Last year drivers didn’t find what they had hoped to find when they spent almost two weeks in the waters off Gaspee Point. But the search for the British schooner Gaspee that was set afire off Namquid Point in Warwick on June 10, 1772 continues this year, only it will be done in the shallows of a moon low tide and the beach that forms Gaspee Point.

On Monday the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP)  disclosed it will conduct its 2023 search for the Gaspee starting Saturday and lasting until July 23. RIMAP teams of professional and avocational archaeologists will complete the in-the-water survey conducted last summer along the north side of Gaspee Point for any ship’s remains, plus an investigation of the land area behind the dune for isolated finds that may be associated with the ship. The general public is again invited to observe this work from the Gaspee Point shore starting at noon every day.

What would they hope to find?

RIMAP director Dr. Kathy Abbass feigns shock by the question.

“Well, the Gaspee,” she answers.

Finding stuff shouldn’t be a problem, but finding remnants of a vessel from the 1700s would be remarkable and identifying it  as having come from the Gaspee would be the holy grail.

“We know from our work in the waters, there’s a lot of trash,” Abbass said Monday. Among the stuff divers came up with last summer was a toy rubber shark.

Possible finds could include a timber from the ship buried in sand, bits of pottery and metal fasteners from the 50-foot ship that was built in Marblehead.

Abbass said such “isolated materials” are difficult to identify.

Last year as part of the 250th commemoration of burning, a group of individuals, corporations and the Providence Journal Charitable Legacy Fund raised about $52,000 to conduct a RIMAP search for the ship that included remote sensing  readings of the point and diving on target sites.

Abbass said the most expensive aspects of that effort were to charter the research vessel and the remote sensing. Most of the work was done by volunteers. That left RIMAP with about $15,000 that Abbass said would be used for this year’s work and to build a Gaspee display case for the Warwick Public Library.

Abbass said volunteers would use metal detectors in their search, but unlike those combing for coins and lost treasures they would not immediately dig to see what they had. Rather, she said, they would flag the target and continue the  search. As additional targets are located, she would hope to gain an outline from which they might be able to identify an object.

In a release Abbass said RIMAP volunteers will be at a shore side research station on the north side of Gaspee Point to distribute educational handouts and explain to visitors what is happening in the study. Limited parking will be available at the end of Lane 6, off Namquid Drive in the Gaspee Point Section of Warwick. A RIMAP volunteer will be at the nearby gate to give directions of how to walk along the lane down to the shore and then to the RIMAP research station and around the end of the Point (a walk of about 1/3 mile). The visiting public is welcome but access is through private property. Boaters should respect that there must be no interference that might put divers in danger.

The Gaspee had a reputation for interfering in local trade, and she ran aground on Namquid Point on a falling tide as she chased the local vessel Hannah up the Providence River. In the early hours of June 10 Rhode Island patriots, led by John Brown of Providence, attacked the Gaspee. They shot her commander, Lt. Dudingston (who survived), captured the crew, and burned the vessel to the waterline. The Gaspee event is celebrated locally as the first blow for freedom. The Gaspee Days Committee celebrate the event annually with a series of events including and arts and crafts festival, 5-K race, block party, symphony in the park, parade and concluding with a burning of the Gaspee.

How much might have been left of the vessel after the Gaspee was burned has always been a mystery. RIMAP's 2023 Phase I archaeological expedition is designed to complete the thorough search for the vessel started in 2022 and will announce results when all data are analyzed.

As Abbass put it, “We would like to be able to say we have or have not  found it .”