Yorktown Wrecks

Yorktown Wrecks
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The York River at Yorktown
Nearest city	Yorktown, Virginia
Area	3,550 acres (1,440 ha)
Built	1781 (1781)
Built by	Multiple
Architectural style	Frigate;Fifth rater
NRHP reference No.	73002069[1]
Added to NRHP	October 9, 1973

The Yorktown Wrecks is an expansive archaeologically sensitive area of Virginia's York River, in whose waters significant naval remnants of the American Revolutionary War are located. As a result of surveys conducted in the 1970s, at least ten sunken vessels sunken or scuttled around the time of the 1781 Siege of Yorktown have been identified. In the days preceding the siege, American and French naval forces sank a number of British vessels off Yorktown, and General Charles Cornwallis ordered the scuttling of other ships. At the end of the siege and the British surrender, at least twenty-six British vessels were unaccounted for, and are believed to lie in the York River.^[2]

The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973;^[1] it was the first underwater listing on the register.^[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in York County, Virginia

References

• Broadwater, John D. (1988). "Yorktown shipwreck". National Geographic. 173 (6): 802–23.
• Broadwater, John D. (1992). "Shipwreck in a swimming pool: an assessment of the methodology and technology utilized on the Yorktown Shipwreck Archaeological Project". Historical Archaeology. 26 (4): 36–46.
  S2CID 164107816
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• Kuppuram, G.; Kumudamani, K., eds. (1996). Marine Archaeology: Global Perspectives. Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan.
  ISBN 978-81-85067-91-9
  .