Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18AN817 Stephen Steward Shipyard
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Stephen Steward Shipyard (18AN817) is a 40 acre 18th century Colonial and Revolutionary War period shipyard on the West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is one of the best-documented and preserved shipyards of the period in the State of Maryland. The site is situated on level, formerly plowed agricultural land between two tributary creeks to the West River. At the time of the first major archeological investigations (late 20th century), much of the site was in secondary growth forest. Soils at the site are Keyport and Othello silt loams.
The Steward Shipyard was a thriving business for most of the second half of the century, known locally and abroad for its products. The yard was apparently a joint venture between Stephen Steward and a prominent local planter-merchant, Samuel Galloway, and produced ships for both the trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trades.
The early history of the yard, which seems to begin in 1753, provides a good example of how ship construction grew in mid 18th century Maryland. Vessels of a variety of sizes and rigs were constructed on the West River, some on contract and others for disposal after a maiden voyage to England. Links between the shipyard and businesses such as rope-walks and chandlers, who supplied materials for these vessels, played an important role in the development of maritime industry and the diversification of the colony’s economy. Ownership of vessels also provides planters with a means of ensuring transportation for their tobacco crops and for holding costs down.
Steward and Galloway’s venture was important in these areas because of its size and its relatively long and successful operation. Their vessels apparently had a good reputation, being durable and tight after years of service. This may have aided them in weathering economic downturns which put some of their competitors out of business. Construction of vessels ranging from 20 to 270 tons demonstrates that they were capable of turning out a wide variety of products: everything from the smallest sailing craft to larger than normal ships.
The capabilities of the West River shipyard made it an important asset to the colony. At the outbreak of the revolution, Maryland’s Council of Safety turned to Steward for assistance in developing a navy for the state’s defense. The Council contracted with Galloway and Steward to build five “gondolas” on June 4, 1776. Their trust in Steward is an important indicator of the standing of the yard and perceptions of its capabilities. The contract was later revised, and Steward prepared a draft for “galleys” which were to be built in four different shipyards, including one on the West River. The first of these to be completed, the Conqueror, was built by Steward, and he continued to produce warships through the rest of the war, until the yard attracted the ire of the British in 1781. In March of that year, landing parties from British vessels burned the installation to the ground, along with a nearly completed 20 gun vessel. The 1781 burning effectively spelled the end of the shipyard’s prosperous days. It seems to have completed some vessels after this, but almost certainly passed into disuse with the death of Steward in 1791.
Documentary history makes it clear that Steward’s enterprise was both large and complex. Located in a rural area, it employed free craftsmen and laborers, indentured servants, and slaves, and it housed and provided for them. It was, in essence, a plantation, but a plantation on which the staple product was ships rather than tobacco. The workshops and storage buildings, and the houses, barracks, and support structures for its workforce, must have encompassed a large area. Together with the debris from construction and the garbage of everyday life, they promise a wide range of buried archeological evidence as to how life and industry were carried out on this important site.
The first hint that a site might be present in the area came in 1976 during a shoreline survey of the area. Survey records state that several prehistoric and Colonial era artifacts were noted in “Mr. Daniel’s plowed field”, but no site was “officially” recorded.
An ad-hoc working group calling itself the West/Rhodes River Consortium identified the approximate location of the Stephen Steward Shipyard through interviews with local informants (long-time residents) in the early 1990s. The location of the site was field-checked and confirmed during a survey of the West and Rhode Rivers by the group conducted in 1991. The 1991 survey work entailed both boat and on-land tours. Several buried and submerged timbers were noted along the shoreline. Follow-up excavation of a 13 m test trench on land indicated intact subsurface 18th C. remains on the bluff above the river. The Maryland Maritime Archeological Program (MMAP) and a corps of volunteers would spend the next couple of years investigating the site.
In 1992, MHT staff, along with various volunteers carried out a successful testing program at the site. A grid system was first established for the site. Metal detector tests were conducted along a dirt road that runs through the center of the site, revealing heavy concentrations of ferrous metals. In addition, 25 shovel test pits (STPs) were excavated by a crew under the supervision of MHT staff. STPs were placed at 2.5 meter intervals in a 10 X 10 m square. The tests clearly showed that plowing of the field had occurred in the past, suggesting that some destruction of archeological remains had occurred. But, it was also evident that deep features such as garbage pits, foundations, and postholes might remain. Some of the shovel tests encountered large amounts of oyster shell and artifacts. A one meter square was excavated at the extreme northeast corner of the shovel testing area, revealing a dark soil stain and brick, possibly in two courses. Additional 1 X 1 m test unit excavations were undertaken further north, nearer the shoreline at the end of the peninsula. Surface collections of plowed fields in the western portion of the site were also undertaken, and linear coring, and additional metal detector surveys were carried out to better identify artifact concentrations and site boundaries. All of these methods suggested extensive activity on the site during the latter half of the 18th century.
