The Russian-American Co. ship departed Kodiak Island in September 1813 with 20 men on a voyage to San Francisco for food. Two months later, a raging storm blew the vessel off course and into Sitka Sound, where it ran aground on a barren islet now called St. Nicholas Island.
The captain and 10 crewmen died immediately or soon thereafter, their bodies washing up on various islands in the sound. The survivors built primitive huts and relied on ingenuity and camaraderie for survival.
Archaeologist Robert Shaw said a group of Russian researchers determined that the men survived partly because they salvaged metal from the wreck to build a stove. They also fashioned crude spears from driftwood and sealskin for fishing in nearby kelp beds.
"The men were resourceful," Shaw said. "There were no resources there. Even the trees for their hut came from driftwood."
The Russian ship Juno picked up the survivors the following spring. The men's survival made headlines in the fledgling colony of Sitka. One of the survivors was a young priest, Father Ivan Veniaminov, who went on to become Alaska's patron saint.
Shaw and his team have already spent four summers excavating the remote islet. They returned this week for two more seasons of fieldwork, hoping to uncover more secrets of the St. Nikolai shipwreck.
"It's really remarkable how little is known about this event, one of the more compelling tales of Russian colonial history," Shaw said. "It's really kind of a black box."
The archaeologists have unearthed remnants of the victims' huts and an ornate belt buckle inscribed with the date, 1812. More significant, they found human remains near a stove in a rocky outcrop, suggesting that one or more of the survivors may have sought shelter in the cave only to die, rather than returning to their hut.
The site of the wreck, which is part of the Sitka National Historical Park, has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
