Combining Historical, Remote-Sensing, and Photogrammetric Data to Estimate the Wreck Site of the USS Kearsarge

Colombia has hundreds of historical shipwrecks, but systematic research on this topic is scarce, which makes locating wreck sites problematic. Colombia is home to the Caribbean archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence, and Santa Catalina. Its complex environmental conditions make it a “ship trap”. On 2 February 1894, the USS Kearsarge ran aground on Roncador Cay, one of the Archipelago’s islets, and the location of the wreck site remains uncertain. Due to its role in the American Civil War, the Kearsarge is important naval heritage. Based on historical and cartographic records, orthophotographs, Landsat images, and light-detection-and-ranging (LiDAR) data, this study aimed to estimate the location of the wreck site in a Geographic Information System (GIS). Court-martial records, particularly nautical data and astronomical coordinates, were reviewed, including a study from 1894 indicating the wreck’s location on a map without coordinates. Nautical charts were also analyzed to find the Kearsarge wreck symbol. To identify the wreck site’s ordnance, logbooks and information on previous salvage efforts were examined. The analysis of nautical charts revealed a few shipwrecks, but not the Kearsarge. Historical and remote-sensing data were processed in a GIS, along with the most recent nautical chart of Roncador Cay from 2017, to obtain a possible geographical location. This resulted in coordinates, which were used to detect features associated with the USS Kearsarge in the processed data. Although the wreck was not detected, the data helped to estimate the approximate coordinates for where the wreck could be located, quantifying our degree of uncertainty.