum, where
she worked in underwater archaeology and conservation. While there, she dived on the wreck
of paddle steamer Nola, one of the handful of Civil War blockade runners formally
studied by archaeologists. In addition to her underwater work, Pudden has participated in
terrestrial archaeology field schools in Utah and Israel. Pudden is a PADI Assistant
Instructor and Nitrox diving certification.
|
Gene Shimko
Engineering Volunteer
Houston, Texas
Gene Shimko joined the Denbigh Project in 1999 as a volunteer researching steam
powerplants. Shimko’s work as an engineer has provided him with considerable
experience working with reciprocating engines, and his guidance has contributed
significantly to the analysis and interpretation of Denbigh’s engine and
machinery arrangements. |
 |
Mike
Welstead
Volunteer Diver
Seabrook, Texas
Welstead is a graduate student in Biological Sciences at the Univeristy of Houston. The
Denbigh Project 2001 field season is his first archaeological experience. Welstead hold
Divemaster, AAUS, Nitrox and Cavern certifications. |
|
