SURVEY OF THE PLYMOUTH WATERFRONT USING MULTIBEAM SONAR, 2006

In 2006, as a part of the "Exploring Two Albemarle Sound River Systems Project," ECU Faculty and students belonging to the Program in Maritime Studies and the Department of Geological Sciences were lead by Drs. J.P. Walsh and Dr. Nathan Richards to undertake a multibeam sonar survey of maritime archaeological sites on the Roanoke River. Also present on the survey were Drs. David Mallinson and Reide Corbett, John Woods (Geology), and Adam Friedman (Maritime Studies). Two sites were chosen to assess the viability of using the Reson multibeam for maritime archaeological mapping; a number of Civil War-era scuttled vessels known as the "Broad Creek Blockade" and the remains of various vessels in the vicinity of Plymouth's waterfront, most notably, the remains of the USS Southfield.

In the image below, you can see many of these maritime archaeological sites, including the USS Southfield on the left, and a number of currently unidentified abandoned watercraft (mostly barges). The imagery below was collected over a 2-hour period, and processed using Interactive Visual System's (IVS 3D) software Fledermaus by Dr. J.P. Walsh and Adam Friedman.

Multibeam and LIDAR imagery of wreckage in the vicinity of Plymouth (Courtesy Department of Geological Sciences, ECU, 2007).

A version of the above image is also available for viewing in 3D via IVS 3D's IView 3D software (free download here).

Click image to the left to download a zipped IView 3D .sd file

WARNING:
Large file (zipped = 4.93 MB; unzipped .sd = 64.1 MB).

Please note that all data belongs to East Carolina University.