STAMP: Tagging Shipwreck Timbers So the Public Can Track Them

Storms, waves, tides and currents are eroding coastal and intertidal shipwrecks, and human activity — vandalism, looting, construction, dredging, development — adds to the damage. Sometimes timbers break away from a wreck, wash ashore, get buried or uncovered by sand, drift back out and travel great distances. To keep track of them, the National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center (SRC) and its partners run the Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP), and are expanding it to all national parks with bodies of water. The NPS says climate change is making this urgent.

Tracking tagged timbers helps archeologists understand how wreck sites form and change, and may even lead to wrecks no one has recorded.

Origins

The Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) started STAMP at Gulf Islands National Seashore. Its first workshop tested tagging and documentation on a timber brought to the park, showing how the program could follow a wreck's decay and the effects of storms and hurricanes.

A shipwreck at Fire Island National Seashore marked with STAMP tags for visitors. NPS photo.

Phase 1: tagging

Trained staff and volunteers tag and document wrecks:

• Following a standard operating procedure, they choose structurally sound spots on timbers — on sites with many exposed timbers, a selection based on their condition and exposure.
• They fix a Plexiglas QR-code tag to each timber with stainless steel nails and washers. Scanning a tag shows the timber has already been documented, which cuts down on duplicate reports to park managers.
• They record each tagged object on a deployment form.

The SRC supplies each participating park with a STAMP toolbox — tags, nails, washers, a hammer and measuring tapes — kept by the park's cultural resource managers for trained volunteers and staff to check out. Taggers should also bring a north arrow, a camera and photo cards if available.

Fire Island National Seashore staff tagging the wreck of the Bessie White. NPS photo.

Phase 2: recording

Anyone who finds a tagged timber can take part. Scanning the QR code, or typing the web address on the tag, opens an online form linked to the STAMP database. With location services on, the form captures GPS coordinates, and it asks:

1. Was the tag still on the wreckage?
2. When was the timber found?
3. Where is it (GPS coordinates)?
4. How exposed or buried is it?
5. Photos (the only optional question).

Each report goes straight to the database and alerts the project archeologists. The finder gets a thank-you and, for one hour, a map of where others have reported timbers, with dates and photos — giving participants a sense of ownership in a shared maritime history.

STAMP in the national parks

NPS tags carry two QR codes: one opens the condition questionnaire; the other opens a park web page chosen by its managers — a general "Culture and History" page where a wreck's identity is unknown, as at Cape Lookout, or a page about the wreck itself, such as Fire Island's "Wreck of the Bessie White." The linked address must never change, or the tags break, but the page itself should be updated regularly.

STAMP tags on the Schooner Tay, Acadia National Park. NPS image.

STAMP, a pilot program of the SRC, was running in six parks:

• Gulf Islands National Seashore;
• Fire Island National Seashore;
• Cape Lookout National Seashore;
• Cape Cod National Seashore;
• Cumberland Island National Seashore;
• Acadia National Park.

The reports let archeologists and park managers watch a wreck's condition in close to real time. In 2021, Fire Island staff tagged the Bessie White before Hurricane Henri, and visitors then documented how the storm changed the beach and the wreck.

Sources

• National Park Service, Submerged Resources Center: "The Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP)."
• Burkhard, A. L. (2020), Shipwreck Tagging Archaeological Management Program (STAMP): A Model for Coastal Heritage Management Based on Community Engagement and Citizen Science, University of West Florida; Florida Public Archaeology Network.