“Under Guard: A Case Study of the S.S. Black Point and U-853 for the Production of Comprehensive War Memorials”

The Black Point was the last American Steam Merchant to be sunk off the East Coast of North America during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II (WWII). It was sunk off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, on May 5, 1945, by the U-853. The attack triggered a successful American counterattack against the submarine. In the resulting action, the U-853 became the last active German submarine to be sunk off the coast of the United States during WWII. The project will address the history, memory, meaning, and memorialization of the wrecks and crews of the sunken US Merchant Ship Black Point and the U-853 with the purpose of making recommendations for a more comprehensive war memorial and public interpretive exhibitElements being considered are the current uses of Synthetic Aperture Sonar data, historical documents and images of the event, and the cultural landscape of the current spread of displayed artifacts retrieved from the wrecks.