In 1997 I participated in an underwater archaeology field school on Grand Cayman Island. We were mapping the remains of wreck located 200 feet off its northeast coast in roughly 8 feet of water. Previous research revealed the wreck was the Geneva Kathleen, a 3-masted wooden schooner built in Texas for the Caribbean lumber trade. The Geneva Kathleen had wrecked in 1930 after 12 years of operation. Originally she was 162.9 feet long, 36.8 feet wide, with a hull 13.4 feet deep. However, precious little of her original grandeur remains on the ocean floor.

My function on the project was to map the remains located in area B (the second of three areas) using bilateration techniques. Then I was to free-hand draw the remains and, by matching my drawing to the data points taken while mapping, I was to illustrate her remains without the coral veneer that encrusted her. What emerged from my drawing were the remains of an anchor windlass and freight hoisting apparatus.

When field school ended, I returned to California and set out to identify the make and model of Geneva KathleenÕs deck furniture. I conducted most of my research in the J. Porter Shaw Library, part of the San Francisco National Historical Maritime Museum. Here I found old catalogs, pamphlets, letters, and texts detailing early 20th century anchor windlasses and hoisting apparatuses. I was aided in my research by illustrations and descriptions from long-winded mariners of days since past. I concluded that the Geneva Kathleen had been outfitted with a Hyde Brake Windlass with a single-geared messenger attachment and an unidentifiable, indistinct compact freight hoisting apparatus. The Geneva Kathleen was also retrofitted with a one or two-cylinder donkey engine used to run her equipment in her waning years, when the crew necessary to manually operate such equipment had become to expensive in a dying market.

In the spring of 1930, only one year after the crash of the stock market, the Geneva Kathleen sank beneath the waves of the Caribbean Sea. The hasty appearance of her owner, the convenient retirement of her captain, the fact she was unprofitable 3-years straight, and a lucrative insurance settlement has led some researchers to suggest an intentional scuttling. Is there a statue of limitations on insurance fraud? Nevertheless, though once a sturdy workhorse, the Geneva Kathleen and her ilk now sail only the oceans of our imaginations and distant memories.