Jason Burns
Toni L. Carrell
Randel C. Davis
Peggy Lehsikar-Denton
Neal V. Hitch
James William Hunter, III
Donald H. Keith
Michael Krivor
The Search for Trouvadore 2008 expedition team includes archaeologists, documentary film makers, and ship's crew members. Click image for larger view and image credit.
The Search for Trouvadore 2008: Explorers
Jason Burns, MA
Remote Sensing Specialist
The Search for the Slave Ship Trouvadore and the U.S. Navy Ships Chippewa and Onkahye
Marine Archaeology Project Manager and Principal Investigator
Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc.
Jason Burns is a project archaeologist and remote sensing specialist for the Search for the Trouvadore 2008 expedition. Mr. Burns also participated in the 2004 and 2006 Trouvadore expeditions. Burns is a maritime archaeologist for Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc. (SEARCH) in Gainesville, Florida. Prior to SEARCH, Burns served as the first underwater archaeologist hired by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He created a statewide program for underwater archaeology and was promoted to the position of deputy state archaeologist – underwater. Proficient in all aspects of maritime archaeology, Burns’ professional work has focused on submerged cultural resources management and public education, while his personal research focuses on 19th century merchant fleets and their transition from sail to steam, and the expansion of world commerce by shipping nations after 1850. This research is detailed in his 2003 book, The Life and Times of a Merchant Sailor: The Archaeology and History of the Norwegian Ship Catharine.
Toni L. Carrell, PhD
Co-principal Investigator – The Search for the Trouvadore, Chippewa, and Onkahye
Dr. Toni Carrell is the co-principal investigator for the Trouvadore 2008 expedition, a position she also held during the 2004 and 2006 expeditions. She joined Ships of Discovery in 1990 after having worked as an underwater archaeologist for the National Park Service’s Submerged Cultural Resources Unit for many years. Dr. Carrell’s extensive experience investigating shipwrecks from the 1600s to WWII throughout the United States and several foreign countries has continued as she pursues an interest in hull construction. That led her to field directing the excavation of the La Salle shipwreck, La Belle, for the Texas Historical Commission in 1997. A respected author and lecturer, Dr. Carrell has written many articles for both popular and scientific journals, and has authored numerous archaeological reports. She served as chairman of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology from 1995 to 2000 and represented the Society for Historical Archaeology during the UNESCO meeting of experts on the development of the International Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2001.
Randel C. Davis, DO
Archaeologist and Project Diving Physician
The Search for Trouvador, Chippewa, and Onkahye
Dr. Randel Davis received his MA in underwater archeology in 1978. He has participated in numerous projects including the Padre Island project, a 1554 Spanish shipwreck, under the auspices of the Texas Antiquities Committee, in 1972; the Mombasa project, a 17th century Portuguese frigate with the National Museums of Kenya, in 1978; a 1577 shipwreck in collaboration with the Bermuda Maritime Museum, in 1989; the Gallega project, a search for a Columbus vessel in association with Ships of Discovery and the Panamanian National Museum, in 1990 and 1992; the Nina project, a caravel reconstruction with Ships of Discovery, Valenca, Brazil, in 1991; the Endymion site survey with Ships of Discovery and the Turks and Caicos National Museum; and lastly the Trouvadore project, in 2004 and 2006. He is also the Trouvadore project diving physician, certified by NOAA in hyperbaric medicine. His practices emergency and tactical medicine in Phoenix, Arizona.
Margaret E. Leshikar-Denton, PhD, RPA
Archaeologist
The Search for Trouvador, Chippewa, and Onkahye
Peggy Leshikar-Denton is a maritime archaeologist for the 2008 expedition. She has worked in Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, Spain, and Turkey. Her focus is on seafaring, ships, and shipwrecks in the Caribbean, including the 1794 loss of HMS Convert and her convoy. From 1990 to 2006, she worked with the Cayman Islands National Museum, conducting research, creating exhibitions, enlarging a shipwreck register, launching a maritime trail, identifying shipwrecks to become preserves, and advocating legislation. Leshikar-Denton is currently working toward the creation of a dedicated maritime archaeology program in the Cayman Islands. Chair of the Society for Historical Archaeology UNESCO Committee, and a research associate with INA, Dr. Leshikar-Denton also serves on the International Committee on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage, and the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (on the board from 1993 to 2004; currently as an associate). She served on the ICOMOS delegation during development of the UNESCO Convention (2001), and assists ICOMOS and UNESCO in advocacy for its ratification. She has written extensively on the protection and management of underwater cultural heritage in the Caribbean.
