Warren Riess grew up in the dairy farm region of Connecticut and now lives with his wife, the artist Kathleen Galligan in a small coastal town in Maine. His education earned him an undergraduate degree in International Relations with a minor in Physics, a masters in Nautical Archaeology, and a PhD in History.

Riess worked his way through graduate school at two universities and three museums as a research assistant, teaching assistant, artifact analyst, lecturer, and curator. In 1989 he became a research associate professor in History at the University of Maine, eventually also joining the faculties of the Dept. of Anthropology and School of Marine Sciences.

His historical research, writing, and public lectures have focused on the history of colonial and revolutionary America, especially the men, women, and children of coastal communities; and the history of technology as learned from colonial ship remains.

In the archaeology world, Riess has been the principal investigator of the ship remains discovered at the World Trade Center, the ship at 175 Water St. (NYC), the shipwreck sites of the Revolutionary War Penobscot Expedition, and the 1710 Nottingham Galley shipwreck site at Boon Island.

To date he has published four books: Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon; The Ship That Held Up Wall Street; Studying the Princes Carolina: Anatomy of the Ship That Held Up Wall Street; and On the Eastern Front, 1914: Meine Kriegserinnerungen. He also published many history and archaeology articles and book reviews in magazines and journals, such as Sea History, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, International Journal of Maritime Economic History, the British Museum Encyclopedia of Maritime and Underwater Archaeology, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, and the Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture. In addition, he researched for and authored numerous reports for federal and state governments.

His archaeology projects have been the subject of documentaries for the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television, and the Maine Public Broadcasting System. His research has also been the subject of articles in many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Archaeology Magazine.

Dr. Riess has served as President of the North American Society for Oceanic History, curator at The Mariners’ Museum, consulting curator for the Peabody Museum, Salem, consulting exhibit designer for the Smithsonian Institution, and consulting archaeology editor for National Geographic Magazine.

Currently he is writing a non-fiction popular book about the 1779 privateer Defence, writing historical novels, and giving public lectures about the history and archaeology of 17th and 18th-century America.