New England ExplorersExploration & Adventurers in New England

Ms Dreadful and I headed down to Conanicut Island to inspect the shore where the schooner H F Payton sank in 1859. It had been carrying 140 cut granite stones with unique Fleur-d-Lis design carved into them. Some thought the design resembled a squid, and referred to them as the granite monsters. The H F Payton had been headed for Washington D.C. and the stones were thought to be intended to be used for a mausoleum.

The 1938 hurricane hurled some of the granite monsters up on the shore, and in the past you could find a few at low tide. We were trying to locate what remains of them. Our gaol was to try to confirm the location of these blocks. Once we’ve accomplished that we’ll then start working on acquiring an OpenRov. With the ROV we hope to find where the rest of the blocks and the other cargo of the H F Payton now rests below the waves.

Unfortunately luck was not with us. We searched up and down the coast where the H F Payton had sunk and did not find any signs of the granite blocks. The information we had said some could be seen at low tide, but I believe the tide was not very low. Also, the sea was a bit rough today and it minimized any visibility for anything that might lie in the shallow waters off shore. We’ll

The shore we searched

have to make a follow up trip at the lowest tide for the area.

We did stop by the local historical society and was able to get contact information for someone who might have more information about the ship and its granite blocks. We’ll be following up this week.

We had brought along our GoPro and it waterproof case, so we were disappointed to not be able to put it to use. To make the most of our day, we headed over to a protected cove where we know a variety of crabs and tropical fish can be found. Luck was with us, and a concentration of small red jelly fish of all shapes and sizes had filled the cove. We lashed a piece of chicken to a cage we mounted the camera in and lowered it into a shallow portion of the cove. Once below the jelly fish, it wasn’t long before the fish began to show up to feed on the chicken. We’re going to see if we can identify the hungry fish that showed up.

Though our original goal was not met today, we still had fun. With the help of our new information from out contact, we hope to have a bit more luck on our next try.

The good news is that though we still have a lot of work ahead of us, the team has agreed that we should order an OpenROV 2.6 kit before the end of the year so we’ll be ready to start our test runs next spring.