Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Greg Cook Greg Cook, research associate with the UWF archaeology institute, poses with a native Ghana child. His research team searched for shipwrecks near Elmina Castle, off Cape Coast in Ghana, a former trading outpost in sub-Saharan West Africa. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Greg Cook Cook's research team chartered boat in Ghana sported a UWF flag. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Greg Cook Cook's team docks at Elmina Castle. [Click to enlarge]

Ghana's icy coastal waters penetrated Greg Cook's wetsuit as a strong surge of water pushed him forward and backward like a penny in a washing machine. As he came upon the wreck in the murky water, he thought about the danger of entangling fishing nets and clawing fishing hooks. Suddenly, a creature bolted out of its hiding place â€" a scary-looking but harmless moray eel.

Despite these dismal surroundings, Cook was elated. Strewn around the wreck were artifacts from a West African colonial trade ship that sank nearly 200 years ago.

Cook said he wasn't quite sure what he found until he surfaced and showed his discovery of bowls to several colleagues from Ghana. They told Cook he had found something very old, something their great-great-grandmothers would have used.

"My first reaction was disbelief, and then I was ecstatic," said Cook, a University of West Florida research associate.

Cook spent last summer diving off the cloudy waters of the "Gold Coast" of Africa in search of sunken 19th-century trading vessels with a team of explorers, including graduate students from UWF and Syracuse University.

The project is a joint venture between UWF, Syracuse University and the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Cook said.

Cook's shipwreck survey began as a dissertation project to complete his doctorate in archaeology at Syracuse University in New York.

Cook said his adviser at Syracuse, Chris DeCorse, had worked out of Ghana doing terrestrial archaeology for more than 20 years. DeCorse believed the area around a 500-year-old Portuguese outpost called Elmina castle had great potential for underwater archaeology, Cook said.

Built in 1482, Elmina served as a trading hub for the Portuguese in West Africa. Europeans traded manufactured goods for slaves, ivory and gold at the outpost for centuries.

Because of the spread of disease among the sailors while stationed there, the port was considered "the white man's grave." The castle was built to provide a method of quick and constant trade with the Africans.

"By the 19th century, there were 40 to 50 of these castles on the coast of Ghana alone," Cook said. "Elmina was the earliest one."

It was in these waters, the Gulf of Guinea, surrounding the castle that the crew began searching for shipwreck sites.

"No one had done any surveys there before," Cook said. "No one had looked for shipwrecks before, so we didn't really know where to begin."

Using a diving tool called a side-scan-sonar, the crew could see the ocean floor and investigate odd shapes of interest, Cook said.

"We had a better idea of the site layout from the side-scan image," because the side-scan can see in dark water, Cook said. "It almost looks like a grainy photograph."

By using the side-scan-sonar, Cook said the team discovered 70 "anomalies" on the sea floor â€" one abnormal lump contained the 19th-century shipwreck.

"It's our first look at a real cargo that was meant for West African Trade," he said.

Cook and the UWF and Syracuse University graduate students discovered many European-manufactured artifacts, including iron cannon, pewter bowls and basins.

"We found quite a bit of stuff," he said.

Among the "stuff" were manillas, brass bracelets that were a primary commodity in West African trading.

"They would use them as bracelets, or they would melt them down and use the brass for making tools," Cook said. "Even in some areas, they were used as currency."

Cook said he has a permit from the Ghanaian government to bring about 100 artifacts to UWF for display.

"At UWF, we have a really good conservation facility for archaeological materials," he said. "It's one of the best ones in the country, and it's one of the few places where you can conserve things that have been in salt water."

Cook said he hopes to have an exhibit at least for a short time before the artifacts return to Ghana in summer 2006.

Cook said he would like to continue being involved with the site in Africa, but it depends upon funding.

For the summers of 2003 and 2005, the shipwreck project received a research grant from the National Geographic Society.

Having been funded by the society, Cook hopes it will put something in its prestigious monthly magazine about the wreck and the artifacts.

"We'll submit a report, and then they'll let us know if they need images or what kind of information they need for an article," he said. "We're hoping to get an article. That's always been my dream."

Locally, Cook also has been involved in discovering three new shipwreck sites located in Pensacola Bay and Blackwater River and says volunteers are welcome.

"We're always looking for volunteers to look and do the analyses of the artifacts in the lab," he said.

For more information, call (850) 474-3015, or e-mail Cook at gcook1@uwf.edu.

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