To date all M3 students in the Bermuda Government schools plus students from the Bermuda Institute, Bermuda High School, Warwick Academy, and the Impact Mentoring Academy have participated in an interdisciplinary education program investigating and documenting an unidentified wreck in Castle Harbour. A total of over 500 students! – Elena Strong, Curator, National Museum of Bermuda, June 23, 2010.

As we may soon discover, the mighty river that has blessed Bermuda for millennia may soon bring us an unwanted supply of oil up from the Gulf of Mexico via the Straits of Florida. The Gulf Stream, a river of salt water, dwarfs the output of all the rivers that empty into the Atlantic, including the Amazon, Mississippi and Orinoco. The oil that is erupting, like a volcanic cloud, from BP's ruptured undersea oil well will likely appear on our shores as eggs of tar, waiting to be laid on our pink beaches, to hatch in the heat of the noonday sun.

No sooner have we finally got rid of similar balls of pollution from the sinking of thousands of ships in World War Two (1939-1945), the fuels on which have circumnavigated the world for the last six decades on the currents of the ocean seas, than we may be struck again with a similar mess of tar on the beaches.

Once the well is capped – for it bears not thinking that it will not be – the pollution may be a temporary, if long-lived phenomenon. So if you saw the recent HBO documentary, 'Gasland', bear a thought for those whose lands and waters will likely be permanently polluted by drilling for "clean" natural gas in many states in America.

In order to obtain the gas, shale rock is fractured, so that the gas can escape into the pipelines hundreds or thousands of feet below the land. Once "fracted", it appears that the gas escapes in other directions as well, polluting the water table, seeping to the surface in places and killing living things that need clean water to survive. The wildlife goes quickly, people take longer, as they stop drinking water that turns to fire out of their kitchen taps, if a match is ignited next to the faucet. The "Wild West" has returned to many parts of the United States, apparently assisted by a law that exempted gas companies from many environmental protections, such as the Clean Water Act.

A permanent pollution of our beaches and reefs could render Bermuda unlivable. If you think that is going overboard, please be informed that there are 3,858 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico and some of them could go the way of the BP catastrophe.

The Gulf Stream has brought other disasters to our shores, in the form of shipwrecks, particularly in the early days of sail, when galleons swept north from Florida on its currents, hoping to reach Bermuda in daylight and fine weather, before taking a right turn for Europe. Unfortunately, many ships met the island in the wrong weather or at the wrong time and took their place in what became international cultural heritage on the reefs.

Early exploration of that heritage took place after the Second World War and of recent times such investigation has taken on an archaeological aspect, in accord with a UNESCO-compliant "Historic Wrecks Act", promulgated during the premiership of the now Dame Jennifer Smith.

Now, possibly for the first time, a project has taken place to introduce school children to the rudiments of archaeology and scientific investigation of underwater heritage. Under a co-operative programme of the Bermuda Sloop Foundation, the National Museum of Bermuda, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Department of Conservation Services, students from the Middle Schools and other schools are taken on trips on the Spirit of Bermuda, part of the purpose of which is to learn some archaeological techniques and to examine a shipwreck, or the remains of a ship, in Castle Harbour. More than 500 students have taken part in that educational fieldwork over the last year.

In order to examine the wreck, the students had to apply for a licence in conformity with the Historic Wrecks Act 2001 and met with the Historic Wrecks Advisory Board, chaired by Dame Jennifer. After an excellent presentation, including video footage, the Board advised that the licence should be granted and looked forward to receiving a report from the students, as required by its terms. A DVD on the project will also be produced for viewing on local television.

After investigation, the students discovered that the wreck was a "composite" ship, that is to say it had an iron framework with timber components, such as planking, and was in excess of 135 feet in length. Research suggested it was possibly a vessel noted by E.A. McCallan in his wonderful 1948 book, 'Life on Old St. David's': "The iron ribs which stick out of the water near the east end of Nonsuch Island are not of a ship wrecked there, but of a worn out hulk beached by some St. George's shipping firm." The latter phrase may have been a jibe at W.E. Meyer, who seemed to collect old vessels at his shipyard east of the Old Town: it seems likely that the ship was one of his, last used as a coal hulk. Further research pointed to the possibility that the remains are that of a warship built in 1887 at the Newcastle on Tyne works of Sir William Armstrong, later Armstrong Vickers Armstrong. It was captured in the Philippines in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and recommissioned in the US Navy as USS Isla de Luzon. Sold out of service in 1920 to the Bahamas and West Indies Trading Company, the ship was renamed Reviver, which fits well with one of its roles as a rum runner into the United States during Prohibition, as in the OED definition of "that which revives, restores, or invigorates".

It is hoped that by diving into history from the Spirit of Bermuda, the students have been invigorated with an enhanced appreciation of the local and international heritage that lies on the sea floor of our island home and which they were afforded the chance to investigate.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to drharris@logic.bm or 704-5480.