This early photograph of about 1845, made by William Henry Fox Talbot, shows vessels of the Vicar's type in an English seaport. The original calotype negative is in the Science Museum, London.
4. All excess wood inside the ship should be removed, and carefully packed and tagged for shipment to the United States. This includes: • forward part of cabin • deck beams • winch and king post • stump of main mast • pump and pump flywheels • rudder • all other excess timber and whatever turns up in the excavation of the hold. 5. Parts of the ship that are removed and shipped to the United States should be sent to a laboratory which is prepared to receive them, in order to undergo exhaustive analysis and experiments in preservation so that a program can be organized as soon as the ship is stabilized and ready to leave the Islands. Note: If arrangements for the removal of the ship have not been made by the end of Stage I, a simple aluminum or sheet rock corrugated roof should be erected over the ship in order to prevent further deterioration. Stage II Stage II should follow or parallel Stage I. Material removed from the Vicar should be shipped to San Francisco where a preservation laboratory should be set up and experiments begun with the Vicar material. At this time various questions must be answered, such as: How will the Vicar be moved from her place of arrival in San Francisco, to her permanent home? How will she fit in the space assigned for her? Space assigned will have to be kept at constant temperature and constant humidity. How will this be achieved? Minimum staff for Stage II should consist of an architect, a conservationist, and assistant conservationist. In addition various temporary staff members will be required-such as a skilled mover who can get the Vicar from dock to exhibition space, a lawyer and other experts. The most important part of Stage II,
the design of a museum for the Vicar, should be begun the moment the project is approved and funded. There is no use transporting the Vicar to San Francisco if she is going to rot, exposed and abandoned, on a barge in some backwater, while various authorities wrangle over what is to be done and who is going to pay for it. Cost estimates must be made, and funds for Stages II and IV, must be guaranteed before the Vicar of Bray leaves the Falklands. Stage III The Vicar is a monumental artifact of the design and workmanship of another day. She is not now a seaworthy ship, and cannot become one without destroying her historical and aesthetic character. Therefore there are only two ways that the Vicar can proceed to San Francisco, both of them dependent on the success of Stage I, that is stabilizing her and getting her afloat. Once temporarily afloat, the Vicar could be floated on top of a barge, and towed home, a method successfully demonstrated by the salvers of the Great Britain. The Vicar is a tenth the weight and a quarter of the bulk of the Great Britain. This presents no formidable problems if a suitable barge is available and a tow arranged. An even better method of transporting the Vicar would be inside a seagoing floating drydock. Stage III, in short, is technically simple and straightforward, but totally dependent on the availability of a barge and tug, or a selfpropelled floating drydock . Stage IV While we look to the interest of the National Park Service for this stage, we
propose that the Society act as the catalytic force that brings together the group that plans and designs the exhibit and the preservation program. This would involve organizing and staffing a curatorial department, with a curator and a staff of one or two assistant curators, and conservation department with a full time staff conservator and a minimum of one assistant. We would hope for the advice and help of several institutions that have been involved in similar work, especially the American Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Smithsonian Institution. Salvage of the Vicar requires many kinds of expertise: that of the archaeologist, and that of the salvage master . Welders, shipwrights and divers must also do their part. Advice on the preservation of the Vicar is needed from several European institutions that have faced similar challenges, notably the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, the Viking Ship Museum at Roskilde, Denmark, and other centers where the original wooden fabric of historic ships has been successfully preserved. Precedents for all the things that need to be done to save the Vicar exist. Sweden has saved the Vasa. England has recovered the Great Britain, from the same area. Both vessels are many times larger than the Vicar. The Vicar cannot be saved without money, or without political action. If saved she cannot survive without first class museum technology. It will take a major effort to save the Vicar. An effort in which something vital in what we have learned and made of ourselves in America is at stake. w
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