Sunken British Frigates in Narragansett Bay 1778

On August 5, 1778, British forces in Narragansett Bay scuttled and burned four frigates—HMS Lark, Orpheus, Cerberus, and Juno—along the western shore of Aquidneck Island to prevent their capture by the French fleet. Several other transport vessels and smaller ships were also sunk, with the wrecks forming a, "time capsule" on the seabed. In the early 1970s Al Davis, a University of Rhode Island (URI) grad student in Ocean Engineering discovered the frigates and convinced URI to conduct an underwater field school on HMS Orpheus in Portsmouth. In this special lecture on Tuesday, May 5 at 6:30 pm, Bob Cembrola will discuss the history of the four frigates as well as how he spent spent the summer of 1974 diving on this site as an undergraduate student. His experience diving on such a historically significant site convinced him to spend his professional career pursuing other shipwrecks. Bob will also briefly discuss some of the other fascinating maritime history of this area in Portsmouth.