The Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) will release the “Not the Gaspee” video at 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, at the Warwick Public Library. This short documentary by Stand Still Pictures will feature the volunteers who conducted the 6-year study of two historic shipwrecks in Warwick’s Occupessatuxet Cove. Rep. Joe McNamara of Warwick’s District 19 organized the group, and under RIMAP training and direction, the “Not the Gaspee” team surveyed RI 2217, a ship’s structure found along the shore south of Gaspee Point.

The team also documented how winter storms and natural erosion have contributed to the ongoing destruction of RI 2218, the vessel on Greene Island. The “Not the Gaspee” volunteers pursued historical research about many of the ships in peril in the area, they conducted archaeological excavations, and they now conserve historic artifacts at RIMAP’s facility on the campus of the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol.

Following the video presentation, Rep. McNamara and RIMAP’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Kathy Abbass, will answer questions about the significance of the “Not the Gaspee” study and how it is a citizen science success.

The trained Warwick volunteers are now poised to join RIMAP’s summer 2022 attempt to find HMS Gaspee, the ship burned at Gaspee Point in 1772 in the event that was a harbinger of the American Revolution.

The March 15 presentation is free and open to the public.