The Denbigh 2001 field crew. Standing (l to r) Mike Hughes, Jeff Bowdoin, Kirby Pringle, Mike Welstead, Barto Arnold, Mark Feulner and Brendan Devine. Kneeling: Tom Oertling, Ashley Porter, Erin Dudley and Maggie Pudden.

 

Selected Crew Profiles

(in alphabetical order)

Barto Arnold

Principal Investigator and Project Director
Austin, Texas
Barto Arnold is a native of San Antonio and studied anthropology and archaeology at the University of Texas at Austin. Arnold’s introduction to nautical archaeology came when, as a graduate student, he was hired to work at the conservation laboratory handling artifacts taken by salvors from the 1554 Spanish wrecks on Padre Island. Arnold served for more than 20 years as the State Marine Archaeologist for the Texas Historical Commission, and in 1997 moved to the Institute of Nautical Archaeology as Director of Texas Operations.

 

Jeff Bowdoin

Volunteer Diver
Glen Burnie, Maryland
Bowdoin is a graduate of Towson University, with a degree in Anthropology and Sociology. He holds PADI open water diving and First Aid certifications. A veteran of the Denbigh 2000 field season, Bowdoin is pursuing an interest in trade routes and Civil War history.

 

 

Brendan Devine

Volunteer Diver

 

 

Erin Keely Dudley

Volunteer Diver
San Angelo, Texas
Dudley, who traces her family linneage to Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and Lord of Denbigh, Wales, in the 16th century, is an undergraduate zoology major at Texas A&M University in College Station. Dudley has volunteered at terrestrial excavations at Fort Concho, San Angelo, Texas, but Denbigh is her first underwater archaeological experience. Dudley learned to dive to enable her to work on this project.

 

 

Mark Feulner

Assistant Project Director
Orlando, Florida
Feulner is completing his masters degree in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University in College Station. After completing the Denbigh Project 2000 field season, Feulner led a survey of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which located several historic wrecks, including that of U.S.S. Monongahela, which played a crucial role in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. In addition, Feulner has worked as a nautical archaeologist in Bozburun, Turkey and Tampa Bay, Florida. Feulner holds certification as a PADI Divemaster, IDEA Nitrox Diver and Cavern Diver, and is currently an AAUS Scientific Diver in Training.

Andrew W. Hall

Co-Principal Investigator and Project Historian
Galveston, Texas
Hall serves as chief historian for the Denbigh Project, and manages the project website. Hall, a Galveston native, is the former curator or exhibits at the Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport, and is currently a member of the board of the Southwest Underwater Archaeological Society (SUAS).

Mike Hughes

Volunteer Diver
Greenville, North Carolina
Mike Hughes is a MA candidate in the Program in Maritime Studies at East Carolina University. He received his BA in Anthropology from Rhode Island College. Mike worked in Cecil County, Maryland, where he conducted a remote sensing survey on the Elk River, and in 2000 he worked on the U.S.S. Schurz Project off the North Carolina coast.

Colin Kliewer

Volunteer Diver
Duncanville, Texas
Kliewer is a Senior in Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG). Kliewer has plans to pursue a masters degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences after completing his undergraduate work. Kliewer has been diving for a year with thorough training in a number of specialty diving areas including AAUS scientific diving, cavern diving, wreck diving, nitrox diving, low visibility, and oxygen administration.

Tom Oertling

Co-Principal Investigator and Project Assistant Director
Galveston, Texas
Oertling, a native of New Orleans, is a graduate of the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University. Oertling has worked on several historic shipwrecks prior to Denbigh, including the American Revolutionary War ships at Yorktown and the Molasses Reef Wreck in the Turks and Caicos. Oertling is the author of Ship’s Bilge Pumps: A History of Their Development, 1500-1900 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1996), and has served as an advisor to several archaeological projects in that area. Oertling serves as a Co-principal Investigator on the Denbigh Project, and was one of the original team members to locate and identify the wreck in 1997.

Ashley Porter

Volunteer Diver
Torrance, California
Ashley Porter is a senior in Anthropology at Texas A&M University in College Station, and hopes to enter the Nautical Archaeology Program there after graduation. Porter decided to pursue archaeology at about age six, after seeing television documentaries about INA projects in the Mediterranean. Recently Porter worked worked with the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Marine Options Program to locate and map of a landing site off the windward coast of Oahu at Wainanola Beach. Porter took an early departure from the Denbigh Project this summer when she took a full-time position as a diver in the weightless simulation tank at the Johnson Space Center. Way to go, Ashley!

Kirby Pringle

Volunteer Diver

Maggie Pudden

Project Dive Officer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pudden received her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Near Eastern Studies. She is currently enrolled in the MSc program at the University of Bournemouth, England, for Forensic and Biological Anthropology. She served two seasons as an intern at the Bermuda Maritime Museum, where she worked in underwater archaeology and conservation. While there, she dived on the wreck of paddle steamer Nola, one of the handful of Civil War blockade runners formally studied by archaeologists. In addition to her underwater work, Pudden has participated in terrestrial archaeology field schools in Utah and Israel. Pudden is a PADI Assistant Instructor and Nitrox diving certification.

Gene Shimko

Engineering Volunteer
Houston, Texas
Gene Shimko joined the Denbigh Project in 1999 as a volunteer researching steam powerplants. Shimko’s work as an engineer has provided him with considerable experience working with reciprocating engines, and his guidance has contributed significantly to the analysis and interpretation of Denbigh’s engine and machinery arrangements.

Mike Welstead

Volunteer Diver
Seabrook, Texas
Welstead is a graduate student in Biological Sciences at the Univeristy of Houston. The Denbigh Project 2001 field season is his first archaeological experience. Welstead hold Divemaster, AAUS, Nitrox and Cavern certifications.