The 1999 field season suffered from unforeseen complications. At the end of the 1998 season, the site was backfilled to protect it from erosion and on-lookers. J.W. Morris visited the site three times between the end of the season and April 15, 1999 and found it to be intact. When returning to re-locate the site for the 1999 field season on July 15, however, it was discovered that the site had been looted. A two-meter depression (both in diameter and depth) had been made by a prop wash deflector, uncovering much more of the site than had been excavated in the previous season. Small objects were scattered and destroyed, in addition to an obvious removal of concretions from each of the cannon. The worst destruction, however, was the removal of two guns from the site. The original research design called for limited excavations to determine the extent of the site, recover diagnostic materials, and re-survey previous targets. Due to the looting of the site, the research design was modified to include a recording of the exposed portions of the site and determine the extent of the looting.

Fieldwork began with the establishment of several datum points around the site. The original plan had called for a baseline and grid to be used, but after the looting, datum were found to be the best way to adapt the positioning objectives to the new layout of the site. One inch galvanized steel pipe was used for the datum. After probing into the sand to make sure no artifacts lay buried, the datum was driven into the sand. All of the datum were leveled in relation to each other to allow positioning of the artifacts through tri-lateration. Three-member teams were then established to set out mapping and recording the site. At least two points were positioned in relation to the datum for each artifact. The destruction area from the looting was recorded first. A drawing of the entire site was done with focused drawings of artifacts and different site aspects. During this recording, a cauldron and swivel gun were discovered. These artifacts were mapped and recovered once the mapping of the looted area was completed.

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