Neal V. Hitch, PhD
Director
Turks and Caicos National Museum
Neal Hitch is a historian, preservation architect, and a museum specialist, holding a master's degree in architecture and a doctorate in history. He specializes in 19th century life, culture, and architecture. From 1997 until summer 2007, he worked for the Ohio Historical Society (OHS), a non-profit corporation providing historical services for the State of Ohio. He is a historic housing specialist and has worked on some of OHS' premier restoration projects. Dr. Hitch is widely published and was awarded the 2002 Anne de Fort-Menares Award by the Association for Preservation Technology International for his scholarly works on OHS restoration projects. In September 2007, Dr. Neal V. Hitch became the new Turks and Caicos National Museum director. His well-attended lectures have continued to bring the story of Trouvadore to the public and school groups throughout the islands.
James William Hunter, III, MA
Archaeologist
The Search for Trouvador, Chippewa, and Onkahye
James Hunter participated in both the 2004 and 2006 expeditions and is currently a PhD student in maritime archaeology at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He has participated in the survey and excavation of a variety of shipwrecks from the 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. While employed by the U.S. Naval Historical Center’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, Hunter helped organize archaeological investigations of submerged sites associated with the Penobscot Expedition of 1779, as well as a 2004 remote-sensing survey to locate and identify the remains of the anti-piracy and anti-slavery schooner USS Alligator (1821). He is a former member of the archaeological team investigating the submarine H.L. Hunley. His general research interests include the archaeology of North American and circum-Caribbean colonial sites, with particular emphasis on the evolution of Spanish hull design in the New World between 1500 and 1850.
Donald H. Keith, PhD
Chief Scientist and Principal Investigator – The Search for Trouvadore, Chippewa, and Onkahye
President
Ships of Discovery
Donald Keith is the chief scientist and principal investigator for the 2008 expedition. He also directed the 2004 and 2006 expeditions. Dr. Keith has been the president of Ships of Discovery since its inception in 1989. A diver since 1969, he has directed field research from the Bahamas to Panama and has participated in shipwreck investigations in more than a dozen foreign countries. From 1980 to 1988, he directed the excavation, analysis, and conservation of the Molasses Reef Wreck, the oldest shipwreck found in the Americas. The need for a space to house the conserved artifacts was instrumental in the establishment of the Turks and Caicos National Museum in 1991. The discovery of archival documents by the museum’s founder, Mrs. Grethe Seim, led Dr. Keith to spearhead the multi-year and multi-national research effort on the slave ship Trouvadore. A well-known author and speaker, Dr. Keith has written numerous articles for the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, the Journal of Field Archaeology, Archaeology Magazine, Historical Archaeology, The Astrolabe, Journal of the Ordnance Society, and National Geographic Research, among others. Dr. Keith is also a trustee of the Turks and Caicos National Museum.
Remote Sensing Specialist
The Search for the Trouvadore, Chippewa, and Onkahye
Marine Archaeology Project Manager and Principal Investigator
Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc.
Michael Krivor is a project archaeologist and remote sensing specialist for the 2008 expedition. He also participated in the 2006 Search for Trouvadore expedition. Mr. Krivor is a maritime archaeologist for Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc. (SEARCH) in Gainesville, Florida. Krivor’s academic and personal research has focused on shipwreck investigations along the east coast of the United States, Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic, and his thesis centered on the investigation of an 18th century British transport vessel that foundered off Bermuda during the American Revolution. In 1996, Mr. Krivor began professional work as a maritime archaeologist, and has served on over 90 submerged cultural resource management projects, authored over 60 reports, and presented over 15 professional papers. Proficient in all aspects of maritime archaeology, Mr. Krivor specialties include 17th to 18th century New World ship construction, Western River steamboat construction, Civil War wreck sites, and small vernacular craft construction. He also has years of experience in remote sensing survey, data analysis, and archaeological site layout, scale mapping, measures sketching, and photography.
