Dear John Walker:
You might be interested to know that I was an early user of AutoCAD in archaeology though not in underwater archaeology, but later in the marsh of Foundry Cove next to Constitution Island in Cold Spring, NY where the West Point Foundry is/was currently being archaeologically excavated by Michigan Technological University. We (Grossman and Associates, Inc., and others) recovered the "Swamp Angel" gun platform, designed by the patenter of the Parrott rifled cannons used as the "Swamp Angel" in the bombardment of South Carolina in 1863 in the archaeological assistance of the Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. designed remediation of the Marathon Battery National Priority Superfund site for the EPA in 1989-1993. We were also working with Prometric Technologies using the Rolleimetric MR2 close-range photogrammetric camera and software system as provided by the in part by a writer at the time in AutoCAD LISP of an interface for the MR2 system with AutoCAD which was superseded by fairly normal graphics program at Rollei with output that could also be a dxf file. It's been used for as-builts in Canada and the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City perhaps in the 35mm format, we used a medium format special 6006 with five focus settings to document some archaeology at some other places.
Prior to this I used the AutoCAD program I had bought answering an ad in the newspaper alleging the seller was leaving for the West Coast and I purchased it for $500 in 5 1/4" disk form, which later when I tried to upgrade with Washington Computers in NYC (where I worked with an early Elta-38 infrared transit and Epson HX-20 computer in the archaeological recording of the "Augustine Heerman Warehouse" site in old New Amsterdam off Whitehall, Pearl, Bridge and Broad Sts. and depicted the site using AutoCAD software for slides) they stated they could not make sense of what I had purchased and thought it an illegal copy which it probably was. I used it and the transit to map, however, the trees for the botanist and to upgrade an earlier map of the site with tree diameters at the horticultural center at Wave Hill, Inc. in Riverdale in the borough of the Bronx, where I currently reside. It was an interesting survey also of the nearby archaeology in the City park also along and above the Hudson River where I learned that survey 0,0 was once at the center of Columbus Circle! Expressed in positive feet N,S,E and W from there as depicted on the old linen maps accessed through a "need to know" elevator entrance in the Bronx County Courthouse where part of the "Bonfire of the Vanities" was filmed, all coordinates were measured from under the statue of Christopher Columbus I assume. A small change in the BASIC software in the HX-20 could have changed that but I was beyond changing the AutoCAD software!
I actually found an older wreck than the "H.M.S. Pandora" in the landfill of Manhattan in 1981, the so called "Ronson Ship" after the developer who worked for the consortium of banks that came (and went apparently) known as National Westminster Bank here in the US. We located it in December in the last backhoe trench allowed (all three) for "deep testing" in an archaeological testing and excavation on the "175 Water Street" block, run by the archaeologist credited in the film "The Royal Tannebaums". The ship had an apple-cheeked bow and was about 80-100' long, a "trailer truck of the 18th century" which we know little about compared to military ships. I conserved and photographed some of the major pieces and the first 10' of the waterlogged bow was taken for further conservation and to be exhibited at the Newport News Mariner Museum in Virginia before the rest of the emptied out land-filled ship hulk was ripped out from under the skyscraper building steam-powered pile drivers and carted off in March to the land-fill on Staten Island later used for the processing of the material from the attack on the World Trade Center, the Fresh Kills Landfill, said to be the highest point on the US East Coast.
The article inspired a number of people to work in emerging computer technology, AutoCAD and other metrology to record what are sometimes fleeting traces of the past that are in the way of progress and have allowed a new way to graphically depict the efforts.
Personally, after attending a marketing research group (was that near Columbus Circle? hmm...) that eventually resulted in smaller cheaper versions of Autodesk products (i.e., QuickCAD, etc.) I stopped using AutoCAD after the company upgraded to version 12 and Bentley systems called me and suggested for the same upgrade price they would let me have their "piece of the action".
I still have the early 1983 (?) disks, which once ran on my IBM PCjr, with some hardware mods of course, but have not had the opportunity to put down a shovel and actually work in computer graphics for archaeology since 1995 or so which is too bad, there also ought to be a law. I was told the early "Fort Edward PCB Cleanup" set a new standard in mapping reportage, where we had the locational prehistoric data plotted at Metropolitan Life where some entrepreneurs charged a small fee for plotter output.
The disks, by the way, claim to have been version "AUTOCAD 2 (c) 1982,1983,1984 Autodesk, Inc. Version 2.0 (10/09/84) IBM PC" and were only used that I recall perhaps on two projects, Wave Hill and Augustine Heerman Warehouse. The rest of the projects, Mead Hall, Drew University, NJ; West Point Foundry Cove, Cold Spring, NY and others were all done with a legitimate copy which was upgraded and in-house single pen then rented multi-pen plotter and printers and reproduced on an early expensive color photocopy machine for reports. Viva la difference!
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