The Day the Johnboat Went up the Mountain: Stories from My Twenty Years in South Carolina Maritime Archaeology

Combining his skills as a veteran journalist and well-practiced storyteller with his two decades of underwater adventures in maritime archaeology, Carl Naylor offers a candid account of remarkable discoveries in the Palmetto State’s history and prehistory. Through a mix of personal anecdotes and archaeological data, Naylor’s memoir documents his experiences in the service of the Maritime Research Division of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.

This insightful survey of Naylor’s distinguished career is highlighted by his firsthand account of serving as diving officer for the raising of the Confederate available submarine H. L. Hunley in 1996 and the subsequent investigation of its victim, the USS Housatonic. He also recounts tales of dredging the bottom of an Allendale County creek for evidence of the earliest Paleoindians, exploring the waters of Port Royal Sound for a French corsair wrecked in 1577, searching for evidence of Hernando de Soto’s travels through South Carolina in 1540, and other explorations. Naylor’s narrative serves as an authoritative personal account of South Carolina’s ongoing efforts to discover and preserve evidence of its own remarkable maritime history.