📄Description

The State of Texas, by and through the Texas Historical Commission (THC) seeks sealed Request for Proposals (RFP) from qualified firms to conduct archeological investigations at Pass Cavallo to search for the encampment and abandoned shipwrecks associated with Louis Michel Aury’s occupation of Matagorda in May and June of 1817. With Galveston Island, Matagorda served as the revolutionary headquarters of the Republic of Mexico from 1816-1817 while Aury served as governor during the Mexican War for Independence The underwater archeological survey of 4,113 acres, under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 32185, will be accomplished as two stages: a traditional remote-sensing survey with the agency’s 25-ft. SeaArk VC Commander Anomaly II and as a micro-shallow water survey using an autonomous survey vessel (ASV). This request for proposal (RFP) covers the micro-shallow water fieldwork for which the THC Marine Archeology Program seeks a firm or team to deploy an ASV capable of conducting an archeological remote-sensing survey.

The team at the minimum should be comprised of an ASV survey specialist and a qualified underwater archeologist that will plan, implement, and participate in the investigation.

This project is made possible, in part, through grant support from National Park Service (NPS).

The primary objective of the overall project is to discover the shipwrecks and settlement(s) associated with Aury’s tenure at Matagorda, however, other unrelated archeological sites may be discovered during the course of fieldwork. Pass Cavallo is the historical commercial entrance to Matagorda Bay, prior to the creation of the Matagorda Ship Channel through Matagorda Peninsula in 1966. The historical inlet has not been subject to large-scale modification and has a high potential to contain undiscovered underwater archeological sites. According to THC data, nearly a hundred reported, unverified shipwrecks are in the vicinity of the project area.

The Respondent will plan and conduct an underwater ASV survey in accordance with agency requirements presented in the Texas Administrative Code, Title 13, Part 2, Rule §28.6. This survey will be performed in conjunction with and potentially concurrent to the traditional remote-sensing survey conducted separately by the THC Marine Archeology Program using the THC research vessel Anomaly II. The ASV survey will focus on data acquisition in areas inaccessible to Anomaly II.

It is recommended that the shallow portion of the underwater archeological project area be conducted using an SR Surveyor M1.8 Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) equipped with an Edgetech 2205 (540 kHz Bathymetry and 540/1600 kHz side-scan transducers), an SBG dual antenna RTK INS system, and a towed Marine Magnetics Explorer magnetometer. The underwater archeologist leading the ASV investigation must meet the minimum professional qualifications for an underwater archeologist presented in 13 TAC §26.4 and have previous experience completing ASV underwater surveys in Texas under federal or state-issued antiquities permits.

Proposals should be emailed to responses@thc.texas.gov and correctly identified with the RFP number and submittal deadline/RFP opening date and time.

Purchaser contact is Christi Duve at christi.duve@thc.texas.gov