2004 Hunt for the Alligator Expedition Log for Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Tony Reyer
Special Projects Office/MB/NOS/NOAA

Retrieving the side-scan sonar towfish (Photo: Kate Thompson /NOAA) (Click on the image for a large version)

After some overcast weather while out to sea on the YP679, it’s great to have a beautiful, breezy sunny day here in Ocracoke. You couldn’t ask for a better day to hold a public event such as will occur later today at the National Parks Service docks next to Silver Lake Harbor and the Ocracoke Preservation Museum.

Today, all those involved spent some time recovering from being out to sea for 24+ hours of continual survey operations. I didn’t realize how much working on a rocking and swaying 108’ vessel takes a toll on your body over 24 hours. It’s very tiring just trying to keep your balance for so long while moving around the ship despite the lack of sleep. In addition, post-processing the magnetometer and side-scan sonar data collected during the first days of the expedition began today. The YP679 gave tours to the public, many individuals prepared for today’s public events, and the chief scientist of the expedition, Mike Overfield, gave numerous interviews to the media.

I spent some time attempting to plot on historic nautical charts from the late 1800s our survey location as well as the last known location of the USS Sumpter before she cut the USS Alligator loose so the storm wouldn’t claim both vessels and more importantly the Sumpter’s crew. Looking at those old charts and trying to figure out where we had surveyed just 24 hours ago gave me a feel for what it must have been like for the crew of the Sumpter to possibly be using the same charts to plot their location and how far they were from land when that fierce storm that caused the loss of this now famous submarine hit in April of 1863.