The work at 18AN817 from 1991 to 1992 produced 6 activity items (1 piece of iron bar stock and 5 pieces of possible flint ballast), 465 architectural artifacts (406 pieces of brick, 1 square cut nail, 49 unidentified nails, and 9 spikes), 2 clothing items (iron buckles), 313 kitchen-related artifacts, 1 personal item (a bead), 4 tobacco pipe fragments, 5 prehistoric artifacts (2 chert flakes, a quartzite flake, 1 piece of fire-cracked rock, and a prehistoric sherd), and 653 miscellaneous objects (26 unidentified pieces of glass, 1 unidentified lead object, 105 pieces of metal/iron, 45 iron concretions, 2 other concretions, 3 unidentified wood fragments, 142 pieces of stone/rock, 199 coal fragments, 5 pieces of charcoal, and 125 slag pieces). The historic kitchen assemblage included 72 ceramic sherds (3 Buckley, 1 tin-glazed Delft, 43 creamware, 3 unidentified earthenware, 1 porcelain, 2 redware, 1 Rhenish stoneware, 3 white salt-glazed stoneware, 5 miscellaneous stoneware, and 10 unidentified ceramics), 21 bottle fragment, an iron knife blade, a burnt bone, 10 animal bone/teeth fragments, 3 pieces of oyster shell, and 205 pieces of shell.
In 1993 MMAP investigators and members of the Archeological Society of Maryland (ASM) returned to `the site to conduct additional investigation. The project was carried out in conjunction with the Maryland Historical Trust, and the field work was undertaken by crews working both on land and in the water. During discussion with the property owners, concerns were raised over the potential disturbance of the site by impending development. Subsequent discussions with the Anne Arundel County Office of Planning and Zoning, as well as with other departments within the Maryland Historical Trust, revealed that the western portion of the site was protected from disturbance by an easement held by the Trust. The eastern portion of the site was also under an easement, but provisions of the agreement permitted future construction of certain specific recreational facilities on the apparent site of the shipyard. The obvious historical importance of the site, combined with testing which suggested the presence of intact remains, made it imperative that the condition of the site and the extent of its remains be assessed. In order to accomplish this, volunteer labor would be needed and, hence, members of the Archeological Society of Maryland (ASM) decided to conduct their Annual Field Session in Archeology for 1993 within the eastern portion of the site.
The 1993 ASM field session entail both terrestrial archeology and underwater archeology. Tube auger testing was conducted along a 180 m portion of the shoreline. Placed at 5 m intervals, the ½ inch samples returned small quantities of coal, slag, brick, oyster shell, and some ceramic sherds. Based on the materials extracted from these samples, three archeologically “sensitive” areas were delineated.
Based on the auger survey and the results of the hovel testing and coring operations conducted in previous years, a total of 101 one meter square test units were excavated in trench and block configurations. A total of 15 cultural features were encountered in these units. Some were exposed, while others were cross-sectioned and/or fully excavated. One of the features was interpreted to be an ovoid root cellar (Feature 011), five others appeared to be refuse pits, and the remainder were postmold and posthole configurations. The 1993 excavations clearly demonstrated the presence of one or more buildings. These probably housed industrial and domestic activities, but lacking a detailed description of what was found, or a catalog, one cannot determine the date of the deposits or the relative representation of domestic and industrial materials.
In 1997 and 1998, personnel from the Lost Towns of Anne Arundel Project, with funding from Anne Arundel County and with a scope of work approved by the Maryland Historical Trust’s easement committee, conducted geophysical survey, electronic mapping, and limited test excavations in the western portion of the site (the area not tested in 1993). Magnetometry as well as ground penetrating radar (GPR) were used to locate subsurface anomalies. The results from the geophysical survey of the shipyard provide valuable information into the internal structure of the site. The site was clearly more intensively used to the north, as this was the shipyard work areas, as evidenced by many submerged and shoreline features previously documented. The southern edges of the property, according to geophysical results, appear to have seen less intensive activity during the shipyard period. It was likely reserved for domestic or residential uses for the community of shipyard workers.
The geophysical data was used to place a total of eight 2 X 2 m test units in five suspect areas to ground truth some of the anomalies identified. An additional 2 test units were judgmentally placed based upon artifact concentrations noted in previous surface collections, and to explore a potential feature. In addition to these initial units, one 1 X 2 m unit and three small shovel tests were excavated in an attempt to further delineate features Identified during excavation. The four supplemental units/STPs were limited to the plowzone, and the soil was not screened. In all other units excavation began by scraping away the sod and discarding without screening. All units were then excavated to the readily defined base of the plowzone and soils were screened through hardware cloth. All artifacts were collected with the exception of modern trash, coal, and oyster shell fragments that did not possess a hinge.
The 1997-1998 geophysical and archeological testing confirmed that clear functional and chronological distinctions exist across the Steward Shipyard site and also successfully located subsurface features. Of the five areas selected for subsurface testing, all five produced artifacts dating to either the shipyard period or subsequent use of the site as a plantation, even though relatively few pieces of diagnostic ceramic and glass were recovered.
In addition to defining activity areas, the 1997-1998 excavations resulted in the location and documentation of portions of two post-in-ground buildings, one of which was accompanied by a large pit of unknown function that appeared to post-date the structure. The size of the postmolds and the nature of the artifacts associated with this structure suggest that it was used for industrial purposes. A small number of domestic artifacts and the recovery of window glass and brick (for a chimney) suggest that the building also served some domestic functions. This is not unexpected at an 18th century shipyard. The other structure identified was also large and almost certainly was involved in shipbuilding activities. Additional buildings were suggested, but not proved, in the other areas investigated across the site. These “potential” buildings contained both materials dating to the height of the shipbuilding era and after the site had been destroyed by the British and went into agricultural use.
A tally of artifacts recovered during the 1997-1998 project is not available.
Lithic debitage (109 pieces) represents the only evidence of prehistoric occupation of the Steward Shipyard site area. Prehistoric features were not detected during the 1997-1998 work.
In January of 1999, another project was carried out at 18AN817. The work was undertaken because of plans to install a paved walking trail from a nearby road to a planned pier-set pavilion and then and unpaved path from the pavilion to a planned crabbing pier along the water. Forty-seven STPs were excavated at 10 m intervals for the length of the path, and 1 X 1 m test units were excavated in the location of the pavilion (7 units) and the crabbing pier (2 units). All soils were screened through hardware cloth.
Three possible loci of prehistoric or historic activity were located along the path through shovel testing. The two 1 X 1 m units excavated in advance of pile installation for the crabbing pier yielded few artifacts and no cultural features. Excavation of the seven 1 X 1 m units at the proposed pavilion location produced a modest number of non-temporally diagnostic prehistoric lithic debris and a small number of 18th and early 19th century artifacts. Two of the units also revealed part of what appeared to be a wattle and daub fireplace.
Artifacts recovered during the January 1999 study include 3 activity item (possible flint ballast flakes), 412 architectural artifacts (356 pieces of brick, 8 handwrought nails, 1 machine cut nail, 47 unidentified nails), 34 kitchen-related artifacts (2 lead-glazed earthenware sherds, 1 tin-glazed earthenware sherd, 8 creamware sherds, 1 pearlware sherd, 1 porcelain sherd, 2 whiteware sherds, 1 miscellaneous stoneware sherd, and 1 white salt-glazed stoneware sherd), 15 pieces of vessel glass, and 2 animal bones/teeth, 26 prehistoric artifacts (25 flakes and 1 piece of fire-cracked rock), and 22 miscellaneous objects (pieces of slag).
The area to be impacted by installation of the crabbing pier did not contain significant archeological resources and construction could commence. The potential activity areas identified along the path warrant further investigation, but researchers suggested that construction could proceed if significant fill and minimal grading were used during construction. The area of the pavilion, however, produced significant features that are capable of contributing to the interpretation of the site. At the time of the 1999 study, it was recommended that approvals for the construction of the pavilion (which would have required a variance due to setback issues) not be granted. The current status is unknown.
The various excavations and investigations conducted at the Steward Shipyard (18AN817) demonstrate that it is a highly significant site with a high degree of integrity. Intact portions of the site should continue to be avoided until opportunities for investigation present themselves.
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