SO482A--Historic Shipwrecks

SO482A Historic shipwrecks: Science, History, and Engineering (1-0-1). Web-based course showing how history, science, and engineering can be used together to look for historic ship wrecks from the Age of Sail.  We will focus on John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, but stress general principles and concepts with broad applicability.  We will discuss ship construction and naval tactics of the era, and the historical record of the battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis, and how what those might imply about what the wreck might look like today.  We will look at scientific models for the tides and ship drifting in the North Sea, and the principles of geographical information systems and creating map databases to display the historic data and search results.  We will look at engineering principles of sensor design and employment, and then recovery in the marine environment.  Four evening guest lectures will complement the self-paced, web-based weekly lessons.  There may be a trip to Europe during spring break for some participants to look at naval museums and historic ships.

Last revision 10/7/2009