The Day the Johnboat Went up the Mountain: Stories from My Twenty Years in South Carolina Maritime Archaeology

Those Darn Dugouts

149 Those Darn Dugouts The reporter’s question wasn’t all that unusual. He asked if we knew anything about a prehistoric dugout canoe recently retrieved from the Cooper River by a scuba diver. For decades boaters, anglers, and divers have been discovering long-lost dugout log canoes in the marshes, mud- flats, and river bottoms of the South Carolina lowcountry. But no, we told him when he called the Charleston Underwater Archaeology Division field office in July 1997, we hadn’t heard about this one. We did know, however, that the recovery of a prehistoric canoe from state waters without a license violated the South Carolina Underwater Antiquities Act of 1991. And we knew that no such license had been granted. We asked the reporter for the name of the person who had retrieved the canoe. At first he declined, citing confidentiality of sources. We asked the reporter if he knew that he was withholding information about a possible crime. We then heard the rustling of pages in a notebook. The diver’s name is Joe Porcelli, the reporter revealed, and he lives in Mount Pleasant. Lynn Harris, underwater archaeologist and head of the Charleston field office, called Mr. Porcelli. He admitted retrieving the dugout canoe from the Cooper River and said he had it submerged in a tank of water on his backyard patio. When told he needed a license from the state to retrieve such an artifact and that his actions constituted a violation of state law, he threatened to destroy the canoe and along with it the evidence of his “crime.” We decided to pay Porcelli a visit. The dugout canoe has to be the most popular type of watercraft in South Carolina history. For thousands of years before the coming of the Europeans, the Native Americans used them to travel along the coast and up and down the rivers and creeks. The early Europeans quickly adopted the vessel. The colonists used them for fishing and hunting, to get themselves and their goods to town, to take their families to church, 150 The Day the Johnboat Went up the Mountain or simply to visit their neighbors. This versatile form of transportation was made and used well into the twentieth century. We often see dugouts with square sterns and transom boards for mounting outboard engines. Examples of this simple but effective watercraft are on display at many local museums. The South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, the Horry County Museum in Conway, the Berkeley County Museum in Moncks Corner, the McClellanville Museum, Middleton Place, Brookgreen Gardens, and the Charleston Museum are just a few. I have also seen them in the living rooms, backyards, garages, and flowerbeds of private homes throughout the lowcountry. Over the years, SCIAA archaeologists have recorded and studied more than forty dugout canoes. These include both prehistoric canoes made by the early Native Americans and historic canoes made by the European settlers, colonists, and later inhabitants. Slightly more than half of those recorded are historic dugouts. Undoubtedly there are many more out there waiting to be discovered. Distinguishing between prehistoric and historic canoes takes a basic understanding of how each was made. The Native Americans fashioned their dugouts from cypress, poplar, or pine. They hollowed out the log with fire, placing clay over the areas they did not want burned and fanning the flames where they wanted the burning accelerated. Occasionally they would extinguish the fire and scrape out the burned wood with a shell or stone tool. In the South Carolina lowcountry, they often used oyster shells. The European settlers almost exclusively used cypress trees and, of course, used metal tools—adzes, chisels, axes, and saws—to fashion their canoes. Before hollowing out the hull, they would drill holes in the bottom to the exact depth they wanted for the thickness of the hull. These are called gauge holes. Wooden plugs would then be driven into the holes. As the Europeans hollowed out the interior, they knew to stop when they reached the plugs. Somehow the Native Americans knew when to stop without the use of gauge holes. So the first thing we look for when we come across a dugout is tool marks and gauge holes denoting a historic canoe or burn marks indicating a prehistoric one. As it happened, 1980 was a banner year for dugout canoes in South Carolina. Institute staff surveyed four canoes that year. These were the Kizer-Judy Canoe, the Ferguson Canoe, the...