Cannon from the Kadyak on the seafloor near Kodiak Island. Source: Archaeology Magazine.
Off Alaska’s Kodiak Island lie the remains of the Russian-American Company ship Kad’yak, which sank in 1860. The wreck of this Barque was rediscovered in 2003, as this first-hand account documents. (It is full of the usual intrigue between divers and dirters and is rich with interesting links about the discovery). Almost immediately, an underwater archaeological research project was formed, participants included people from the Kodiak Maritime Museum, the Baranov Museum, the Alutiiq Museum, the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service in Kodiak, and East Carolina University. This was the first underwater archaeology project in Alaska, and it is ably documented by the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology.
