Yorktown Wrecks

Yorktown Wrecks
Nearest city Yorktown, Virginia
Area 3,550 acres (1,440 ha)
Built 1781 (1781)
Built by Multiple
Architectural style Frigate;Fifth rater
NRHP Reference # 73002069[1]
Added to NRHP October 9, 1973

The Yorktown Wrecks is an expansive archaeologically sensitive area of Virginia's York River, in whose waters significant naval remnants of the American Revolutionary War are located. As a result of surveys conducted in the 1970s, at least nine sunken vessels sunken or scuttled around the time of the 1781 Siege of Yorktown have been identified. In the days preceding the siege, American and French naval forces sank a number of British vessels off Yorktown, and General Charles Cornwallis ordered the scuttling of other ships. At the end of the siege and the British surrender, at least twenty-six British vessels were unaccounted for, and are believed to lie in the York River.[2]

The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973;[1] it was the first underwater listing on the register.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 Broadwater, John D. (2008). "The Yorktown Shipwrecks". In McManamon, Francis; Cordell, Lind; Lightfoot, Kent; Milner, George. Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia. 1. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 174–176. ISBN 978-0-313-33185-5.

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.