Artifacts from the HMS Swift site displayed at the Mario Brozoski Museum, Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Photo PROAS

HMS Swift archaeological project (Santa Cruz Province)
Director: Dr. Dolores Elkin

HMS Swift was a British sloop of war commissioned to the Malvinas/Falkland islands which sank in 1770 close to the present-day town of Puerto Deseado. The remains of the ship were discovered in 1982 by local divers and, after several interventions in the site, in 1997 the provincial government requested the PROAS team to begin the scientific research of the ship.

Santa Cruz Province.

Santa Cruz Province.

A significant portion of the ship's structure and its content are in excellent preservation condition. The main research lines are related to construction aspects of the ship, life on board, the technology of the time, and the site formation processes. More recently, finding a skeleton of one of the crew members who died in the sinking triggered a series of studies in relation to that topic.

This project has been mainly financed by Antorchas Foundation (Argentina), the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, the National Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Puerto Deseado, the National Research Council (CONICET) and the National Geographic Society.

Selected publications on this project:
ELKIN D., A. ARGÜESO, R. BASTIDA, V. DELLINO-MUSGRAVE, M. GROSSO, C. MURRAY and D. VAINSTUB. 2007. Archeological research on HMS Swift: a British Sloop-of-War lost off Patagonia, Southern Argentina, in 1770. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 36(1): 32-58. Nautical Archaeology Society, Blackwell Publishing. Oxford. ISSN: 2414 (Disponible en versión electrónica en: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2006.00117.x

ELKIN, D., C. MURRAY, R. BASTIDA, M. GROSSO, A. ARGÜESO, D. VAINSTUB, C. UNDERWOOD y N. CIARLO. 2011. El naufragio de la HMS Swift (1770). Arqueología marítima en la Patagonia. Vázquez Mazzini Editores. Buenos Aires. ISBN 978-987-9132-32-6

National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina
PROAS Director
Contact: lolielkin@hotmail.com


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