Underwater Archaeology Near Maui and Lana’i

Justin Dunnavant1

Figure 1. Photogrammetric model of the investigated sunken Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft, created by Dominic Bush.

In October 2022, I received a grant from the National Geographic Society to join a team of maritime archaeologists, educators, and science communicators researching submerged heritage sites around the islands of Maui and Lanai in Hawai‘i. For two weeks, I helped create photogrammetric models of a sunken Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft, a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver bomber, a tracked amphibious vehicle, and other remains dating to the Second World War. Our research was complemented by a primary school curriculum created by Ashleigh Glickley. We conducted project operations from the EV Nautilus, owned and operated by Robert Ballard, National Geographic explorer at large, who previously discovered the wrecks of the Titanic (1985), the battleship Bismarck (1989), the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier (1998), and John F. Kennedy’s patrol torpedo boat PT-109 (2002).

1. Assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute.